Every year, in November, Fujitsu holds a major Forum event in Munich. We’ve attended for most of the recent years, although we missed it last time. This year’s event was, as usual, busy and the two year break showed even more of a move towards big data, security and the IoT as well as consulting services and less emphasis on our area of interest, client devices. In fact, few of the breakout sessions were interesting to us, so we concentrated on the demo area. This had fewer new technology demos this time, we thought, but there were still some topics of interest.
We don’t cover servers, as they have only marginal interest to the world of displays, but I was intrigued to see the liquid cooled server being demonstrated. A (fairly) standard server had the fans removed and was immersed in a bath of a special liquid that is inert and will not conduct electricity, so the whole system becomes liquid cooled! The liquid was colourless, so looked like water, but clearly was not! The technology allows for better cooling than using air.
The Fujitsu liquid-cooled server is a box full of liquid, although as it is colorless, it is not really visible in this picture! Image:Meko
We also saw the A/R headset that we last reported on from MWC in February. The headset has not developed since then, but, as always, the software has moved on. In particular, the software now allows video from one user to be streamed to another, allowing one operator to enable another to look through the first operator’s camera.
Fujtsu’s AR headset hardware has not changed this year. Image:Meko Fujitsu has a location system, accurate to 30cm, that allows users to carry tags and be accurately tagged. This is helpful in geo-fencing and tracking operators. With the right wearable device, it is also able to track vital signs such as heart rate, heat and workload. This means that users can be monitored to ensure that they do not exceed safe working limits, as well as providing alerts or an audit trail if the limits are exceeded. Bluetooth Low Energy is used for tracking (presumably, the user has a beacon as Fujitsu has developed beacon technology). Fujitsu has also worked to integrate with “ServiceNow” technology for maintenance management.
Fujitsu used BLE technology to locate individuals to within 30cm in the Forum demo area. Image:Meko
