Tech-pert Panel Recognizes the Most Innovative Technologies at CEATEC
Japan 2007
From the Latest Advancements in the Home to Developments in ''Green''
Technology, This Panel of Technology Thought Leaders Identified U.S.
Relevant Products Debuting in Japan
SAN FRANCISCO (Business Wire EON) October 5, 2007 --
American technology thought leaders forming the Tech-pert Panel
recognize the 12 most innovative products at CEATEC JAPAN 2007. This
independent advisory panel, announced by the Japan External Trade
Organization (JETRO) San Francisco, viewed hundreds of technologies,
services and products debuting at CEATEC JAPAN 2007. They identified
exhibitor technologies based on innovation and potential influence in
the U.S. market in categories ranging from home entertainment, mobile,
computing networks, automotive and more.
One panelist, Switched.com editor Tom Samiljan said of CEATEC JAPAN
2007, “The multitude of R&D exhibits may make
it sometimes seem like a science fair, but what a science fair! There’s
more gee-whiz per square meter here than any trade show I have been to
here.” Samiljan went on to say, “The
coolest trends [at CEATEC]
for me were the ultra-slim Flat Panels and the
hand-gesture-based/motion-sensitive interfaces enabled by Toshiba’s
SPURS Engine and Pioneer’s 3D navigation
driving system prototype, among others. The success of the Wii and its
motion sensitive gameplay in the U.S. is an indication that this
seemingly oddball way of controlling your TV, car or desktop is the
direction many interfaces will go in the coming years.”
The panel, led by CNET Networks’ editor at
large, Michael Kanellos, includes Sean Captain of Popular Science,
analyst Richard Doherty of Envisioneering Group, Tom Samiljan of
Switched.com, and Auri Rahimzadeh of The Auri Group. They used the
following selection criteria when considering the wide range of items
they viewed at CEATEC JAPAN this year:
-
The technology, product or service must be on exhibit at CEATEC JAPAN
2007
-
The technology should show some sort of influence, relevance or
potential impact for the United States market
-
Based on the opinion and experience of the panel, the technology
should show great innovation, and this could include a unique function
-
A technology may also be recognized for offering consumers ease-of-use
-
The technology should offer a unique solution for an emerging need
-
Special consideration was given to any technology that includes
advancements in sustainability, alternative energy or energy efficiency
The selection process was democratic in nature and was not based on
applications submitted by exhibitors. Each panelist offered product
ideas for consideration and then voted yes or no to include them in the
final grouping. A technology needed three of five votes to be included
as one of the top innovative technologies from CEATEC JAPAN 2007. All
technology categories were considered equally and the panelists were
encouraged to make their selection based on the criteria above. The
final vote identified the 12 products or technologies listed below.
Panelist Michael Kanellos said of the exhibitors at CEATEC JAPAN 2007, “Toshiba
impressed me the most with the pure breadth of innovations introduced at
the show. The company also demonstrated how their components and other
technologies might be used by consumers in the future. Toshiba tried and
succeeded in many cases in truly going beyond the ‘feeds
and speeds’ mentality.”
Kanellos also identified JVC and mentioned, “JVC
was also impressive. The company does not get a lot of attention in the
U.S.; however, they are clearly trying to show how their inventions will
make their products different. The company also seems more intent on
ensuring that lab developments make it to market.”
The U.S. Tech-pert Panel would like to formally recognize the following
CEATEC JAPAN 2007 exhibitors for their innovations and contributions to
the technology market:
Field Emission Technologies’ nano-Spindt
Field Emission Display (FED)
This Sony-spinout company debuted a 20-inch prototype high definition
display sipping as little as five watts in dark scenes, and less than
most LCD screens in the brightest (all pixels on) scenes. For slimness,
rich color phosphors and energy efficiency, their future commercial
displays will empower both quality-conscious broadcasters and appeal to
consumers for size and energy advantages. The display renders an amazing
240 frames each second – the fastest flat
panel speed of any video display type. Fabricated using proven
semiconductor nano technologies, these FEDs represent the finest chance
for consumers and professionals to soon enjoy long-life, direct-emission
phosphor CRT-like color quality and richness in flatter video panels
which produce light more efficiently than existing designs. –
Richard Doherty, Industry Analyst from the Envisioneering Group
Pioneer’s Image Recognition Car Navigation
System
Pioneer’s prototype brings together all the
technologies that can make driving as safe and easy as possible. That’s
especially valuable in a world with spiraling road congestion and
ever-more driver distractions. The system combines traditional GPS
navigation with a camera and advanced image recognition software that
analyzes the road ahead. The live video features valuable visual cues—such
as an arrow pointing to a hidden upcoming turn or a measurement of the
distance to the next car (along with a warning if you get too close).
And recognizing that driving should be not just a chore but a pleasure,
the image recognition system even scans the horizon, decides how unique
the scenery is, and proposes more interesting alternative routes when it
can. Having seen these capabilities, it’s
hard for us to imagine going back to today’s
utilitarian GPS systems. – Sean Captain,
Popular Science
NTT DoCoMo’s Wellness Phone
NTT DoCoMo’s Wellness Phone takes readily
available health-related sensors and common software applications and
pulls them into an all-in-one concept phone that would likely become an
icon of the booming consumer health industry in the U.S. This
combination cell phone, heart rate monitor, burned calorie counter, body
fat calculator and breath analyzer, estimates this information based on
age, gender, height and weight. It then sends that information to a
server so that consumers can easily monitor changes and share them with
health professionals. The Wellness Phone offers more than halitosis
prevention; it could also maximize the communication potential of a cell
phone with health information services. –
Auri Rahimzadeh, The Auri Group
Nissan's Safety and Environmental Technologies
Nissan is out to explore and exploit a dimension not often considered
when developing a car: the world outside the car. The company provided
demos of the latest ITS and electronic technologies including the “Around
View Monitor” and “Distance
Control Assist.” They also discussed the
potential of products designed to teach safer and eco-friendly driving.
Nissan is looking at ways to analyze traffic patterns or other cars in
the vicinity to reduce accidents, improve fuel economy and cut down on
greenhouse gas emissions. Just as important, the company is studying
ways to ensure that these technologies will be accepted and used
regularly by customers. – Michael Kanellos,
CNET Networks’ editor at large
1 LTD’s Beam2Me®
1 LTD showcased Beam2Me®, which enables
directional audio projection. This could truly change the way consumers
and businesses listen to audio. The demonstration at CEATEC JAPAN
recreated a living room environment where a couple could enjoy two
different television shows while sitting on the same couch. Each
consumer could listen to their own programming without headphones and
without sound from the alternate show. Imagine the implications for
today's personal entertainment loving American; truly discrete
directional audio offers limitless applications for a multitude of
environments, including home, gaming and automotive. In conferences and
meetings, consider the implications to a multilingual audience, where
one part of the audience can hear the native language, while other areas
of the room could be hearing a second, third, or fourth language. –
Auri Rahimzadeh, The Auri Group
JVC’s LED Backlight LCD Television
Flat-Panel TVs remain one of the most-popular technology products in the
U.S. And while bigger is still seen as better, picture quality is
becoming steadily more important. JVC is aiming for optimum performance
with its new high-contrast and high-color panel. It uses a
light-emitting diode backlight, which is mercury-free (unlike the
fluorescent backlights in most panels) and energy efficient. Using local
dimming technology, it individually modulates 128 clusters of LEDs to
achieve a superlative contrast ratio--estimated at 100,000 to 1—which
provides great depth and detail in images. And instead of the white LEDs
in other high-contrast panels, JVC uses clusters or red, green, and blue
lights that radically expand the color gamut to 116% of the old NTSC
color standard. Several companies have, frustratingly, implemented
either the high-contrast or high-color technologies. JVC is the first to
bring both together. – Sean Captain, Popular
Science
NEC’s FieldAnalyst with Age and Gender
Recognition
This was the most controversial pick. FieldAnalyst is a software program
that analyzes video feeds from a camera using a database of 10,000 faces
and then tries to determine the age and gender of people passing by. The
idea is to try to help malls and other public places target their
marketing more effectively based on who is walking past, by getting more
information about their customers through passive analysis. Passive
analysis is a growing topic among start-ups in the U.S. Some panelists
worried about the performance and, more importantly, privacy and
security implications. Others thought it was an interesting twist on how
to analyze traffic patterns unobtrusively. Either way it was fun to be
part of the demo. – Michael Kanellos, CNET
Networks’ editor at large
Sharp Electronics’ System LCD Module with
Embedded Optical Sensors
Stand by iPhone lovers, Sharp Electronics is showing off a touch screen
that lets you control a phone or other device with the swipe of a
finger. Or actually, three fingers. Consumers can flick to shrink the
size of images, blow them up, and scroll left to right or up and down.
Now Sharp allows you to use three fingers or more for even more
functionality. Gesture sensing technology was a major theme of this year’s
CEATEC and it seems that gestures will become a significant way to input
data or control devices in the future. –
Michael Kanellos, CNET Networks’ editor at
large
Sony’s Rolly
Though seemingly useless, the Rolly got our nod for its originality,
sense of fun, and smooth operation. It mixes two qualities for which its
creator, Sony, is known: audio and robotics, and the idea of a dancing
music player could only come out of the creative and fertile minds
typically found in a Japanese R&D lab. The robotics are graceful and it
actually sounds good, considering the device’s
small size. The Rolly is the quintessential “only-in-Japan”
gadget, but we think with the right marketing idea, and a considerable
drop in price, the Rolly could well become the pet rock/Tamagotchi of
2008 in the U.S. Yes, it’s whimsical, and
never thought we needed a Rolly, but now we’re
not sure if we can live without one. – Tom
Samiljan, Switched.com
Hitachi’s Blu-Ray Camcorders (DZ-BD7H and
DZ-BD70A)
High-definition video technology is booming in the United States—not
only for passive consumption of Hollywood media but also for
do-it-yourself creators. Many high-definition camcorders are available
in the U.S., but they are tied to old-fashioned media such as magnetic
tape and mini-DVDs. Hitachi has brought home movies fully into the HD
era with the world’s first camcorders
featuring Blu-ray disc drives. With built-in editing tools, they make a
seamless link from creating, to refining, to playing on a home TV—without
requiring a trip to the computer to process the video. And Hitachi didn’t
just tack on a Blu-ray recorder. By using a new, lower-power image
sensor and an energy-efficient drive, it achieved a very useful battery
lifetime of 80 minutes in a compact design. The inclusion of a hard
drive in the DZ-BD7H makes it the ultimate camcorder, capable of
capturing video to portable or fixed media, and enabling the user to
burn hand-out copies on either Blu-ray or standard DVD discs. –
Sean Captain, Popular Science
Panasonic’s and Toshiba’s
High Definition Recording on DVD Media
Using powerful, energy-efficient real-time transcoding chips to
transform broadcast, satellite and cable MPEG2 streams into H.264
(MPEG4) files one-third to one-half smaller, both Panasonic and Toshiba
demonstrated blue and red laser HD recorder prototypes with internal
HDDs which will enable (permitted) HD program archiving to affordable
red laser DVD media. This enables consumers to put up to two hours of HD
on a DVD recordable disc and 6 hours (Toshiba) and 9 to 18 hours
(Panasonic) on a blue laser disc. Scant days ago, the DVD Forum finally
approved HD "red laser" economical DVD recording, and both companies
have responded with polished, powerful consumer prototypes. Previously,
the high performance transcoding needed to accomplish this required a
rack full of electronics. – Richard Doherty,
Industry Analyst from the Envisioneering Group
Toshiba’s SpursEngine High-Performance
Stream Processor
Two shows ago, Toshiba touted the first non-PS3 Cell processor prototype
computer programming boxes. Today, with both hardware and dozens of
third-party software tools and environments to take advantage of
parallel Cell engine power and speed, Spurs empowers consumers with
natural motion interactions with PCs and future CE products. From
real-time facial makeup and wardrobe rendering to handling hundreds of
TV channels and sound sources simultaneously, SpursEngine partners may
boost demand for Toshiba AVC co-processors in powerful, real-time
streaming consumer-friendly products. –
Richard Doherty, Industry Analyst from the Envisioneering Group
Honorable Mention to Fujitsu for Accessibility and Language
International attendance is soaring at CEATEC, making it even more
important for businesses to offer information to guests from other
nations that will allow them to appreciate the products and technology
demonstrations. The Tech-pert Panel would like to offer special thanks
and recognition to Fujitsu for supplying the finest second-language
literature, booth personnel and graphical explanations at CEATEC JAPAN
2007.
According to the panelists, attending CEATEC JAPAN 2007 is truly a
unique experience and Envisioneering Group Analyst Richard Doherty
identified one showcase in particular that exemplified a special CEATEC
moment, “NHK was able to make a social
connection, putting a smile on each attendee as they passed through the
booth. In association with JEITA, NHK's Power of Television Broadcasting
showcase displayed Japan's analog to digital television transition over
the past five decades, along side the latest in flat-panel HDTVs.”
Following CEATEC JAPAN 2007, the Tech-pert Panel plans to participate in
a round table discussion at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2008 in
Las Vegas hosted by CEATEC and IFA to share their insights into the
future of the industry.
For more information on CEATEC JAPAN 2007, please visit http://www.ceatec.com.
About CEATEC JAPAN:
Since its inaugural event in 2000, CEATEC JAPAN (Combined Exhibition
of Advanced Technologies) has brought together under one
roof the latest in technologies, products and services that form the
foundation of today’s digital society. With
each passing year, CEATEC JAPAN has become increasingly recognized as a “Comprehensive
Exhibition of Cutting-Edge IT & Electronics”.
JETRO (Japan External Trade Organization) is a government-affiliated
organization that promotes mutual trade and investment between Japan and
the rest of the world. JETRO is supporting CEATEC in U.S. media
relations and has chosen GCI as the authorized public relations agency.
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