http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php All the Good Stuff... en jml@digitalworldtokyo.com Copyright 2008 2008-05-09T10:13:00+09:00 http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/cool_japanese_blog_widgets_add_a_dash_of_color/ http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/cool_japanese_blog_widgets_add_a_dash_of_color/#When:08:33:01Z We’ve had a bunch of emails over the last few days asking about that little Flash widget down there at the bottom of the right sidebar (take a look waay down there), usually from readers asking what the heck all that Japanese stuff is. While there are probably hundreds of such widgets around, that particular one is from Sony Japan’s Flo:Q site. In return for giving over a little advertising space, users get a panel that can hold anything from podcasts to Flickr searches. It’s not perfect (no play controls on the podcasts, for example), but it is a pretty cool little thing. Check it out here if you fancy building one of your own - Japanese language requirements aren’t too onerous, so it’s easy to follow. There’s a similar one here from house builder Sekisui Heim - it’s not particularly customizable but you do get an earthquake button that makes your neighbor’s inferior house collapse in a pile of dust. Internet, Japan, Software 2008-05-09T08:33:01+09:00 http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/biometric_face_scanner_tells_identical_twins_apart/ http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/biometric_face_scanner_tells_identical_twins_apart/#When:10:13:00Z Should Homer Simpson ever try to smuggle his unqualified identical twin brother into work in his stead, a new biometric identification system that will be used to secure nuclear plants is sure to prompt a “D’oh!” or seven. The technology, which comes from a Japanese firm called Sagawa Advance, is sufficiently accurate to be able to tell identical twins apart – a massive advance on current technologies, which famously can’t tell Jessica Alba from a plank of wood. Oh, wait… Anyway, Sagawa’s thing uses an infrared scanner to analyse 40,000 data points on a face before comparing the details against a database of people it already knows. If there’s no match then access to power plants, medical factories and other sensitive areas is easily denied. Sagawa plans to sell the scanner and database computer set for ¥6 million ($60,000) later this year, with a view to shifting 40 units in its first twelve months. (Crossposted to TechRadar) R&D 2008-05-09T10:13:00+09:00 http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/buckyballs_power_tiny_fuel_cell_powerhouse/ http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/buckyballs_power_tiny_fuel_cell_powerhouse/#When:10:00:00Z Exotic molecules like carbon buckyballs may soon become part of our everyday lives if the latest prototype fuel cell from Sony ever makes it to the stores. The six-fuel-cell system Sony recently showed at the Small Fuel Cells 2008 exhibition in Atlanta has at its core an electrolyte membrane based on buckminsterfullerenes (to give them their proper name) and a platinum catalyst. While the science probably matters little to the man in the street, what does ring bells is the ability of the latest prototype to generate three times more energy than its gooey 2005 predecessor. The 5 x 3 x 2cm unit goes to work on a single milliliter of methanol, producing 1.1 watt hours of energy from the fuel. In its demonstration Sony used 10ml of the volatile liquid to power a mobile phone with a TV tuner running for 14 hours. Better still, in combination with a lithium-polymer rechargeable battery, the tiny device can produce a steady 3W output by alternating supplying just power when it’s needed most with charging the battery during quiet periods of energy demand from whatever needs the juice. Whenever the buckyball system does make it to market, Sony claims it will be smaller still, so we fully expect to see it inside phones, rather than attached to them as in the demo. (Crossposted to TechRadar) Peripherals 2008-05-09T10:00:00+09:00 http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/japanese_rfid_tech_batters_down_doors_in_west/ http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/japanese_rfid_tech_batters_down_doors_in_west/#When:09:51:00Z We recently lifted the lid on just how useful – not to mention pervasive – RFID technology is in Japan, so it’s with a glad heart that we bring you news of a move that’s sure to help it spread more quickly in the West. The FeliCa RFID technology at the heart of almost all the wireless e-cash and ticketing goodness in Japan looks set to reach North America after Sony announced a new scheme to help companies develop systems there to use it. Sony’s FeliCa System Integrator Application Developer (SIAD) program will focus on delivering the know-how gained in Japan through support and training resources to anyone looking to add RFID to their existing businesses. That could be anything from creating a system for cinemas to put movie tickets in their customers’ phones to a full-blown e-cash rollout for giant retail chains. Jeff Hilliard, boss of Compudigital, an early SIAD member, spelled out the benefits: “FeliCa technology is on the edge of the technology curve, has unlimited application potential and opens up a whole new world for developers.” And, especially, for customers too, he might have added. As the Far-Eastern experience has already shown, once IC chips and their RFID applications open the door to wireless transactions of every kind, there really is no going back. Watch this space. (Crossposted to TechRadar) R&D, Wireless 2008-05-09T09:51:00+09:00 http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/electrical_eyeballs_controlling_our_gadgets/ http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/electrical_eyeballs_controlling_our_gadgets/#When:07:54:00Z The field of disability aids has seen many devices controlled by computers that visually track the eye movements of paralysed people, but none that reads the electricity given off by swiveling eyeballs [subscription link]. Research by NTT DoCoMo Research Laboratories has shown that the human pupil carries a slight positive charge, compared to the more negative white part of the eye. DoCoMo chief scientist Masao Fukumoto explains the seemingly odd phenomenon, saying, “The human eye has the properties of a battery.” Measuring how the electrical balance shifts as the eye moves is key to a more accurate eye-based control system. Naturally, a multimedia company (as are all modern phone firms) like DoCoMo has plans beyond creating a disability aid. The Japanese giant plans to build the technology into headphones that can control music players with a mere sideways glance. Just be careful when using them on the late-night bus home. (Crossposted to TechRadar) Audio, Household, R&D 2008-05-08T07:54:00+09:00 http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/mumbling_robots_more_pleasing_than_the_silent_type/ http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/mumbling_robots_more_pleasing_than_the_silent_type/#When:09:16:00Z Robots are good for plenty of things, but having a meaningless chat generally isn’t one of them – something that has to change if a group of Japanese researchers are to be believed. Takayuki Kanda and colleagues at ATR Intelligent Robotics & Communication Labs in Kyoto and Keio and Osaka universities studied how satisfied human volunteers were with the responses of domestic robots. The team found that any delays in responding to spoken commands, such as an order to fetch a nice cup of joe, were tolerated only up to two seconds – anything longer was plain annoying. However, if the robot was able to throw in very human verbal fillers such as “um…” or “well…” during a longer delay, user irritation evaporated and the hold-up went unnoticed. Kanda told us how his team got the idea: “This research started from real needs, where people interacting with our robot lost their motivation to continue talking with it. “This became clearer when we put the robot in the field (a station and a shopping mall) as an explicit information-providing service. The problem for the user was not the fact that he didn’t receive a full answer, but the fact that he didn’t know whether the robot was working or not.” In other words, those seemingly meaningless mumblings actually serve the very important function of letting us know that something, rather than nothing, is going on in the heads of our metal friends. (Crossposted to TechRadar) Household, R&D, Robots 2008-05-02T09:16:00+09:00 http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/display_2008_the_e_paper_that_begs_to_be_caressed/ http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/display_2008_the_e_paper_that_begs_to_be_caressed/#When:09:07:01Z One of the more low-key exhibits at the Display 2008 show in Tokyo was a new kind of e-paper that promises an electronic experience far closer to real paper than anything we’ve seen before. The result of a collaboration between Seiko Epson and E Ink is e-paper that a user can ‘draw on’ with a stylus, just like its tree-based predecessors. In addition, a super-fast screen refresh of 50 cycles per second removes the lags that plague older e-papers. At the heart of the breakthrough is a new controller chip that allows for speedy, multiple operations with no delay on screens with a resolution up to 2,048 x 1,536 pixels. The chip will be available to device builders from August. The demonstration we saw was certainly impressive – the screen responded to being scribbled on instantly, resulting in an experience a lot like making notes with a pencil on a book or newspaper. The vid below almost shows all of that Looking to the possible applications of the new e-paper, E Ink’s CEO Russ Wilcox said, “With the ability to address many screen regions simultaneously, future devices using this chip could offer a fast menu interface, simple animations, higher grayscale levels and user input through typing and touch.” (Crossposted to TechRadar) Displays, Events, R&D 2008-05-02T09:07:01+09:00 http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/display_2008_e_paper_makes_move_for_big_time/ http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/display_2008_e_paper_makes_move_for_big_time/#When:08:04:00Z Aside from flashy 3D displays, the other big draw for fans of future tech at Display 2008 in April was electronic paper in at least 57 flavor-packed varieties. The products on show could be split, approximately, into two barely separate categories – those that are already on sale and those that are jockeying for contracts from firms big enough to make or break them. Full range of sizes In the first category come dozens of devices, some of which are surprisingly long-in-the-tooth now. These include Sony’s Libirie e-book, the Amazon Kindle and an impressive range of e-paper displays from a Taiwanese firm intended for everything from price tags to e-book readers. Taiwan-based PVI entered the e-paper business in 2005 when it acquired Philips’ e-paper division and has made massive strides in building upon that technology, as you can see in the quick and dirty (that means it’s crap) vid below. The company’s current range of thin, low-power monochrome displays runs from a tiny 1.9-inch e-paper screen intended for gadgets like MP3 players to an impressive 9.7-inch screen with a resolution of 1,200 x 825 pixels made specifically for e-books like the Librie. Card with a view Moving to less obvious applications, another Taiwanese firm, SmartDisplayer, has had the ingenious idea of sticking a tiny e-paper screen in an RFID-toting smartcard. The card has already begun internal trials in trading companies and banks interested in the added layer of security that can be introduced through the simple expedient of having a screen that can display single-use disposable PINs for each transaction. Other possibilities include pill bottles that show countdowns of what to take and when to take it, low-power screens on even the smallest gadgets and even headphones with built-in displays. Where’s the FLEPia? Moving on to intriguing ideas that have yet to reach the giddy heights of commercial application, one name keeps coming up when e-paper is mentioned – Fujitsu’s FLEPia e-book; one of the few with a color screen. The device itself has been around in prototype form for at least a year and the e-paper in it for two years before that, so we spoke to the company to find out why. According to Utsumi Kiyoshi, retail director at Fujitsu Frontech, there has been one major hurdle all along. He told us: “Cost is still a problem – we can deliver samples of the 8-inch FLEPia, but that still costs ¥200,000 for two (£1,000). We aim to get that down to ¥40,000 (£200) each by the time we actually sell it.” (Crossposted to TechRadar) Displays, Events, R&D 2008-05-02T08:04:00+09:00 http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/display_2008_3d_displays_dump_the_silly_glasses/ http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/display_2008_3d_displays_dump_the_silly_glasses/#When:07:46:00Z Flat-panel displays are so mainstream these days they have an entire massive exhibition dedicated to them – the Display Expo in Tokyo. That’s where the technologies we’re likely to see in the shops over the next few years get an early airing, and we were there last month. Gaining most attention at Display 2008 were a smattering of 3D displays, including a few that might make it to our living rooms before long. No glasses on us The biggest attention seeker of the lot was a small US firm called NewSight Corporation, which had a constant throng of visitors clamouring to see its 3D displays. The reason for the fuss was simple – unlike competitors, such as the Hyundai set we saw recently, NewSight’s MultiView technology shows straight-up simulated three-dimensional video without the need for glasses. The company’s Kiyoto Kanda explained the appeal: “Our screens can be seen in full 3D with the naked eye because there’s no need for special glasses. That’s important in advertising – imagine having to hand out glasses to people in the street just so they could see an advert; it’s impossible.” Future of commerce Next-generation advertising, or digital signage, is where NewSight is currently concentrating its range of MultiView displays. They run from an 8.4-inch mini display right up to an eye-catching 57-incher that costs around £12,500. At the Tokyo show, the 57-inch screen was filled with images of Budweiser bottles in the hands of bikini models shaking them and seductively spraying their contents directly out of the screen at viewers, so it’s clear where such riots of 3D colour will end up – bars and restaurants. However, as Kanda explained, there is hope for the home user. “We will develop screens for 3D home theatre in the near future,” he said. “It just depends on the broadcasters – if they want to convert old 3D content to our system (and we can handle any format) we’ll meet the demand for screens.” (Crossposted to TechRadar) Displays, Events, R&D 2008-05-02T07:46:00+09:00 http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/articles/smaller_hydrogen_pumps_mean_more_fuel_cell_cars/ http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/index.php/digital_tokyo/smaller_hydrogen_pumps_mean_more_fuel_cell_cars/#When:08:30:01Z Alternative fuel is all very well, but it’s pretty damn hopeless, regardless of good intentions, when all you can get on Main Street is regular gasoline by the liter. Realising the problem of not having a supply infrastructure for fuel cell vehicles in place, Tokyo Gas and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries have come up with a much smaller hydrogen pump that should make it simpler to fit out normal gas stations [subscription required]. The new separation devices generate the hydrogen from normal city gas and water vapor using alloy membranes as filters instead of by the older method of purifying hydrogen. This lends itself to equipment that is small enough to go mainstream. Previous attempts managed to get the gear down to the size of a bus, whereas the new pumps are closer in size to a large car and, therefore, far more likely to be adopted. Naturally, the two companies hope that there technique will help fuel suppliers take the plunge, which will, in turn, make consumers more confident about switching to cleaner vehicles. (Crossposted to TechRadar; Image: Oak Ridge National Laboratory) R&D, Transportation 2008-04-30T08:30:01+09:00