Microsoft announced the finalists of Microsoft Innovation Award 2009 last week, and there were a judging committee for the award at the company’s annual conference for system engineers in Yokohama, Tech-ED Japan 2009[J].

Microsoft assists the finalists in marketing, engineering and international business development.   In 2007, tech start-up known as web browser developer Lunascape won the best award with Afterglow (it gives users the ability to draw on top of a presentation using a laser pointer with only one extra camera), and in 2008 healthcare software developer Gsport [J] won it with Yugamiiru[J] (it measures how crooked your posture is).

Five companies were chosen as the finalists this year, and each of them had a five-minute presentation.

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- Sokkly by Little Island (Saitama Pref.)

Sokkly is an interactive stuffed robot having feature of voice recognition to accept its owner’s commands and speech synthesis assembling words from a library from pre-recorded voices.

Video: Sokkly was introduced on BBC’s comedy program Graham Norton Show (English).

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- Real Narrators by Sky Fish (Tochigi Pref.)

This software is a text-to-speech add-on for PowerPoint presentation, and it reads your presentation file with the speech synthesized voice you like.

Demonstration Video: Real Narrators reads the company profile of Sky Fish (English/Chinese).

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- Link Knowledge by San San[J]

We covered this company a number of times here on Asiajin.   See these articles.

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- Trust Delete by One Be[J]

One Be is a Tokyo-based tech start-up and was founded by three persons who previously worked with Trend Micro, a computer virus vaccine software company.   Trust Delete is a management solution enabling remote data/file removals for security reason, and it allows you to remove data/files stored on PCs that have been accidentally stolen or lost.

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- Wall Through by Magic Tube[J]

Magic Tube is a Nagoya-based tech start-up.   The company developed an augmented reality(AR) solution allowing you to see a remote landscape in a window-resembled LCD as though if the landscape image were located behind the wall on which the LCD is.   In correspondence to your viewpoint, the shooting angle of the image on the LCD will be changed by tracking the motion of what you’re looking at, as if you were standing at the remote landscape.

Demonstration Video (quoted from Impress PC Watch):

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Based on the committee’s judgement as well as votes by the event participants and the event website visitors, the best award is scheduled to be fixed in December.

Tags: Event Report, Japan by Masaru IKEDA
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Today at Roppongi Hills, a skyscraper located in the heart of Tokyo, CNET Japan[J] held an annual tech conference called CJIC 2009 (CNET Japan Innovation Conference) where two tech-startups, Panasonic and Sony presented their new services and products to more than 350 attendees.

As the first presenter of the conference, Atsuki Ishida[J], CEO of FreeBit, a Shibuya-based venture company known for providing its network platform to many VNO/ISPs (virtual network operator/Internet service providers), introduced ServersMan which is their iPhone/iPod app recently upgraded to ver. 3.0b.   (See these articles for more details about the app.)    Its Android app is now under development.

qik Video: Atsuki Ishida’s Presentation (in Japanese)

Compared to the specification of typical web servers which were being used a decade ago, iPhone has a sufficient CPU power and network bandwidth to work as a web server.   Besides, iPhone adopts Linux as an operating system.   Mr. Ishida convicted of the potentiality of iPhone as a web server.   If iPhone can be used as a server, a mount rack storing several servers would be changed as follows (five layers of iPhone devices).   It requires less electricity consumption, less waste heat and less space than a typical rack-mount server – which mean it’s totally ecological.

FreeBit’s basic concept in this developing project is to “server-ize” all things surrounding us.   Since ServersMan uses IPv6 address method for assigning addresses to devices, possible emerging needs of assigning many addresses will not cause the lack of IP address.

Takuma Iwasa[J], CEO of Cerevo[J], an Akihabara-based start-up and tech home appliance developer, unveiled their new concept digital camera which will be on sale in several months.   After shooting a number of pictures with the camera, you don’t have to get it out from your bag for uploading pictures and sharing them with your friends.   When you come back home, that camera will automatically detect WiFi signal at your home and upload recent pictures to Cerevo’s photo management website, Flickr and other social web services.

qik Video: Takuma Iwasa’s Presentation (in Japanese)

In order to prevent you from having an accident that you cannot use the camera because of dead battery, you’ll be alerted by a cellphone e-mail when the camera’s battery remaining breaks 10% of its capacity and encourage you to recharge it.

Today he unveiled the camera would have a USB port to accept 3G mobile data modem, which allows you to upload your pictures you take not only within WiFi coverage area but also in the most of populated area of the world.   The camera is now under manufacturing at a factory in Mainland China, and it will be available in several months at Cerevo’s e-commerce shop, branches at Rakuten and Amazon Japan.   Expecting retail price will be JPY20,000 (USD210) approximately.

See Also:

• Nikkei BP interviewed Cerevo’s Iwasa: Japanese Venture Aims to ‘Reinvent’ Digital Camera

Panasonic and Sony also showed us some examples of connecting their new model TVs and DVD players with useful web services.

Tags: Event Report, Japan by Masaru IKEDA
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On Thursday, Sharp introduced a brand new pocket-sized netPC terminal named “NetWalker[J]“, which is expected to go on sale in late September for USD460 each (estimated street price).   It has ten hour battery lifetime, Freescale Semiconductor‘s multimedia application processor as a CPU,  a 512MB memory and a 4GB flash memory.  The terminal’s 409 gram (14.4oz) light body is very easy to be kept in the breast pocket of your jacket, and you need just wait three seconds to wake it up from the sleep mode.  Sharp expects it to be used for blogging, e-mail check-up and document make-up outside office or home.

Photo courtesy: Sharp Corporation

A touch-enabled screen LCD of the terminal is so small as five inches, however it has a full keyboard and an optical point allowing you to scroll and enlarge the screen by finger scratches.   Microsoft Office, FireFox and Thunderbird are installed as defaults, and e-book and e-dictionary app are planning to be added as the options.   The terminal runs on Linux/Ubuntu 9.09 (ARM edition smartbook remix, Sharp customized edition), and has a WiFi network interface.

Sharp expects 100,000 lots in sales by the end of FY2009 (ends in March 2010).

See Also:

• Sharp holds a press conference and introduce NetWalker[J]

Tags: Company, Japan, News by Masaru IKEDA
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Mixi [J] (Asiajin articles), the biggest social network service in Japan, starts their OpenSocial compliant application platform Mixi Appli officially opened to every Mixi user on PC. Mixi Appli Mobile is planned to follow next month.

Mixi announced its OpenSocial platform last year and has been running closed beta test with third party developers for months.

From the first day, over 130 applications are published by individuals and companies including Rockyou Asia, who must already know well how to succeed on OpenSocial platform by huge success on Facebook App, Walt-Disney Japan, Konami, Sony, Nike Japan, Nikon, Japan Tobacco, Honda, Yahoo! Japan, Recruit, etc.

During the closed beta, they provided another domain for developers, and it was unknown how much Mixi pushes applications to regular users in the official release.

The following is the new top page screenshot provided by Mixi PR,

On it, Mixi Appli update box is located just after the My-Mixi(friends)’ diary box, followed by community updates box and My-Mixi photo/book/music/etc. updates box. At the bottom of the centre column, user-enabling Mixi Appli-s are displayed.

Each box can be moved up and down by user, and on my own account, Mixi Appli notification box is placed after other three, diary, community and activity update boxes. I think I did not customize any, so this 4th position is the current Mixi Appli’s default position (don’t tell me to take another account for check, because another account registration requires me to purchase another cellphone), which I think not so greatly promoted, but understandable as most of Mixi users are not tech-oriented so it is still unknown if many of them will jump on this Application bandwagon.

The other symbolic change is that Mixi removes “Beta Version” label from its logo, which they did not take away even when they IPO-ed so thought as a symbolic “perpetual beta“. Although it is not on their release, some media report that Mixi states they are not beta any more and got advanced to the next level with this Mixi Appli launch.

(Former logo)

(New logo)

See Also:

Mixi’s Press Release [J]

Some of first Mixi Appli applications and providers [pdf, J]

Tags: Japan, News by Akky Akimoto
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One of Japan’s most popular video sharing Nico Nico Douga‘s driving force in its early stage, Miku Hatsune, a virtual girl character attached to a PC application Vocaloid performed her first “live” concert in front of an audience of 25,000 people at an anime event in Saitama prefecture, Japan.

(Someone’s upload this on Youtube, the original seems to be from NicoNico Douga because it has distinctive flowing comments overlayed)

She “played” two of her popular songs with her band, which is real.

Vocaloid is an application to let computer sing (voice synthesis) on melody you set. Miku Hatsune is its one version with a female voice actor, and known by used on a lot of music/video mash-up on Nico Nico Douga movies. Users can “train” how it (or she?) sings so each Miku Hatsune could sing differently.

I am now totally confused what “live” is, but another recent feverish music phenomenon, a girls techno unit Perfume was well known by their lip-syncing live, which no one minded.

Japan has a long history of virtual idol started by Kyoko Date since 1996. 13 years after her finally one can create a sensation with a big stadium full of people.

We recently covered another Miku Hatsune news around a parody song she (actually the software) sings.

(proofread by Sean O’Hagan)

See Also:

Asahi.com tries to explain Miku Hatsune boom on YouTube – you may turn on English subtitle on YouTube

Miku Hatsune and Techno Design Exhibition 8/26 – 9/17 at Shibuya Parco [J]

Another concert by Nico Nico Douga is to go on 8/31 at Tokyo Waterfront [J] – incidentally the last day of the Odaiba Gundam Statue

Tags: Japan, Trend by Akky Akimoto
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