First the dish washing robot, then an assist cart robot: It was a big day for Panasonic’s robot division. This cart robo, a one-seater, is specifically designed for use in hospitals and nursing homes where it’s supposed to move medical equipment and things like wheelchairs.
We have reported about a number of household robots from Japan in the past. Those machines covered areas like preparing sushi or pancakes, cleaning the house or the toilet. Last December, we reported about a kitchen robot that’s able to do your dishes without breaking them. And today, Panasonic showcased an updated version of that very robot in Tokyo.
Japan is the world’s second biggest nation in terms of patent application filing, but which company is leading the race in the country that’s home to world class tech firms like Sony, Toshiba and Thanko? Tokyo-based Patent Result thinks it has the answer: According to them [JP], the quality and quantity of Panasonic’s patents (filed in the past fiscal year) is unparalleled in this country.
Panasonic has on display at CEATEC a “1.5 kWh battery module [made] from 18650-type (18 mm in diameter x 65 mm in length) lithium-ion battery cells, which are widely used in laptop computers, to provide energy storage solutions for a wide range of environmentally friendly energy technologies.” String a couple of these suckers together to store the juice collected from the solar panels on your house, for example. Read More
The so-called Fukitorimushi (”wipe-up bug” in Japanese), a cleaning robot of a very special kind, has been around for quite a while now. But what was showcased recently during a tech exhibition in Tokyo was the newest version. And the thing is still creepy as hell.
Kids, do you remember those big, clunky things in the living room we older people called tube TVs? They are dying off. One of the world’s biggest TV manufacturers, Panasonic, announced yesterday [JP] it will stop producing those TVs after 55 years.
Japan’s biggest business publication, the Nikkei, is reporting that Panasonic is thinking about using lithium ion batterries used in notebooks to power electric cars. Obviously, the big idea is to bring down the overall costs of these vehicles (and make some money for the company, too).
Panasonic’s Let’s Note (aka Toughbook) series is the favorite choice among many Japanese hackers. And today the company announced [JP] two new notebooks from the series with Windows 7 on board. Panasonic says their 16 hours of battery life is unmatched in the industry.
Panasonic has been toying with the idea of bringing 3D TVs to our homes for quite a while now, and today the company announced they will be showcasing a 50-inch full HD plasma TV [press release in English] that’s capable of producing high-quality 3D pictures. End consumers will have the chance to test the TV out during next week’s CEATEC 2009.
The official trailer for Avatar, James Cameron’s new (and supposedly groundbreaking) Sci-Fi movie, came out just last month, and now Panasonic is showing a TV spot promoting their Viera TVs and the movie on Japanese television. The commercial, which is currently in heavy rotation on TV over here, shows some very brief new scenes from Avatar (which is due out in both the US and Japan on December 18).
Panasonic has developed a new face recognition system that’s pretty impressive. Their technology not only makes it possible to detect (and clearly display) faces in dark or overly bright settings but also if the person in question is behind glass and the face is covered with reflections.
What will they think of next?
Panasonic has developed a Transformer-like electronic bed that converts to a wheelchair while the person is in it.
Panasonic Japan announced a total of three new Blu-ray-based set-top boxes today [JP], the first devices in the industry featuring a digital CATV tuner. All of the models (TZ-BDW900M/pictured, TZ-BDW900F and TZ-BDW900P) have a 500GB HDD on board, too.
I’ve been excited about four-thirds cameras for a while now. They seem like a great idea – DSLR power in a point-and-shoot package. However, after the Olympus E-P1 I’m worried that manufacturers are treating these cameras as beta hardware and the real models won’t be stable for a few years. That said, I’m still interested in the format and I’ll be impressed once Canon and Nikon get in on the act.
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I was sitting quietly in the Panasonic Press conference when I discovered that Sprint was releasing the Hero so I ran back to the press room. I’m glad I did. The other ninjas I’m here with Gartenberg and Rubin, are Twittering from the conference and I think this slide shows exactly what you can expect out of CE companies in the next few years.
I present to you the Digital Hearth.
This hot mess of standards and devices shows us just why CE companies are so clueless. Somewhere, someone is proud of that slide. They got everything, including the CEO’s dog, into there with inches to spare.
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We saw this thing a little while ago and now it is real. The Panasonic DMC-GF1 is a micro four-thirds camera with 12-megapixel sensor, 1080p video recording, and nice image quality.
After seeing the lackluster EP1 I am worried the M4/3 world might be too hard to handle, even for DSLR lovers. However, I’m willing to give this old girl a try.
Back in April, Panasonic was the first company that announced a Blu-ray player for installation in cars, and today [JP], the CY-BB1000D – and the even cooler “Strada CN-HX3000D” navigation system – finally got a price tag and a release date. But first the specs and some pictures.
A videographer, Marty Meyer, shot a short video using the Red One, the Canon 5D Mark II, and the Panasonic GH1. The resulting music-/test-/sad girl in the rain-video is quite nice even if you can’t really tell the difference among the three cameras.
OK, Panasonic’s Evolta batteries are quite powerful, alright. A robot in a mini car powered by nothing more than two AA Evolta batteries completed five and a half laps on the famous Le Mans 24 Hours circuit in France. This means the little guy ran a distance of 23.7km before finally running out of juice.
Update: It should be mentioned that the facts and figures in this post should be taken more as rumor than confirmed. Sure, the GF1 exists and probably is a lot like what we have here, but some of the specs are definitely not right, though we won’t have the correct information for a little bit longer. Rest assured, we’ll have that info as soon as it is available (maybe just a little before) and a full review as well. Maybe on or around September 1st?
You probably remember the G1 and GH1, Panasonic’s well-received contributions to the micro four-thirds photography world. The GH1 was respected for its HD recording capability, although the “micro” aspect of the camera was somewhat lessened by the enormous kit lens. The GF1, leaked in a PDF and captured at Chinese forum Xitek, appears to be the result of an unholy union between the GH1 and the LX3K. The body, in fact, is so similar that we might as well call it the same one. But while the D-Lux had a fixed lens, the GF1 obviously employs an exchangeable system and a M4/3 sensor. I call it hot.
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