A panel of high-tech experts gave their nod to the most innovative technologies appearing at this year’s CEATEC Japan 2007 expo. After viewing hundreds of technologies, services and products debuting at the conference, the panel 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. The panel included industry experts from CNET Networks, Popular Science, Envisioneering Group, Switched.com, and The Auri Group. Of the twelve winning technologies, and one honorable mention, eight were in the display category, and are summarized here, along with our own comments.

Aldo Cugnini
Analyst

Field Emission Technologies’ nano-Spindt Field Emission Display (FED) is a 20-inch prototype high definition display that draws as little as five watts in dark scenes, and less than most LCD screens in the brightest scenes. In addition to energy efficiency, the slim display features CRT-like color phosphors, and renders 240 frames per second - possibly the fastest flat panel speed of any video display type. The company is a spin-off of Sony. [With FED and SED riding a bumpy development road, the promise of this level of performance could supply a much-needed product realization goal, but cost effective commercialization remains the key hurdle to overcome.]

Pioneer’s Image Recognition Car Navigation System prototype integrates several technologies that can make driving safe and easy. The system combines traditional GPS navigation with a camera and advanced image recognition software that analyzes the road ahead. The image recognition system even scans the horizon, decides how unique the scenery is, and proposes more interesting alternative routes when it can. [Let’s hope, however, that the system doesn’t provide yet another distraction to the driver.]

NTT DoCoMo’s Wellness Phone continues the trend to put as much functionality as possible into a mobile phone. The product takes readily-available health-related sensors and common software applications and integrates them into an all-in-one concept phone. The combination cell phone, heart rate monitor, burned calorie counter, body fat calculator and breath analyzer, measures and sends that information to a server so that consumers can easily monitor changes and share them with health professionals. [With the increasing challenge of high-quality individual health care, a device like this could have real benefits for early detection of serious health conditions. Price and size, of course, will weigh heavily on practicality.]

Nissan’s Safety and Environmental Technologies provided demos of the "Around View Monitor" and "Distance Control Assist." In addition to known backup and parking assistance applications, 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. [Again, we hope these aids are not disruptive to the driver.]

JVC’s LED Backlight LCD Television uses a light-emitting diode backlight, which is mercury-free (unlike the CCFL backlights in most panels) and energy efficient. The unit uses local dimming technology, individually modulating 128 clusters of LEDs to achieve a contrast ratio estimated at 100,000 to one. Instead of the white LEDs used in other high-contrast panels, JVC uses clusters or red, green, and blue devices that expand the color gamut to 116% of the NTSC color standard. It is said that JVC is the first to bring together these high-contrast and high-color technologies. [The question, of course, is at what price.]

Sharp Electronics’ System LCD Module with Embedded Optical Sensors may be looking to compete with Apple’s iPhone by using a touch screen that controls a phone or other device with the swipe of a finger. Consumers can shrink the size of images, blow them up, and scroll left to right or up and down with the screens. The Sharp innovation also allows the use of three fingers or more for even more functionality. [The challenge will be to increase this usefulness without the need for the equivalent of piano-playing dexterity.]

Hitachi’s DZ-BD7H and DZ-BD70A Blu-Ray Camcorders bring together the latest technologies, promising to make home-video production easier than ever. While many high-definition camcorders are available in the U.S., most are tied to media such as magnetic tape and mini-DVDs. Hitachi says that it now has the world’s first camcorders featuring Blu-ray disc drives. With built-in editing tools, the units remove the need to transfer videos to a computer to process the video. Also, by using a new, lower-power image sensor and an energy-efficient drive, a battery lifetime of 80 minutes is achieved. The inclusion of a hard drive in the DZ-BD7H enables the user to burn hand-out copies on either Blu-ray or standard DVD discs. [To be proven, however, is the convenience of editing on a small physical platform with limited controls.]

Panasonic’s and Toshiba’s High Definition DVD Recorder prototypes with internal HDDs will enable HD program archiving to affordable red laser DVD media, the format just recently approved by the DVD Forum. The blue and red laser HD recorders use powerful, energy-efficient real-time transcoding chips to transform MPEG-2 streams into one-third to one-half smaller H.264 (MPEG-4/AVC) files. 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. [MPEG-2 streams can be stripped from a terrestrial broadcast by the right hardware, up until now available only for PCs. Now what we need is a way to access the streams from stand-alone devices, as well as the protected satellite and cable environment.]

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