NEC subsidiary NEC Avio has developed a thermometer [JP] that measures the user’s temperature without them having to touch the device. As the world’s first device of its kind, it captures your temperature via a built-in infrared sensor and integrates a desktop mirror (hence the name “Thermo Mirror”). → Read More
In June this year, NEC started showcasing an Android tablet called LifeTouch. Originally scheduled to go on sale in Japan in October, the device now has a new release date [JP]: “sometime this month” (you can see the final design on the picture). Unlike most other tablets, NEC now says they will market the LifeTouch exclusively to businesses (the initial plan was to offer it to individuals, too). → Read More
Japan’s biggest business daily, The Nikkei, is reporting that NEC has developed a technology that makes it possible to quickly change low-res analog video to HD video. According to NEC, the existing solutions out there require one full month to convert one hour of analog video images into HD images. → Read More
NEC is working on face recognition technology that helps detecting human faces even if they have aged substantially or gained weight over the years. In a benchmark test [PDF] conducted by the US Department of Homeland Security, the technology boasted 92% accuracy from a 1.6 million person criminal database, and 95% accuracy from a 1.8 million person database consisting of visa applicants. → Read More
We’ve shown you the LifeTouch [JP], NEC’s first stab at making a touchscreen tablet PC, on Monday, and now we got pointed to a video that shows the device in action. To recap, the LifeTouch is a seven-inch Android 2.1-based tablet running on an ARM Cortex A8 CPU (more info). → Read More
A number of Japanese companies, for example NTT, have announced or hinted at tablet PCs in the past months, but NEC is the first to actually name, spec and date its first model. Dubbed LifeTouch [JP], the NEC tablet will feature a 7-inch TFT LCD screen (800×480 resolution), weigh 400 grams, and run on Android 2.1. → Read More
And yet another 3D-related news item. This time, it’s NEC (or NEC Display Technologies, to be more exact), which today announced [JP] a new 3D-enabled DLP projector. The announcement comes not even one week after the company priced and spec’d their 3D-powered desktop PC. → Read More
Valuestar N VN790/BS – that’s the name of the 3D PC that NEC today announced [JP] for the Japanese market. The company’s faster than expected: just last month, NEC teased such a machine in Tokyo, saying it’s likely to ship by October 2010. But Japan will get the PC as early as next month. And it appears to be a pretty cool machine. → Read More
Software that helps to detect “illegal” video content on the web automatically isn’t really new, but NEC claims its technology has two selling points that sets it apart from similar solutions: speed and accuracy. The company says its system can identify pirated video material in a “matter of seconds”, with a detection rate of 96% and at a false alarm rate of just five in one million cases. → Read More
NEC has developed an eco-friendly cooling system for CPUs, claiming the technology [JP] uses uses 60% less energy than a water-cooling system and even 80% less than an air-cooling system. The core of the system is a liquid chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) substitute, which circulates around the CPU to draw away heat and has low greenhouse effects. → Read More
Just last week, we asked the question if the world needs yet another mobile operating system (Samsung’s Bada). Now it turns out Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier, NTT DoCoMo, apparently thinks the answer is yes. The telecom behemoth (55 million customers in Japan) today announced [press release in English] the development of a brand new “application platform for mobile phones”, which is planned… → Read More
Virtually every Japanese tech company has made some 3D-related announcement in the past months, but one remained suspiciously quiet in that area: NEC. We covered their (apparently very cool) glasses-free 3D 12.1-incher last year (it’s yet to be commercialized), and today NEC made some initial announcements about a 3D desktop PC that’s supposed to hit Japanese stores by year-end. → Read More
If you’ve ever got upset about not being able to view what your cell phone screen displays while you are outside your house, NEC’s new color-compensation chip is probably good news for you. The chip, which is specifically made for LCDs for mobile phones, helps to make them easier to view in bright outdoor settings. → Read More
NEC in Japan has announced [JP] a total of four new DLP data projectors today. The NP53J/NP54J/NP63J and NP64J are part of NEC’s so-called ViewLight projector series. All of the new models offer XGA resolution (1,024×768), a contrast ratio of 1,600:1 and rather weak 0.3W mono speakers. → Read More
As MobileCrunch reported back in August, three of Japan’s eight top cell phone makers, namely NEC, Casio and Hitachi are going to merge their cell phone businesses next year. Under the agreement, NEC plans to integrate its handset division into a tie-up that already existed between Hitachi and Casio starting April 2010 (the begin of the new fiscal year under the Japanese business calendar).
In… → Read More
As a huge conglomerate, NEC is active in a lot of areas. But unknown to many people outside Japan, the company is quite aggressive in the robotics field, too. Their PaPeRo, a cute helper robot, for example, has been around since 1997 already. And now, just in time for a robot exhibition that currently takes place in Tokyo, the company shows an updated version of the little guy. → Read More
NEC Electronics, an NEC subsidiary, has announced the development of a remote control [JP] that works without using batteries. Every time users push a button on the device, they generate a small amount of electricity through vibration. NEC says this is enough to turn on or off a TV (or any other electric appliance), switch channels or control the volume. → Read More
Not much info on this yet, but NEC is apparently preparing a mobile PC that’s reportedly as “capable as a personal computer” for business customers. The yet to be named device features three main buttons and a 7 to 8-inch LCD display (which appears to be a touch screen). Sorry, the small picture is all that’s available at this point. → Read More
The first rumors started spreading about two weeks ago, and it was officially announced yesterday: Major Japanese cell phone makers Hitachi, NEC and Casio are merging their mobile phone operations to become Japan’s No. 2 maker (following Sharp). The name of the new venture will be “NEC Casio Mobile Communications”. → Read More
NEC announced a total of seven “green” video projectors for the Japanese market on Friday [JP]. Each has different specs, but the one characteristic all devices have in common is the low level of energy consumption, which stands at just 0.6W in standby mode (down from 3W for the previous projector series from that company). → Read More
Big news from Japan’s mobile phone industry today (Friday afternoon Japanese time). Various Japanese media are reporting that NEC, Hitachi and Casio are in talks to merge their cell phone operations to become Japan’s second biggest manufacturer, following Sharp.
Reportedly, NEC plans to integrate its cell phone business into a tie-up that already exists between Hitachi and Casio. According to… → Read More
Japan, the world’s second largest economy with the third biggest Internet population, and the many, many early adopters of technology inhabiting this nation could be heaven for the domestic cell phone industry. And it was for years, until sales started slowing dangerously (minus 30% last fiscal year), and the overall population is poised to shrink and age dramatically in the future.
These two… → Read More
NEC has announced the development of an unmanned drone [JP] that can fly by itself to a specific location and send back positional information and video images. The company says it’s the first drone made for civilian applications that can transmit both kinds of data at the same time. → Read More
Some people like big cars, some like big guns, and some like big monitors. If you’re a big monitor person, this 43-inch curved LCD with a 32:10 aspect ratio from NEC is right up your alley. → Read More
NEC today announced that their renewed Earth Simulator System, Japan’s most famous supercomputer, now achieves a peak performance of 131 TFLOPS (131 trillion calculations per second. This is up from the 35 TFLOPS that made the same system the world’s fastet computer back in 2002. → Read More
Nec Japan today announced two netbooks [JP], the BL100 and the BL300/310/350, which are completely redesigned and come with Windows XP pre-installed. The new netbooks are part of the NEC LaVie series and are labeled “LaVie Light” because of the BL100 weighing just 1.07 kg and the BL300/310/350 models weighing 1.14kg or 1.32kg, depending on the model. → Read More
NEC has developed a shape-memory plastic that can be formed at room temperature . The plastic can be heated and cooled, remaining pliant for for several minutes during which it can be processed.
The usual problem with shape-memory plastics is differences in temperature. Shape-memory plastics that needs to be hardened at high temperatures may burn users, while those that need be kept at low… → Read More
Japan’s telecommunications giants NTT Docomo, KDDI au and SoftBank present new cell phones four times a year: spring, summer, fall and winter. All companies showcased their summer 2009 wares in the last few days, including some simply incredible devices.
The top 10 models across all carriers (chosen by yours truly) after the jump. → Read More
NEC has appeared to hit all the right notes with its VersaPro Ultralite VS netbook — high-resolution 1280×768 10.6-inch screen, 1.86GHz Atom Z540 CPU, just over an inch thick, and a seemingly-impossible weight of just a pound and a half. NEC unfortunately missed the “netbooks are supposed to be cheap” memo, as this little guy will be selling for over $1800. → Read More
We all will get faster USB devices very soon. NEC Electronics just announced the µPD720200 chip, which is the world’s first USB 3.0 host controller. → Read More
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