Today, electronics advance at an incredible rate, to say the least. Every year, gadgets get smarter, TVs get bigger, cell phones get smaller, megapixels and RAM get more plentiful and the electronics industry unveils thousands of new ideas and clever twists on old ideas. Why so much stuff? Simply put, there's that much demand. In the United States alone, consumer electronics is a $113 billion industry.

Each year, the electronics wave kicks off with the world's largest consumer technology show, the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. At the 2006 CES, there were 2,500 exhibitors and 130,000 attendees, representing 110 countries. The show sprawled across hundreds of rooms in multiple buildings, totaling 1.6 million square feet, the equivalent of 28 football fields.

To give you a taste of the CES experience, here is our annual sampler of cool gadgets and toys that caught our eye.