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NEC Plasma Screen Knows Too Much

GAP DisplayNext time you head to Japan, you may just see evidence of Big Brother. NEC has been working on a plasma display screen that houses a camera. It can identify a person’s age and sex for specific ads. You hold up your cellphone to the 50-inch display and a QR code with URL will send you additional product information. Since we think this is a little too much information for us, we would rather do our shopping in the privacy of our own computer. Yeah, like that’s safe.

Read More | Times of India

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Spy Cam Works on Flourescent Lighting

NEC Spy CamNEC has come up with a wireless spy cam which is powered by fluorescent light sockets. Based on technology developed last year, the camera utilizes the magnetic field of the 45 to100 kHz power source. It takes images every 10 seconds and supports VGA, QVGA, and QQVGA resolutions. Image transferral is by wireless Lan to PC. The cam will be making its debut at the 2007 iExpo in Japan this week or in an office or bank lobby that isn’t trusting near you.

Read More | Tech-on

Turn Your Cell Phone into a Translator

NEC TranslatorNEC recently brought their software that translates cell phone speaking from Japanese to English out to play. Although it has been in existence since the 80’s, apparently this is the first time they felt comfortable enough to display it in public. The 50,000 word dictionary was put into a DoCoMo phone. We understand that some of the bugs still have yet to be worked out since it still will not turn English into Japanese, but perhaps they will have that down over the next twenty years.

Read More | Akihabara News

Seven Phones Unveiled by NTT Docomo

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cell Phones, Corporate News

NTT Docomo Cell Phones

NTT Docomo has 7, count ‘em, 7 new phones on the horizon. They include Mitsubishi’s D905i slider with 3.1-inch TFT screen and 3.2 MPx with auto-focus in a choice of 5 colors, Fujitsu’s F905i with width motion and a Super-Fine IPS monitor of 3.2-inches, and a 3.2MPx cam with CMOS sensor in one of 4 colors, NEC’s N905i with EX LCD screen that rotates and comes in four colors, and NEC’s N905iµ with 3-inch EX LCD display also in 4 colors.
In addition, the company is offering Panasonic’s P905i with W Opening Style screen and 3-inch TFT liquid crystals, Sharp’s SH9051 with 3-inch ASV LCD screen and rotating system, as well as 3.2MPx CMOS sensor with blur correction and Dolby sound, and Sony Ericsson’s SO905i with jog dial, Sensitive Pad, Bravia tech and 3.2MPx sensor (CMOS) with auto-focus. Lots of choices and a ho-ho-ho from NTT.

Read More | Akihabara News

NeoFace Identifies The Bad Guys

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cameras, Misc. Tech, Science

NeoFace

NEC has created a GLVQ-based NeoFace biometric recognition system that can identify humans as they drive past borders. Combined with their electronic passport technology, after a camera scans a vehicle’s license plate, a combination of eye-zone extraction and facial recognition matches parts of the face. The cameras are being installed on 40 checkpoints on a new road which connects Hong Kong and Shenzhen, and will be upgraded to include 8 passengers by August.

At this point the NEC system can only make an ID on the driver, so the obvious thing to do here is if you are one of those who probably shouldn’t be traveling so publicly, you might want to hang in the back seat while watching another viewing of “The Falcon and the Snowman” on your portable DVD player.

Read More | Pink Tentacle

Winebot, Pass The Wine and Cheese

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Household, Misc. Tech, Science, Toys

winebotNEC and Mie University have teamed up in Japan to create the 2-foot Winebot, a cute little bugger that can not only discern good wine from bad, it can also name the brand and suggest a cheese.

“There are all kinds of robots out there doing many different things,“ said Hideo Shimazu, director of the NEC System Technology Research Laboratory and a joint-leader of the robot project. “But we decided to focus on wine because that seemed like a real challenge.“

Speaking in an underage voice, the robot names the brand and adds a comment to its taste. It can also be programmed to recognize wine that its owner prefers. Because of its ability to analyze the chemical composition of wine or food placed next to it, it could caution its owner about such health-related factors as fat or salt content.

Winebot doesn’t come cheap. “Buying one of these would cost about as much as a new car,“ Shimazu said. “We’d like to bring that down to 100,000 yen ($1,000) or less for the tasting sensor if we were to put it on the market.”

We figure that if you can afford the wine and cheese, you can afford the Winebot.

Read More | USA Today

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