The Consumer Electronics Show 2012 is underway is Las Vegas. As always lots of new tech unveiled. This article from CNN caught my eye, showing the next gen trends in TV technology.

Imagine this scene for voice recognition:

***Dad watching CNN news on TV, and young son runs into the room***

Son: Dad, what's for dinner?

Dad: We're having meatloaf, with a great selection from your mom's spice rack

TV: You have selected The Spice Network [American Porn channel]. Currently showing "Backdoor Backalley Action"

Son: Dad, what are those two men doing to each other?

Voice and motion controls

The remote control may be an endangered species. Some TV makers are following the lead of Apple's Siri, the iPhone 4S "virtual assistant," and Microsoft's Kinect gaming system, which allows players to operate their TVs and manipulate onscreen avatars by moving their bodies.

Samsung on Monday announced its flagship ES8000 LED model, whose built-in cameras, microphones and software let users speak commands like "channel 7" to control the TV. Users also will be able to use gesture controls for Web browsing, adjusting the volume and more.

LG also is adding voice control to the Magic Remote interface that comes with all its high-end Cinema Screen TVs in 2012.

And don't forget Apple, which may add Siri voice-recognition functions to the TV set it is rumored to be building this year.

More social features

It's been documented that more people are watching TV with a phone or tablet nearby so they can check Facebook during commercials or chat with their friends about what they're watching.

Now, manufacturers want to help you do all that through your television. On Monday, Panasonic announced a series of Web-connected "Smart Viera" TVs that will flash your social-networking updates on the screen. The company also unveiled a split-screen feature that lets you launch Skype and chat with friends while you're watching TV.

Justin Timberlake appears during a Panasonic press event to announce Myspace TV.Panasonic also announced it's partnering with flagging social network Myspace for a new service called Myspace TV. Pop star Justin Timberlake, a Myspace investor, appeared onstage Monday to help promote the product, which will let viewers use a connected tablet to share music and TV shows with friends.

Bigger, thinner, lighter screens

TV sets can't get much thinner, but that hasn't stopped manufacturers -- always looking for a design edge over a competitor -- from trying.

"We've gone to great lengths to reduce the thinness of our TVs without sacrificing picture quality," said Wayne Park, president of LG Electronics USA, whose 55-inch OLED TV is just 4 millimeters thick (or thin).

Sharp Electronics, on the other hand, spent much of its press event Monday emphasizing its push toward massive screens. The company showed a video encouraging consumers to fit larger TVs into smaller spaces in their homes and handed out special glasses to demo what it claims is the world's first 80-inch 3-D LED TV, coming in April (price not announced).

Better sound

It's not all about bigger, brighter screens. There's been some chatter, but few specifics, at CES about the next generation of home-theater audio, including 3-D sound systems that create "sound fields" around the TV viewer. Expect to see more of this by the end of the year.

"Sound is always the unappreciated element of TVs," Eisner said. "People don't pay much attention to it, and they probably should, because surveys have shown that good sound can make the picture look better."