Last month, I went to Japan to see how they use technology in the elementary school.

In the class I visited I saw students using iPod-touch to study geography.

Before the starting of the class, students finished their assigned homework : to ”single out one country that you would like to visit in the future”.

At the beginning of the class, the teacher invited the student to share their homework.

Then teacher asked,

“Who knows what is the smallest country in the world?”

Nobody raised his hand.

“OK. Let’s check it out!”

The students started to use their iPod-touch to search for the smallest country and shared what they found with their classmates.

In this class, the iPod-touch is not just a music player or an entertainment device but also a pocket search tool for learning purpose.

In Tokyo Game show 2009, Japanese researchers(Tachi Laboratory of Keio University Graduate School of Media Design and Kawakami Laboratory of the Graduate School of Information Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo) presented 3 innovatiove devices, Pen de Touch, Gravity Grabber and Twinkle.

The interesting thing is the Gravity Grabber.Reseachers adds virtual sense of touch on Augmented Reality technology.

[source: http://tachilab.org]

Gravity Grabber is a device that is cattached to a fingertip. If users move or hold an obbject on display (AR based), they can feel weight and shearing force by tightening and loosening a belt.

2 demo vedios of Gravity Grabber:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVNbe2GdG_c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRWKGRyfRrk

Other info about Pen de Touch and Twinkle.

A Japan carrier KDDI developed a different Augmented Reality (AR), 6-Axis Real Space X-ray (sorry, the website is in Japanese…).

The core technology of 6-Axis Real Space X-ray is not image recognition. Specific mobile phone with 6-axis sensors (3 acceleration and 3 geomagnetic) and GPS are used for the different AR. With the specific mobile phones, users can acquire information to detect orientation (direction and tilt) immediately.

Another feature, KDDI’s 6-Axis Real Space X-ray application can cut out the clutter with a simple and show information in virtually. It does not only show the things in front of you, but also let users virtually “see through” their mobile phone’s screen. When users tilt the phone, from vertical to horizontal, the display incrementally zooms out from the map to display locations that are farther away. KDDI relies on the contribution of end users to make the app more worthwhile.

[DEMO Vedio]

[KDDI concept]

It’s my pleasure to introduce a new consumer-electronics from my country TAIWAN.

Taiwan‘s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) has developed a paper-thin and bendable speaker “fleXpeaker” which won The Wall Street Journal 2009 Technology Innovation Awards.

ITRI has successfully developed a PRINTING method to create a speaker to look and act just like a piece of paper but maintain the quality of traditional speakers. The thickness can be less than 0.1cm. Because of its light weight and low power consumption; fleXpeaker can be used everywhere.

So far, fleXpeaker requires a special adaptor to plug a music player into the speaker, but ITRI are creating a way for an MP3 player to just clip on to the poster and a wireless solution is also in development. ITRI hope that they can get their speakers inside movie posters, and also see them as a great solution for installing inside LCD displays. ITRI are aiming to lower the cost of production, A2 will be around $20.

Reducing the weight of multiple speakers is a big advantage. In imaging market, maybe we can use this technology to create a different type of photos.

MIT developed a new encoding solution which is called “Bokode” to provide visual information. 

Bokode is a 3mm-diameter tag and encodes data in the angular dimension. Currently Bokodes consist of an LED, covered with a tiny mask and a lens. Information is encoded in the light shining through the mask, which varies in brightness depending on which angle it is seen from.

Comparing to barcode or QR code, Bokode are smaller, can be read from different angles and can be interrogated from far away by a standard mobile phone camera. In addition, this code system is readable from a large distance. So far, barcode can be read from a distance of up to 4m.

The prototype devices produced at the Media Lab currently cost about $5 each. In the future, the cost could easily drop to 5 cents once they are produced even in volumes of a few hundred units.

I think Bokode has several advantages.

For company, they can save cost on printing DM, sending catalog to their customers. Just give them a Bokode as a simple website link. Or maybe the Bokode can be an identify tool. Such as a copyright laser sticker on Disney goods.

For users, they don’t have to carry hot copies. I can image, when I go traveling, I just keep my e-flight ticket , train time table, hotel booking information in several Bokodes on a small post-it and use camera(with wifi will be perfect) to read information. In stead of bringing guide book, a lot of A4 papers. 

Source: MIT

Fuji Film is really putting a focus on 3D image consumer market. After launched 3D camera” FinePix REAL 3D W1”, they released 3D photo frame called” FinePix REAL 3D V1.”It allows people to view 3D images without wearing glasses.

Users can view both 2D and 3D image with 800×600 dot (3D: 400 × 600 × 2channel) on an 8-inch touch screen. Also, FinePix REAL 3D V1 can show 72 images (maxim) as an index.

USB cable, Media slots (xD / SD / SDHC memory card) and IR communication are available to connect with other device such as camera or PC.

In Japan, the frame price is around €350.

see more demo photos on Youtube.

I think it’s just a beginning of 3D consumer market. Technology will provide a sustainable market demand for 3D service and device.

source: Fuji Film

 Few days ago Giuseppe shared the Sony auto-everything solution” Party-shot”. 

 GigaPan also has a similar device “GigaPan Epic 100 Arm” which can automate the process of large scale digital photography.

This system can automatically tilt and pan your camera, snapping all necessary shots with a tiny arm that pushes down your shutter button. The biggest difference between GigaPan and Party-shot is that GigaPan can create giga pixel panoramas.

 GigaPan has put their famed Epic giga pixel photo system on steroids, so the Epic 100 manhandles pro point-and-shoots and small DSLRs to organize big size photos from a bunch of stitched together shots.

So far GigaPan can support Canon, Casio, Fuji Film, Kodak, Leica, Minolta, Nikon, Olympus, Panasonic, Ricoh, Samsung and Sony cameras.

Microsoft’s Wii-killing, motion-sensing Xbox 360 add-on set to debut at E3. The new Xbox 360 motion sensing system is based on the ZCam 3D camera, made by a company that was later purchased by Microsoft.

ZCam is completely different from the EyeToy or any other normal 2D webcam. Zcam 3D tech is capable of tracking both big movements and tiny gestures. It has sensors that are able to measure the depth for each of the captured pixels using a principle called Time-Of-Flight and detects 3D motion and volume down to 0.4 inches, capturing at the same time full color, 1.3 mega pixel video at 60 frames per second.

Furthermore it can capture video with depth information and recognize individual finger movement and of the video and track player body movement. Players themselves don’t have to hold any gloves or any other external device.

Source:http://www.3dvsystems.com/technology/tech.html

Yesterday, Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) announced the development of an interesting device called “gCubik+i”.

 gCubik+i is a ten-centimeter cube that can show three-dimensional images. The prototype design does not require special glasses to view the image. gCubik+i is composed by 6 interactive 3D LCD touch screens that fits in the palm of your hand. A wireless version is in the works as well.

Unlike conventional 3D displays, which are viewed only from the front, the gCubik+i can be seen from 6 sides, giving different images from various angles. For example, student can use illustrated reference book and “gCubik+i” to observe the movement of fish from different sides.

Source: http://www2.nict.go.jp/pub/whatsnew/press/h21/090730/090730.html#zu01

OnOne software has developed a new application called the DSLR Remote. This app is designed for iPhone which allows photographers using a supported DSLR(Canon and Nikon DSLRs are available so far) connected to a Wi-Fi-enabled computer to remotely control the settings of the camera, fire the shutter, review images, and even get a live viewfinder preview.

You can control settings form your iPhone or iPod touch. If you have a camera that supports Live View you can even get a live stream of the camera’s viewfinder on your iPhone. 

Here is a video that show you how this app works.

For me, these settings are a little complicate.

However, I can image that one day iPhone can remote everything in our lives.