Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd (鴻海精密), the world’s biggest electronics manufacturing services provider, yesterday said it has sold a portion of its patent portfolio consisting of head-mounted display technology to Google Inc.
Hon Hai said in a statement its head-mounted display technology superimposes computer-generated images onto real-world scenes.
It did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.
The technology can be used in ground displays, engineering and scientific design applications, gaming and video devices as well as for training and simulation tools, the company said.
Hon Hai owns more than 5,000 patents.
The patent purchase is Google’s latest investment aimed at accelerating the development of Google Glass.
On July 22, Google signed an agreement with Tainan-based chipmaker Himax Technologies (奇景光電) to buy a 6.3 percent stake in its subsidiary, Himax Display Inc (立景光電), to help boost Himax Display’s chip capacity. The deal is expected to be completed this quarter.
Himax Display makes LCOS chips for head-mounted displays such as in Google Glass and in pico projectors.
Separately, Innolux Corp (群創光電), the nation’s top LCD panel maker, yesterday said it is developing new automotive displays, targeting the fast-growing demand primarily from luxury cars.
Innolux said its 10.25-inch cluster displays for cars uses low-temperature-polysilicon (LTP) technology and said the product has exceeded customer’s requirements.
Innolux also develops a full-color head-up display (HUD) that projects driving information directly into the driver’s line of sight, and halves the time it takes for eyes to shift focus from the road to the instruments and back, the company said.
The 1.8-inch HUD has passed qualification tests by some European customers and Innolux said it expected the product to have significant revenue contribution within two years.
Last year, Innoux shipped 9 million units of automotive displays, which counts BMW and Mercedez-Benz as its top clients.
Shen Ta-yi (沈大逸), a director at Innolux, said the company focuses on developing automotive displays as the market is growing by a double-digit percentage each year.
Innolux held a 16 percent share of global automotive display market last year, trailing behind Sharp Corp and Japan Displays Co, market researcher NPD DisplaySearch’s data showed.
In the first quarter of this year, the company shipped 3.28 million units, bringing its market share to 22.2 percent, surpassing Sharp’s 19.9 percent.
Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
CULPRITS: Factors that affected the slip included falling global crude oil prices, wait-and-see consumer attitudes due to US tariffs and a different Lunar New Year holiday schedule Taiwan’s retail sales ended a nine-year growth streak last year, slipping 0.2 percent from a year earlier as uncertainty over US tariff policies affected demand for durable goods, data released on Friday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed. Last year’s retail sales totaled NT$4.84 trillion (US$153.27 billion), down about NT$9.5 billion, or 0.2 percent, from 2024. Despite the decline, the figure was still the second-highest annual sales total on record. Ministry statistics department deputy head Chen Yu-fang (陳玉芳) said sales of cars, motorcycles and related products, which accounted for 17.4 percent of total retail rales last year, fell NT$68.1 billion, or
In the wake of strong global demand for AI applications, Taiwan’s export-oriented economy accelerated with the composite index of economic indicators flashing the first “red” light in December for one year, indicating the economy is in booming mode, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Moreover, the index of leading indicators, which gauges the potential state of the economy over the next six months, also moved higher in December amid growing optimism over the outlook, the NDC said. In December, the index of economic indicators rose one point from a month earlier to 38, at the lower end of the “red” light.
RSS