Fresh & Hot from Japan, 12 to 16 September 2016

Please enjoy fresh & hot news from Japan with comments by Europe-Japan Dynamics.

12 Sep. Table tennis robot, FORPHEUS by Omron, recorded in Guinness Book as the first robot table tennis tutor

Omron announced that the table tennis robot developed by the company, FORPHEUS, was included in Guinness world record 2017 as “the first table tennis coach robot”.

Comments: It is an excellent use of Japanese traditional competence in building things with precision.

omron-table-tennis-robot

13 Sep. Renesas to acquire Intersil  (US), enforcing semiconductors for automobiles

A semiconductor major, Renesas Electronics Corp. (Tokyo, Japan) announced that the company would acquire a US semiconductor vendor, Intersil Corporation (California, the US), to create a subsidiary. The purchase price is approximately 321,900 million yen. The acquisition will be complete by the end of June, 2017, after approval of the regulatory authorities of the countries concerned.  At a press conference, the President and CEO of Renesas, Mr. Bunsei KURE said, “We wish to increase sales and profit by combining the strength of Intersil and Renesas together”.

Comments: Semiconductor vendors are moving fast to become solution providers, along with rapid increase of ICT use in automobiles and IoT.

14 Sep. Banking transaction just by showing your palm, Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank to start a new ID checking system for the first tome in Japan

Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank (Ogaki-shi, Gifu) is starting from the next spring a new ATM system, that will check ID by reading a palm of the user to allow almost all the services, including cash withdrawal. The system will be available in all the branches. Customer will not need name stamps, bankbooks or bank cards any more. According to the bank, this service is the first in Japan.

Comments: The banks have taken lessons from Tsunami, earthquake, etc. that there are situations in which customers cannot bring stamps or bank cards, even though they desperately need money.

15 Sep. VR in spotlight, new game machines and softwares, Tokyo Game Show 

A global scale game exhibition, Tokyo Game Show (organised by the Association of Computer Entertainment) began at Makuhari Messe in Chiba city  on 15th. Virtual reality (VR, virtual reality) is the star of the event this year.  It is expected that 230,000 people will visit the show during four days from 15 to 28 September.

Comments: Tokyo is the center of computer games, drawn upon anime tradition!

16 Sep. Comfortable nodding by robots, Yamaha developed a new talking technology

A major vendor of musical instruments, Yamaha (Hamamatsu-shi) developed a technique to make a robot comfortably nod “making agreeable responses”. The robot analyzes volume human voice, speed, pause, etc. of human voice, and adjust timing to respond. The technology allows the robot to respond as if it has understood the feeling of a speaker (human being) and is expected to be allied to  toys or car navigation systems.

Comments: This may be another step forward to human-like robots.

  • All the news items are picked up from “Asahi Digital”, and summarized and translated by Europe-Japan Dynamics. The articles are not an official translation by the Asahi Newspaper.

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