Smartphones detecting bad breath and radiation, twistable remote controls and a super-thin tablet computer were just some of the gadgets showcased at Asia’s biggest tech fair in Japan yesterday.
Around 600 firms unveiled their innovations at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CAETEC) technology exhibition in Chiba, near Tokyo, which is expected to draw 200,000 visitors during its five-day run, organizers said.
Japan’s Toshiba showcased what it calls “the world’s thinnest and lightest” tablet computer, equipped with a 10.1-inch display that is just 7.7mm thick and weighs 558g.
Photo: AFP
Electronics parts maker Murata Manufacturing unveiled devices using a newly developed transparent organic film that can deliver instructions via twisting motions or pressure.
One of the devices, a conceptual light-powered plate named Leaf Grip Remote Controller, has no buttons and instead operates by the user bending and twisting it.
Another application of the film is as a touch panel. The “touch pressure pad” responds to finger swipes in the left-right and up-down directions and can also sense how strongly it is pressed, unlike the conventional touch screen glass used on smartphones.
“Currently we give commands two-dimensionally on touch panels in smartphones and tablet computers, but this invention would give us another dimension — how hard they are pressed,” Murata spokesman Kazuhisa Mashita said.
“This could enable users to scroll screens slowly by touching the screen lightly and move images faster by pressing it harder,” he said ahead of the exhibition.
Japanese telecoms giant NTT DoCoMo will showcase a smartphone with changeable “jackets” that measure bad breath, body fat and even radiation levels, while Japanese microchip maker Rohm showcased what it called the world’s tiniest resistors, which are so small that 500,000 of them can be used in an hourglass instead of sand.
Among other high-profile Japanese companies, Hitachi will show off technology that enables the projection of holographic 3D images, instead of relying on special displays. The lifelike images can be viewed from all angles without the need to wear special glasses.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
RSS