A look at CeBit 2013 (pictures)

E-volo's VC25 is an 18-rotor multicopter designed to carry up to 25 kilograms of payload. It's a prototype for the VC200 that the company hopes will carry a human passenger.

Yunasko, a Ukranian company, is showing off its ultracapacitors good for running hybrid cars, stabilizing power distribution, and assorted industrial applications. The 60-person company is seeking partnerships to bring manufacturing out of the current pilot-project stage.

CeBit isn't just about new products. It's also a chance for people to try their hand in videogame competitions.

A Starcraft II tournament player at CeBit shortly before he won his match at the Intel-sponsored gaming competition area.

The distinctive Convention Center is at the center of the CeBit tech show in Hannover, Germany.

Intel showed a prototype Haswell-powered laptop at CeBit. The fourth-generation Intel Core processor is due in systems midway through the year.

This circuit board, on display at IBM's CeBit booth, is covered with antennas geared to listen to radio signals of a frequency between about 450MHz and 1.5GHz. The design is destined for a vast radio telescope in the planning stages called the Square Kilometer Array project. That project aims to cover a square kilometer across the southern hemisphere of Earth with such antennas.

Amnon Rebak, an IBM Research staff member from Haifa, Israel, shows the idea behind the company's technology for identifying items for sale then letting customers sort through them.

The Secusmart microSD card, left, plugs into a phone such as the BlackBerry Z10 to wall off sensitive app data and files.

"Felix" is a Fraunhofer Institute demonstration of face detection possibilities. A camera in its forehead monitors your expression and changes Felix's accordingly. If you smile, Felix smiles back. If you point a camera at him, he looks away.

MakerBot was showing off its 3D printers at CeBit, devices that gradually form products out of plastic drawn from a spool. This rotating-gear heart is assembled from several components manufactured individually.

IBM tried to attract visitors to its booth with a giant red shoe used to denote its expertise in retail.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, dressed in red, visited IBM's booth on a tour of CeBit.

Andrea Merkel, wearing red amid a sea of dark suits, looks over her shoulder as she and a large entourage tour CeBit.

German Chancellor Andrea Merkel visited IBM's booth on a tour of CeBit. She's standing on the bright stage just left of center.

Buffalo Technology's new LinkStation 420 is a network-attached storage device that handles two drives for total capacity of up to 8TB. It protects data with RAID 0 or 1, and in Europe will cost the equivalent of $141 bare or $857 with 8TB drives. A basic user interface with the BuffaloLink software lets people set it up quickly with just a serial number, but more-advanced options let customers stream video or access files over the Internet, said Fabien Rousseau, director of marketing for EMEA.

Microdrones unveiled its md4-3000 quadcopter at CeBit, a $52,000 model that can carry a 3kg payload for as long as 2 hours, according to CEO Sven Juerss. This model is carrying a remote-control camera built by Zeiss that's operated with a head-tracking system called Cinemizer. That eyewear has dual OLED displays for a 3D view piped directly from the copter.

Zeiss' Cinemizer OLED system tracks head movements and changes the 3D video view accordingly. It's used here for remote viewing from a quadcopter-mounted camera.

Angelbird Technologies, based in Austria, makes SSDs in colorful CNC-machined aluminum housings. Two of them can be paired together with longer screws. The USB 3 devices cost 199 euros ($259) for a 120GB model, 349 euros ($454) for a 240GB model, and 555 euros ($722) for a 480GB model.

Bystrup Architecture, Design, & Engineering believes huge electrical power poles need not be quite so mundane. The company showed off alternative designs at the CeBit trade show.

Solar Battery, aka Sonnen Batterie in Germany, hopes consumers will buy its energy storage systems to better prepare for a solar-power future. Solar panels generate power during the day, but the battery can store it for use at night. The company offers models ranging in capacity from 4.6 to 41 kilowatt-hours. They use lithium ion batteries.

G-Form sells padded cases for smartphones and tablets, but it's branching out with the G90 housing that also adds a wide-angle lens adapter so people can use their phones for capturing hands-free video while skateboarding, skiing, surfing, or biking. This one is mounted to a helmet. The $129 case will ship in June and accommodate either iPhones or the Samsung Galaxy S4, said Managing Director Kenneth Ditlev Pedersen. He also said the company plans voice-control interface software.

Microsoft COO Kevin Turner argues in a CeBit speech that his company is better positioned than rivals because it deals with both business customers and consumers.

Russian communication-satellite maker Gonets showed this 1/10-scale model of a Glonass satellite, part of the Russian navigation system similar to the United States' GPS.

Vu-lion's compact 3-watt vibration speakers have a ring around the middle that controls volume.

Gonets brought an entire communication satellite to CeBit, a massive spacecraft whose long boom extended far above people walking by. The Russian company has five satellites in low-Earth orbit 1,500km above the surface of the planet now, with three more to launch by the end of the year. The company charges about a dollar per kilobyte of data sent, and its customers include the Russian government for very remote weather-monitoring stations, said marketing chief Valentin Gasin. The current transmission rate of 2.4kbps will be upgraded to 9.6kbps by the end of the year; the satellites will send data back down to earth at 64kbps.

The Hannover Messe fairgrounds, where CeBit takes place, has a mix of utilitarian boxy convention center buildings and more-exotic architecture.