As part of the CEATEC Innovation Awards panel, we were treated to an advance tour of the show’s exhibits. Below are photos and descriptions of what awaits us on the show floor, a small fraction of which is shown in the following photo.
This year, the Innovation Awards are even more prominent. Pretty cool being with so many cool folks and reviewing and judging tech together.
MeoTune
Taxan was showing the MeoTune, a terrestrial (over-the-air) television re-transmitter. The device takes a television signal and re-broadcasts it over WiFi so one can watch TV on any Android or iOS device via the MeoTV app. Oddly enough, the MeoTune only transmits via 802.11b/g, not 802.11n. Of course, only 1SEG television is supported at this time, so US consumers are out of luck at this time. They plan on bringing an ATSC (US of A) version to market, but I haven’t yet received the timeline. The device requires no batteries and charges via USB.
The beauty of this device is you can put it anywhere in your home – in ideal areas for television reception – and then watch your television anywhere. This is a boon for those who don’t have their television in the most “reception-friendly” area of the home.
Alps – Touchpads Everywhere!
Alps was displaying two-point multi-touch capacitive drawing pads for the XBox 360 and Playstation 3, as well as touchpads for car steering wheels. They suggest touchpads are safer and more convenient than separate buttons on the car steering wheel, using the technology to swipe around to change radio channels, volume, navigation controls, and so forth. If you don’t know who Alps is, or their Cirque division, chances are you use their product in your laptop – they practically own the touchpad market.
P.S. It will be interesting to see how the XBox 360 + Windows Phone + Windows 8 products use multitouch, such as common gestures across the Windows platform.
NTT DoCoMo & KDDI – Keeping You Healthy
NTT DoCoMo had a number of projects still in research mode, teaming sensors with Android apps, sensing everything from halitosis (bad breath) to handheld radiation detectors to measuring a person’s fat burning status just by measuring breath acetone levels.
P.S. There are a lot of Android apps in the booths and I’m not seeing an iOS push. Of course, it’s only Day 1, and I haven’t toured the entire floor. I wonder if that’s really the case…
KDDI showcased a new method of audio transmission in a phone. No speaker is apparent. Instead, similar to how the JawBone headset works, vibrations are sent through the phone which vibrate your ear canal. Nobody can hear your conversation except you – a blessing for privacy, and peace of mind for those around “that guy with the loud phone”. KDDI pinky swears it’s safe.
An NTT DoCoMo research project on display ran an Android app with image recognition (care of the Intel Open Vision library) for food health analysis. Take a photo of a dish and the app will [attempt to] determine the total number of calories in the meal you are about to [hopefully] enjoy.
If you haven’t figured it out by now, many Japanese phone manufacturers are working to provide health management solutions in handsets. This has not quite made its way to our shores, although Lord knows it should.
In a foreign country and can’t read the menu? Just take out your [NTT DoCoMo] phone, hold it over the menu, and voila!
None of these Android apps or their associated attachments are shipping as of yet. Bumr!
Also on display was a slick battery system that charges up an auxiliary battery case in 10 minutes, which the phone can comfortably slide into and charge from post-case-charge. NTT wouldn’t confirm the battery manufacturer, but my guess is Toshiba, who has shown similar tech in the past, yet none that had been integrated into an actual product.
And of course there were all matter of quirky things, as always:
Nobody knew what these little critters were, but everyone for sure wanted a New York Salad!
What?!!!???!
This way cool shirt could hold a 7” tablet with no problems. Nice!
Oh, and if you never thought omelets were beautiful:
The Auri Group Tech Blog 