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Showing posts from 2008

More than learning English vocabularies

This  film production, " EIGOPETS " developed by Exsa Corporation , seems to be more than a tool for learning names of animals in English. As presented, it hints various business possibilities .   This tool reminds me of Leapfrog's products .   Is there any collaboration opportunity between the two companies?   Source: DigInfo News 12/8/08

Invisibel speaker componet

A very thin component (2.4mm x 4.7mm x 34.5mm)  is a distribute mode actuator which is made of piezoelectric thin films formed on metal plate.   This device enables a flat panel screen to vibrate to make sounds.  The flat display panel may vary from a mobile communications device to a desktop display system such as a personal computer.  According to a news release from the supplier , Authentic, Ltd. , the Authentic's DMA device is embedded in a mobile clinical assisting system of Philips FIMI. I personally wish and expect that a further improved version of this device will be used when an organic electroluminescence display is commercially available some time in the near future. Photo: Authentic's DMA Source: Authentic's web site 12/7/08

Natural sounds pickup device

This seems to be a simple but great idea to integrate stereo microphones with earphones.   With this microphone-earphone, which Adphox supplies, you can pick up and record any sounds as you hear and wherever you are because the microphones are positions onto your ears.    Why don't you try a few demo sounds at the supplier's site ?  Wearing high quality headsets is recommendable for listening. Source: Adphox Corporation 12/6/08

Arichitectural Shutters

The architectural shutters presented by this YouTube video look like not just shutters but well designed architectural exteriors.   All the other products, Sugatsune Kogyo , the shutter supplier, seem to be more than mechanical components, just like high precision materials. 12/01/08

Broad Range of UV LED Applications

UV LED has a great potential for various applications and devices, such as a sensor, an indicator, an air cleaning device, a resin hardening device, lighting and display, and even in biotechnology field.    A curing unit equipped with 25 pcs of UV LED Module (photo above)  is for UV curing, one of the possible applications.  The optical output power is more than 3W.  The above video demonstrates one of display applications for fun.   Nitride Semiconductors , a highly specialized supplier of UV LED, describes its self with four bullets, Cutting Edge ( Waza in Japanese), Ecology ( Yawaragi in Japanse ), High Quality ( Takumi in Japanese), and Fun ( Tanoshimi  in Japanese) that is quite impressive and right fit in the present world.  Source: Nitride Semiconductors

Wireless High-definition Quality Video Transmission Units

This system that consists of a receiver (left) and a transmitter wirelessly enables HD (30 frames/sec) quality video and stereo sounds transmission but with no compression and no delay time. The supplier, Giga Techno Vision's blog says the system is well secured because of its proprietary and patented technologies that differ its digital modulation method from wireless LAN. - Frequency Area 2.4GHz - Transmission power: 10 mW - Radio Channel Capacity 4ch Maximum - Diversity Method: Space-diversity 2 antennas - Size (Tx & Rx each): 110(W) x 80(D) x 30(H)mm - Weight (Tx & Rx each): approximately 300g - Transmission distance: 500 m outdoors (up to 3 km) There seem to be various applications, such as remote monitoring, CCTV, home video theater application, surveillance systems, etc. I hope in the near future the system become one single chip for receiver and transmitter each. When the chip becomes available, it will significantly broaden its applications to personal and

Digital Pen

There are several types of smart pens available in the global market.   The most recent ones may be called a ballpoint pen type of personal computer .   Despite of the highly advanced functionalities , however, none of the smart pens has capability to sense and record pen pressure data with itself. DP-1000 electric pen developed and supplied by Japan System Development ( JSD ) has the capability to sense and digitized the data, so that the pen pressure data will be easily recognized and analyzed by computer when it is used for writing or drawing something on a paper sheet .  According to JSD's web-site , proprietary and patented technologies are used for DP-1000.   My curiosity is, if the pen pressure sensing technology is built into a smart pen, the integrated product may perhaps create various applications which will be more than the deveopers' expectation.  I hope I'll see it sometimes in the future. 11/13/08

Two Is Better Than One!

TOMY has announced a new digital camera that has a built-in printer inside.  It is a full-featured 5 Megapixel digital camera with a built-in full color ZINK (trademark)  priner that is powered by ZINK Imaging Inc's printing technology.    The new product has been born by the marrige of the two technologies of digital camera and printer.  It allows you to capture, view, and immediately print their images without ink, anywhere.   The new products will be available first in Japan late November, 2008.   Source: ZINK Imaging & YouTube 11/6/08

Panel Computer Development Kit

Touch panel types of computers are increasing as we deeply rely on the electrical machines in our daily transactions of work and private communications.  The panel computer development kit proposed here seem to be hitting varieties of the needs emerging.    Visit DigInfo site at  http://www.diginfo.tv/search.php?ofs=0&pid=3   Source: Diginfo News and Atmark Techno 11/5/08

Sanyo ALBO Looks Neat and Cute

Sanyo has announced a new display device, ALBO ,  that enables a user simply and  instantly to transmit photos, if required together with text message received by a cellphone terminal, from the user's cellphone to the 7-inch display panel itself via infrared communications ports.  With 256MB memory equipped and a built-in speaker, ALBO  can display photos in a slideshow format with a variety of effects and sounds.    Various types of memory card slots and USB port are available, too.    Its IEEE802.11b/g or AOSS  based wireless interface provides ALBO with another capability to link with a user's personal computer in the wireless LAN environment.    The new device, ALBO will be available in Japan on November 14, 2008 at a price level of Yen40,000.  Source: Sanyo 11/5/08

Humanoid Robot - Physical Avatar Beyond Internet

It seems to become real that your avatar directly communicates with your family members in their living room even if you are away from them because of your international business trip. Speecys Corporation , a unique humanoid robot developer, plans to deliver BotCast generation media robot, NNR-1, early next year, 2009. According to Speecys' description , "BotCast uses the connection between the PC, internet, and servers to control robots' movements and sounds, providing a new form of media entertainment. Starting in June 2008, our BotCast service will be available as beta testing for you to enjoy in your home. Next spring, our Home Media Robot will be released at a low, accessible price to be enjoyed by families." The home media robot, or BotCast generation media robot will be assisting users in their live communications over the Internet, in delivering and/or getting information a user needs, or in administrating user's business schedule, while many other way

KDDI Announces Launch of 1Gbps services

KDDI announced yesterday that the company would launch 1Gbps home services with a less expenssive price than its 100Mbps services. It seems, however, the new price level is almost equal to a 100Mbps home service price of NTT, although its initial installation cost may be a bit higher than 100Mbps service subscription. Only the new condition of the new services seems to be a minimum subscription period of two years. The ten times broader bandwidth will provide us with varieties of new applications services, including simultaneous services of high-definition quality video movie transmissions, video phone talks and data exchange over the internet. There have been a few other carriers that are providing Giga-bit services, and the KDDI's participation this time will be accelerating to open up a highly competitive new market of broadband services where no one has ever experienced before. 9/25/08

Drive Simulator

A new drive simulator developed by Forum8 seems to be an excellent system out of many simulators available in the world. It is reportedly said that the new simulator is able to create perfectly controlled environments including weather, time of day and traffic patterns. According to the video report provided here, a person who drives the simulator can feel not only the outside environment but also can experience and sense the road conditions and differences in control and acceleration of the various types of cars. There is no doubt that this system must be very useful for us to conduct car-driving-ability tests and/or to examine traffic safety measurements, and so on. It seems that this system will be also very helpful in city and road design efforts. One of great technologies is here. 9/18/08

Movie Creation from Still Pictures

It seems that this technology will accomplish to dramatically reduce bit rates and file sizes of movies because a movie created by this technology is made from still pictures with high resolution quality. This technology was reportedly developed for entertainment purposes, but will be useful for business, industrial monitoring or surveillance in particular. 9/9/08

3D Viewer

3D Para Vision demonstrated here seems to be relatively simple technology, but looks pretty cool to provide viewers with virtual 3D movies or pictures. According to the president and CEO of the company that developed this system, its greatest advantage is to get audience to stop by the 3D screen to watch movies or pictures for 10 times longer than regular 2D screen. 9/8/08

Spiral Magnus

Quieter and safer wind generating turbine with a better wind load survival rating sounds great, and in fact the outward appearance of the newly announced wind turbines, Spiral Magnus , looks lighter than the conventional blade type of wind turbines, while the new machine cylinders instead of flat blades to produce power is thus reportedly quieter, safer and provides more power than flat blade wind turbines. Attached, is one of video movies available at YouTube site, and the description of the video movie says, "The Spiral Magnus's design is based on German physicist Dr. Magnus's theory in which the wind velocity and pressure changes as it passes around the cylinder causing a lifting force that spins the cylinders similar to the motion of a baseball. With the spiraling fins surrounding the cylinder to catch the wind, four times as much dynamic lift is created as wind turbines with flat blades." According to the description, the Spiral Magnus can generate 30 MWh el

Water ball left in the air!?

Is the water ball left in the air? This short movie is amazing. This extremely slow and detailed motion pictures were reportedly taken with Photron's high speed video camera at 4,000 frame per second. Photron , a Tokyo based company, offers a series of high speed video cameras to manufacturing industries, the medical field, film laboratories, television and movie studios, as well as to the military worldwide. According to the company's web-site, Photron seems to be engaged in developing and supplying advanced image processing systems. Going into the broadband network era, high speed and high resolution images will be demanded and become more popular not only for industrial analysis but also for new discovery and even for pleasure. 2/28/08

Spherical solar cells

Spherical shape of a solar cell sounds unique and unparalleled in its capability to achieve a better conversion rate between solar energy and electricity than the conventional flat cell. In fact, the sphere, because of its own shape, must be ideal to absorb direct and reflected lights while a flat one can't take the reflected light from the reverse side. The production process, Kyosemi Corporation , the manufacturer of the solar cell, seems to be also incomparable to dramatically reduce wasted material of silicon. The spherical solar cell, Sphelar ®, is just one millimetre in diameter, seem to have great potential for varieties of application. One of the new applications, Kyosemi supplies, is SphelarVoice ™, a battery-free wireless audio optical information system using Sphelar ® cells. I've found a good video movie on YouTube that resents the uniqueness of these points. It's should be better than a lengthy description in writing. Seeing is believing. Take a look at th

Internet Robot

Out of many types of humanoid robot available in the market, I found it very impressive. It has a variety of capabilities. It speaks, recognizes human voice, walks, dances, searches and reads aloud emails and web-site information for a user, and does more, being controlled over the internet as far as wireless broadband environment is secured for the robot. With a video camera build in, it has image recognition capability as well. It is small (33 cm height) and light (1.5 kg), but could work as an avatar located in a distance place and provides a pleasant escape from the routine of everyday life. Imagine a jazz band of four robot players! You can see a video movie clicking a picture you can get here. More importantly, the robot capability can be continuously enhanced and grown by users, who might be used to pc-software development, because the application development software interface is opened for that purpose at no cost. A type number of the robot is SPC-101C, designed and supplied b