Just 20 kilometers to the east of Tokyo at the Makuhari Messe in Chiba, CEATEC is winding down, following a gadget-filled week where impressive prototypes appeared to outnumber consumer devices. Unlike IFA in Berlin, which is just as much for the pu…
We can’t say that we were too keen on Sony’s DEV-5 Digital Recording Binoculars at first look — it really is hard to get past that $2,000 price tag. But after Sony finally allowed us to shoot photos and video (albeit for a mere three minutes) at th…
Wireless power demos abound at CEATEC, and Rohm Semiconductor had their own variant on hand with a complete mix of direct-draw gadgets, along with the omnipresent charging iPhone 4 (or was it a 4S?). Like Murata’s prototype, the Rohm flavor uses squ…
Four hundred and fifty dollars. Made out to Lumiotec, please. Really, that’s all you need to know — this tiny purposeless OLED lamp costs nearly half a grand. But hot damn does it look good. If you have the cash and don’t mind shelling it over, Lum…
What’s that, you’re not into changing the channel with that boring old remote, or even with your voice? Murata’s ground-up Tactile Controller brings a real twist to every couch potato’s favorite gadget. Quite literally. The company’s prototype remot…
Sure, we may not see flying cars in our lifetime, but a mainstream digital dash is a definite possibility. The all-glass vehicle dashboard has been conceptualized by other manufacturers in the past, but this year it’s Panasonic’s turn to try its han…
Do we really need another wireless charging system that’s incompatible with industry standards? Murata seems to think that we do. The company’s prototype uses neither conductive nor inductive transmission, instead bringing its new capacitive couplin…
From one messe to the next. We’re on the ground at Japan’s Makuhari Messe for CEATEC, on the hunt for robots, green tech, 3D, smartphones and a boatload of prototypes from every product category. The big news this week is obviously that mysterious s…
