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October 5 - 9, 2004
Tokyo, Japan

This used to be an electronics components show internal to Japan. No more. The secret is out. There are more overseas press than I have seen before. Better press conferences. Better PR support in the booths. More English speaking individuals in the booths.

The exhibition numbers say much:

Countries exhibiting – 20
Number of foreign exhibitors – 266
Number of Japanese exhibitors – 462
Number of booths – 2,754

Not quite reaching last year’s attendance of 191,528, this exhibition registered an impressive 182,490 visitors.

Here is what really caught our eye in our first travels around the floor:

Sony VAIO type X

This is a Windows XP Professional computer but it goes well beyond that. The computer is based on an Intel 3.6GHz P4 processor with 1GB of memory and a 1TB hard drive. VAIO type X is basically a video server which operates much like a VCR. Windows XP is used like an embedded OS. Embedded within the PC are two cards which hold 6 independent tuners. The on screen display looks like a program guide for broadcast content – it is not. This is a layout of the recording on the hard disk. As Sony said in the booth – one can record all the television broadcasts in Tokyo in one day and come home to watch any one program with a click on the screen. There is an add-on box which is a digital tuner and with this the VAIO type X has access to all the television content in Japan – broadcast, satellite and terrestrial.

This is not a Media PC. The media management is done by Sony software.

Distribution of television content around the home is via Ethernet not 1394.

Attached to the VAIO type X was a VAIO HD display. This is an LCD panel with a 1090 X 1200 display. Interfaces include: iLink, YUV component video and DVI/i. The images were excellent. The innovation in this display is the backlight technology - LEDs. The result is a much richer color space. The contrast ratio was 700:1.

These products are to go on sale in Japan at the end of 2004. The price of the VAIO X is 520,000 JPY (about $4,880) and 400,000 JPY (about $3,750) for the display.

The VAIO has excellent ID, even including the integration of the keyboard.

SXRD – Best Projection Display Seen

This is a “blow your socks off” 70”” projection display. The model being shown is for the US market and will undoubtedly be at CES in January. The display technology is LCD but the display module is only about .8” square. In the booth was a breakout of the optical projection module. The contrast ratio at the LCD display is 3000:1 but is less when it finally gets to the display surface. The electronics for the display uses the Sony VEGA engine. This ranks as one of the best projection displays I have seen.

Clie PEG-VZ90 – OLED Display

This is a multifunction device which has the PalmOS and is a media playback device. It supports music, video and photo storage and playback. The unit also supports wireless with 802.11b. The most striking aspect of the device is the use of OLED: a full color panel which is 3.8” diagonal and one- half VGA – 320 X 480.

Air Board – A Product with Many Lives

The latest model is the LF-X1 which came out in April 2004. It supports 802.11a and g. The panel can be used to watch television, get e-mail and surf the Internet. The industrial design has improved to permit ease of carrying and placement on many surfaces. The price is 130,000 JPY (about $1,220). The use of Windows as the OS was dropped some time ago. Sony did not specify what the current OS is.

Any Music + Net Juke = A complete home music set up

Leave it to Sony to combine a music downloading service with superb home electronics to support it. The music service is called Any Music and it costs 300 JPY (less than $3) per month. The per song cost ranges from 150 – 300 JPY. What Sony has done is to create CE which looks like a Compact Stereo for the storage and use of the downloaded music. One can share songs by creating a memory stick or other type of media with the content on it. The ID was well done including the speakers on the side.

Panasonic – Making an Imaging Sensor for Cell Phones

The new vMAICOVICON seeks the best of both worlds – CCD and CMOS. This is intended for the cell phone market. By combining a CCD cell structure with CMOS read out Panasonic claims that it will lower power consumption and improve image quality in cell phones. The sensor is in production and optical modules have been fabricated. It is expected that it will be 6 months before the sensor shows up in phones.

Meanwhile, in the nooks and crannies and corners of booths, CEATEC is packed with nuggets. In walking every booth spot in two halls, there were lots of real nuggets. The WAVE has attempted to bring order for our readers by listing our findings by manufacturer.

Casio – Cell Phone Technology

Casio had a very effective display of a fingerprint detector integrated into a mock cell phone. The individual would place his/her finder on the front cover of the cell phone. Then flip it up and the finger print was displayed.

Casio claims that it now has the highest density LCD panel. At 368dpi, this is a 2.2” VGA panel that is wonderful to look at hard to read. It is a. It is claimed to have a contrast ratio of 450:1 and a viewing angle of 160 deg vertical and 150 deg horizontal. The light output is 350 cd/ni. The product is positioned for cell phones, digital cameras and web viewers.

Fujitsu – New Concepts for Phones and Palm Biometrics

Tucked in the Fujitsu future design section were three classes of products: Hi-Spec Line, Standard Line and Entry Line. The focus of the Hi-Spec Line is a full keyboard on the phone. Three styles were show, two with small horizontal keyboards and a third with an ultrasmall keyboard in a clam shell style phone. This keyboard was above a standard phone keypad. This phone also had a remote game pad.

Fujitsu was also showing a demo of a door entry system which had both a keypad entry and a palm reader.

Hitachi - Fascination with 3D

Hitachi was displaying an autosterescopic 3D display. The principle is based on the following:

The display is shown around a cylinder which can be viewed from any aspect angle.

At the center of the cylinder is a rotating mirror which spins rapidly to the point that the mirror cannot be seen.

The mirror reflects and image seen from 20+ displays which are positioned below the mirror and spaced evenly around the cylinder. The mirror is obviously at an angle to reflect the display image.

Each image on the displays has an angularly displaced view of the object to be shown

Overall the display was a disappointment. There was neither the angular nor spatial resolution to provide a high quality display. In spite of this it sure drew the crowds.

Hitachi has also jumped on Direct Methanol Fuel Cells. There were 3 examples of fuel cells in the booth powering (by example) Cell phone, a futuristic PDA and a Notebook. In each case the fuel cell was as large as the device or nearly so.

iVDR Consortium – Portable Hard Drives

One would wonder why there is a need for another trade association. But in the Sanyo booth was a section laid out for the iVDR to promote form factors for storage media. iVDR is a compact removable hard disk drive. The interface is Serial ATA with support to 1.5Gb/s. PKI security is supported. Three form factors are supported: iVDR, iVDR mini and iVDR micro.

JVC – Home Network System Shown which is DLNA Compliant

Using Ethernet, JVC was showing a system that combined a television display, TV/FM/AM receiver, notebook and printer.

Not to be outdone by Sony, JVC was also showing a very similar but much smaller – about 8” tall – walking robot dubbed the J4 and touted as the “ultra compact bipedal walking robot”. Communications is provided by Bluetooth.

KDDI - Another Operator Innovator

KDDI has developed iSeePet, an unusual combination of video camera, pet audio call device and automatic pet feeder. Just crazy. From the cell phone one can see the pet a home, call the pet with sounds and feed it. The Linux-based system is operated off servers at:

http://www.iseepet.jp

Note: iSeePet needs to be connected to broadband in the home. No pet should be without DSL.

KDDI as a cell phone operator is offering the Maxell Penit, an Anoto Pen based application. The cost of the pen is 30,000 JPY ($280). But this is not a typical cell phone usage of the pen such as instant messaging. Each use of the pen is on a solution by solution basis. A sheet was provided in the booth that had an area for writing and drawing. At the bottom was a roman keyboard. There are check squares for three mobil phone operators – assumed to be where the information can be sent. This is actually a Penit form.

Based on the limited booth conversation it appears that what KDDI is doing is offering their network as the means to use Penit in wireless remote applications. This is consistent with a number of the applications we saw at the Anoto conference. The companies listed at the bottom of the hand out sheet are: Anoto, DNP, Hitachi and Maxell. Note that DNP is one of the companies that presented an Anoto solution at the conference.

The Bluetooth pen and phone are used so that the pen operation is wireless to the phone.

Maxell – Pushes Penit

The booth was packed. Two women were putting on a demonstration. A Power Point show was running above them. It was touted as a digital pen solution. Attendees were given a clip board with a survey to fill out. On the clip board were two batteries as a gift. Booth ladies were all over giving demonstrations. CDs were being handed out. A kit with business cases was available. We have not seen the Anoto pen pushed so hard.

However,

The pen seemed large – it looked like V 1.0

The applications were forms centric and

The case studies also used the same companies we saw at the Anoto conference.

It was not clear there was anything new here other than the effort.

Media Drive Corp. – Forming Support for Penit

Using its software called FormOCR, Media Drive is supporting the development of form based applications in Japan which use the Anoto pen.

Mitsubishi – Trying again for a Wearable Display

This time it is called “Scopo.” It is a VGA display which has both earphones and display in one unit. The display is actually suspended just below the eye and out of the direct field of view. The ID is well done. Applications suggested include: watching television, factory floor, watching sports and television at the same time; navigation even while riding a bicycle, and education. The visual presence is stated to be equivalent of a 10” display which is .5m from the eye.

Mitsumi – The Body as a Component in Advanced Audio Technology

Mitsumi has developed technology to improve voice communications which ignores sounds outside the body. This is of high value in noisy environments when using a cell phone.

The microphone technology is called NAM (Non-Audible Murmur). These are voiceless breathing sounds that occur with no vibration of the vocal cords. It is these eddy flows that can be used to pronounce words. There is an optimal location for a detector for the sounds and it is just behind and below the ear. This relies on flesh conduction. The research for this technology was done by Mitsumi and Asahi Kasei Corp. based on the graduate work of Yoshiki Nakajima of the Nara Institute of Technology. To demonstrate this, a soft surface detector is place behind the ear. I spoke and the sounds had no background noise from the show floor. This is hardly a scientific test but the results were none the less impressive.

The speaker technology operates on the principle of Osseous Conduction. This diffuses the sound directly to hearing organs. A sound emitting device is placed directly above the ear. I did not try this.

Mitsumi also showed a new keyboard which they claim to allow for ultra thin keyboards. This would allow for 2.8mm stroke when the keyboard was only 6.1mm thick. This is based on a keypad technology which they call “twin wire.” At the same time, the assembly is claimed to be more efficient. The prototype model was given the part number KGL-A87WG.

NEC – A Rerun and a Roadshow

Repeating the exhibit shown at IDF, NEC was illustrating what wireless USB 2.0 could do.

Building on the hope that video processing for collision detection and more will become the mainstream in automobiles, NEC was showing a road map and example of what will be required to process video. The chip was based on 128 processor elements to accomplish the video processing in one chip. The road map goes to 2010.

NTT Group – Research – Totally Unique 3D System

Having seen just about every variation on 3D possible, this was yet another one. The system first constructs a 3D image of an object. This is done with an array of high quality digital cameras that forms a half circle around an object. The object is mounted on a rotating table. As the object rotates multiple pictures are taken from the cameras.

Individuals can stand in front of a large display. On the top of the display is a small video camera shooting the scene directly in front of the display. In other words, individuals are watching themselves. The application is called PopUpReality Viewer (PopRi). Individuals in the scene hold up a small card. On this card is a picture of the 3D object which lies in the data base of objects. What is seen on the video is a substitution of the object of the image of the card. One can then manipulate the object as a virtual object in the scene. It is claimed this has use in educations.

Impressive technology but not sure how it can get used.

NTT DoCoMo Innovates

One seldom thinks of a cell phone operator as an innovator. DoCoMo is not only a Japanese company but also takes a different approach. The booth had a number of examples where they go well beyond the notion of just a cell phone.

UbiButton

This is a wrist worn device that responds to hand gestures. The movement of fingers together allows one to control appliances and lights in the home. It was being demonstrated in the home but most who tried it struggled with the hand gestures.

On Cue

The premise is that a mobile phone and television can be integrated. The phone can be the means to control the television and apparently provide access to the Internet. The emphasis in the booth was on the ID and not on its functionality. As the brochure states these are only prototype interface features.

Services

DoCoMo had an English version of both the phone catalog and i-mode services. Only in Japan. The detail is superb. The wealth of offerings is tremendous. For example:

i-mode menu sites – 4,250
i-mode web sites – 77,600
i-mode mail
i-shot – pictures can be sent via e-mail
i-motion – video clips as e-mail
i-appli – Java based applications that can be
downloaded
i-area – location based services
i-FeliCa – contactless IC card technology for
transactions

Panasonic – PC Feeds 3 HD Video Streams

Using and SD card and a PC Panasonic was showing how it could provide three DVi streams of 40Mb/s, 28Mb/s and 28Mb/s to independent displays. This used the Panasonic PRO HIGH SPEED card which is inserted into the PC.

Pioneer – All Glass Car “Cockpit”

Pioneer was showing a demonstration vehicle which had wrap around flat panel displays on the dash board that ran from door to door. Sure looked nice and would be an incredible diversion from driving. All the car needs is an auto pilot so that one can only watch the displays.

Sanyo – Phone with 2X Optical Zoom – It Looks Like a Camera

Sanyo was showing a phone, that was labeled Vodafone, the made it hard to tell from a camera. When the phone was folded it had an LCD screen on the back and a camera lens on the front. It looked like a point and shoot camera. When the case was opened it is a full function cell phone. This also used the Sanyo swivel design that allows for the display to serve as the camera back and the top of the clamshell phone display. Very nice ID and integration.

Sanyo has also implemented PC document viewing on cell phones. Shown in just a panel is the capability to view Excel spreadsheets and Word documents on a phone.

Sanyo introduced its new 3G Phone concept with Integrated WLAN. No one seemed to care that the phone had wireless LAN. It was the ID that caught everyone’s attention. The phone used a double hinge concept that actually created two clamshells. Each one half of the other. The ID was excellent but the WLAN details missing.

Sanyo – Home Network Demonstration Room

Sanyo was promoting its ELiFES home networking approach. This included the following:

Windows Open/Close
Air Conditioner
Speaker
Human Sensor
Temperature and Humidity Sensor
Network Camera
Sleep Monitoring System
Digital Television
Lights
Electrically Controlled Curtain

Sharp – A New AV Notebook Series

Similar to the Toshiba Qosmio (see Toshiba below), the Sharp Mebius is targeted to the same home market which integrates a notebook PC with home television and AV functions. There are 9 Models: MP, MM, Muram, CV, XV, AL, CL, MC, and RD. The MM has the ability to turn the screen around and fit into a docking station so that it just looks like a television. The XV has its own remote control similar to that used on a television. The RD model has the ability to display content in 3D. Some models have the ability to play DVD while others can be used to watch television at home.

Sharp is promoting monitor and television convergence. The company has developed LCD panels of 20”, 23” and 26” that can serve as both televisions and PC LCD monitors. The design is stylish and is called IT-TV. Inputs can be accepted from: game console, PC, DVD and television. The viewing angle is 170 degrees both horizontal and vertical. Each panel supports a remote control.

Sharp was also showing a Home Video server linked to a 5GHz transmitter. On the receive side was a 5GHz receiver connected by 1394 to a television set. It was one of the few wireless demonstrations seen.

TDK – Makes Push into UWB

TDK devoted a section of its booth to its move into UWB. Shown were its capabilities for evaluation services and components.

Toshiba – A Plethora of Products

Up front was a new display panel which is 5.6” and implements a wide format PC screen. The pixel density is 222ppi. This would create a display of 1024 X 600 in a PC that is slightly larger that the hand. This is all fine but how many individuals will be able to productively use such a PC? It might be great to look at but very hard to get much done due to the small character sizes on the display.

Toshiba was also showing a QVGA (320 X 240) 3.5” OLED which was suggested to be used on small screen televisions. It was the usual high quality color display.

We heard about the LED for Camera Auto Focus technique at Photokina from TI. Here at CEATEC, Toshiba had to do it – the DSC-AF LED TLOH9203. This is an auxiliary LED to illuminate the screen before the picture is taken to set the auto focus.

One should not be impressed with the level of chip integration possible, but I have given up trying to predict. Toshiba was showing the TC90288XBG which implements a LCD television on a chip. In the booth was a LCD TV with the skins off. Quite impressive.

There was also a block diagram of a complete digital television done in 6 chips.

In one of the busiest parts of the Toshiba booth – at least on the component side – was the World’s Smallest Fuel Cell. Being shown was a fuel cell to be held in the palm of one’s hand – 22mm X 56mm X 45mm. With an output of 1.2v with 100mw of power, it weighs 8.5g. A concept was shown of a necklace MP3 player. We asked about how the power density of this compared with batteries and there was no answer. Fuel cells do have promise but one of the major drawbacks is lifetime.

A microphone was shown that used MEMS illuminated by a laser to detect sound. The claim is made that this provides for a highly directional microphone. The integration requirements into a small useful package seemed considerable.

Toshiba announced Qosmio a line of AV based notebook computers. There are 3 models: G10, F10 and E10. Only the E10 is on sale now and the other two will go on sale on 10/22/2004 in Japan. These notebooks are new with the inclusion of:

New LCD displays that Toshiba claims are “Clear Super View”

The Qosmio Engine which is optimized for the display of video

The inclusion of a TV tuner which outputs in MPEG 2

Surround sound with the inclusion of Harmon Kardon speakers

A standard remote control for controlling the viewing experience on the notebook

InterVideo WinDVD for making DVDs

The G10 model can have 2X 80GB drives. Supported is Centrino and Bluetooth Version 1.2. 1394 is also included with support for iLink – which assumes it supports Sony CE products.

These are impressive computers. However, they are not something the ordinary traveler would want to carry – the G10 comes in at 9.7 lbs. We wonder if these are Japanese- only products. Yes, they are “converged” products which will work as a PC and a home CE product. For example, it can be used as a television. But what other markets will want a television display which is so small? With all the emphasis on large screen digital displays how many will accept a notebook as this?

Shown in the booth was an Xbox to illustrate how it can interface to other home products. It was described as Connect AV!

Finally - Following the small is beautiful mantra, we saw many portable media players. The Toshiba MTV-S10 is one example. It has a 3.5” display and is a little larger than the palm of one’s hand. The input medium is SD card.

Tyco Electronics – Touch Panels to Change the PC

Touch Panel Systems of Tyco was showing its All-in-One Touch PC. This is literally a PC integrated into the back of an LCD panel. It will run either Windows CE.NET or Windows XP Professional. The display is 1024 X 768. Supported are 4 X USB, a 20GB hard drive, and RJ-45 for Ethernet. There is a place for PS/2 connectors but the emphasis is on total touch screen interaction. The price is 200,000 JPY ($1,875) which is not unreasonable given the level of integration. The target market is vertical applications such as POS and Kiosk.

In Other Discussions...

OmniVision – More than meets the eye in the Sensor Market

In our Photokina report, we identified OmniVision as an imaging sensor company. OmniVision has image processing on the sensor chip die but these are only for the analog functions in the image chain. This is accomplished on the 1.3mp sensors, for example, but in the larger sensors this is off-die. Another chip has HDR (High Dynamic Range, which was just recently announced, which has a sensor with VGA resolution in both monochrome and color. This latter one is for automotive applications for rear view and occupant sensing. Camera chips up to 5.1mp are being made by OmniVision. All sensors are CMOS.

Over a two day period, the WAVE spoke with OmniVision reps and had an extended conversation with Steven Liao, Senior Project Manager.

The Web/PC cam business on an annual basis is at 5m units in the US and 3m in Europe. Yet, by far the fastest growing market is China. The volumes are vary between 600,000 and 800,000 units per month. At OmniVision, we have only a small role in this market, in spite of its size and potential. The reason is price. A finished web cam, VGA, is $10 FOB in China and we cannot make any money. CIF sensors are selling for only $1 and result in even cheaper finished goods. Both the back end processing chips and the sensor chips are being locally supplied in China at prices with which we just cannot compete.

The following question was posed – If one wants to do auto focus on your High Dynamic Range CameraChip, will you or your customer do this on your back end processing chip? Response: There is a problem. Most of the processing functions done today in the on chip processors are analog, such as white balance correction. Auto focus is digital correction that takes time because one has to sample the image and modify the conditions under which the picture is taken, i.e., change the lens focus and reexamine the image. Thus, this is best done at the module level and we are not a module supplier – we just make the sensors and the back end analog processing that can be placed on chip in the same die. Be careful about claims of the integration of analog, i.e., sensor, and digital processing on one die. This is very expensive to do. In fact, some companies claim to do this in one package are actually doing this in two pieces of silicon that are connected within the package but not on the same die.

1394 is Up and Down

The WAVE spoke with Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) Chairman Scott Smyers following his press conference. He confirmed that 1394 is not a part of the DLNA design guidelines. However, members of the 1394 Trade Association are pursuing the role of 1394 in TCP/IP transport.

The Japanese CE companies are still struggling with the integration of CE and PC technologies. For example, 5GHz transport has now been shown at CEATEC for 3 years and there are still no products. In response, this is a reflection that the Japanese companies still do not understand how to bring the PC technologies, including WiFi into products. As a result they are relying on chip companies to supply the technology and third parties to supply the software stack.

We asked in the booth - Why would TI participate in DLNA when this is clearly not supportive of 1394? There was no crisp answer. But the assessment is that many see the convergence of PC and CE as having big potential. No one wants to get left out on the prospect that this takes off. Yes, CE companies have resisted interoperability cooperation in the past but the impact of the economies of sale from standards, such as WiFi, are compelling. DLNA is about putting in place the ability make interoperability work. In the end, however, no one knows if this matters in the market or if consumers will buy it.

The WAVE then spoke with other companies on the floor.

JVC

Not interested in 1394.

Sharp

Our focus is on wireless and not 1394. We will use 1394 transport for media to devices.

Sanyo

No use of 1394 in home networking – only WiFi and Ethernet

Panasonic

For home networking we will use Ethernet but 1394 still has a role for media transport

Today, there are still two worlds. 1394 is used by CE companies for media transport. This is reflected in on-going standards effort at CEA for CEA-2027. The second world is in the DLNA Guidelines which are Ethernet based.

http://www.iseepet.jp

WAVE Comment

While the CEATEC booths look the same from past years, we picked up on the floor that these CE companies are undergoing wrenching changes. Japan has to face the same issues present in the US with global outsourcing, Taiwan with production migration to China and now much of the product capability from Japan to China. These are trying times as the notion of what is the core competency gets tested. This is not solved by erecting barriers to the movements but to rethink the business and force adaptation to the environment. Japan is being forced to do this in one of its strongest industries – CE. It will be interesting to see what CEATEC looks like 3 events from now. We have seen dramatic changes at Computex and now it is Japan’s turn.

http://www.ceatec.com/en/2004/visitors/