New Tech for TVs
Better than HDTV, speaker-in-a-screen, and advances in storage make winter debuts.Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Martyn Williams is Tokyo bureau chief for the IDG News Service, a consortium of IDG publications.
The New Year holidays are a quiet time in Japan, when few new products surface. However, electronics companies are still developing devices that will debut in the weeks and months to come, and gadget lovers can look forward to some innovations.
At the top of the list for cool new toys of 2005 is a digital video processor from Sony that improves on HDTV. Other innovations to watch for include IO Data's custom USB storage device, DoCoMo's cell phone with a combo speaker/screen, a revamped Ricoh digicam, and--also from Sony--a megascreen "Dream Theater."
Sony Qualia 001
You can't get better than HDTV, right? Think again! The Qualia 001 Creation Box is a little larger than a VCR and packs one of Sony's latest digital video controllers. The chip can produce a high-definition image from a standard-definition source, improving on the quality of any conventional video source as well as the appearance of high-definition images.
The chip operates by applying a processing algorithm that sharpens the edges of objects in an image. It also supports 3X zoom, and it adjusts picture quality as the zoom gets tighter on the image.
Sony recently demonstrated the Qualia 001, the latest in its high-end Qualia line. The processed video is noticeably sharper and has more resolution than the unprocessed. The largest difference, to my eye, was in a standard-definition image displayed on a three-year-old Sony plasma display. The unprocessed image appeared a little soft; the processed image, which was stepped up to high definition, was much sharper and altogether better.
Differences, especially in fine detail such as the leaves of distant trees in a landscape shot, are also apparent on some CRTs, as well as on LCD and plasma televisions being fed high-definition video.
Sony's target customers are anyone who wants to improve a television picture, be they home-theater enthusiasts with the latest high-definition audio-visual setup or those who bought televisions a few years ago and have missed out on recent advances in image processing or HDTV. However, the Qualia 001 doesn't come cheap. The device is scheduled to go on sale in Japan on January 29 with a price tag of $5080. Sony does not plan to sell it overseas.
NTT DoCoMo N506iS
NEC has been working on flat-panel speakers for some time and is now implementing a tiny one in its newest cell phone for NTT DoCoMo.
The display in the N506iS doubles as the phone's speaker. Users can hear sounds by placing an ear against the screen. The screen on the phone swivels 180 degrees to reveal the keypad underneath. Several features have been added to make the phone easy to use, including the ability to use any number key as the shutter for the built-in camera.
The phone is compatible with DoCoMo's PDC-based network in Japan, so it won't be available elsewhere.
IO Data Stamp USB Memory
Anyone who has lived or worked in Japan will tell you that personal stamps--traditionally made from ivory but more often wood or rubber these days--are more important for marking most official documents than even a signature.
New from IO Data Device is a personal seal that incorporates a 32MB USB memory key, the ED-NAME32. You can store anything the device's memory, but since personal seals are already closely guarded, it could be especially useful for personal data, an electronic version of the seal, or anything else the user wants to keep secure.
The ED-NAME32 goes on sale in Japan in mid-January and will cost $29; IO Data has announced no plans for overseas sales.
Sony Cineman Screen
The 2005 World Exposition in Aichi, Japan isn't scheduled to open until May, but some companies are already announcing details of some of the technology they hope to show.
From Sony will come a movie theater that promises to impress. The screen will measure a massive 33 by 165 feet and show images projected by an advanced system based on lasers. Images will have a 6-million-pixel resolution.
Visitors to the Expo, which will run for six months beginning on March 25, will be able to see regular shows in the "Laser Dream Theater."
Ricoh Caplio R1V
Ricoh has updated a digital camera it first announced last August.
The Caplio R1V now sports a 5-megapixel image sensor. It still offers the same thin, 1-inch profile, but Ricoh has squeezed in a 4.8X optical zoom that runs from 28 to 135 millimeters.
The camera is scheduled for release in Japan on January 21 and will be priced around $420; it is expected to become available in the U.S. in February.
IO Data Network Hard Disk
The digital video age has meant ever-greater storage requirements for even average computer users. IO Data Device's new Landisk 500GB storage device will sit on a home network and supply shared storage for all users.
The device contains two hard drives and provides a storage capacity of 500GB. It can interlink with IO Data's Link Player video player, so users can access multimedia stored on the disks and play it through their televisions, and even connect with a USB printer to draw on network printing.
The Landisk 500GB will go on sale in Japan in late January priced at $520. IO Data has not disclosed plans for overseas sales, but already sells a lower-capacity version in the U.S.
R&D Corner: Triple Format Optical Drive
The research and development labs at NEC and Sanyo Electric produced in December a new optical disc drive.
The prototype drive supports the HD-DVD format and is also compatible with CD and DVD formats--which is a first, company representatives say. Until now, engineers had managed to squeeze together the components to assure support for the new high-definition DVD format and current DVD format, but CD was missing. That's included in this spec, and the companies are now working to make the drive even smaller in size (not capacity, of course). They hope it will be ready for sale sometime in the second half of this year.