You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
While in CEATEC/Japan, we took the opportunity to get a ride at small demo track inside the Makuhari convention center in Tokyo. The goal was to look at how the automated Nissan car would react to different road situations. Recently, the Japanese government has considered approving tests on the Japanese roads, so it is pretty exciting to see what these vehicles had evolved since last year. Nissan’s goal is to have a “multiple and affordable” autonomous cars by 2020. Given that Japanese automakers have always been great at bringing new technologies such as EV to the market, we should pay attention to what Nissan has to show. To put things in perspective, by “autonomous car”, Nissan really means that the driver will provide “less inputs” to the car, and that is very different from “no inputs”. (more…)
Nissan Autonomous Drive: Hands-On! original content from Ubergizmo. 
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In an effort to make Toshiba’s TransferJet more… business, the company revealed a touchscreen kiosk that allows you to buy (and immediately download) music, videos and more. Just in case that alone wasn’t enough, the kiosk, which is adorably petite, also uses NFC to pair the device and (if you have the appropriate account or software) pay for downloadable content. The kiosk even throws in Qi wireless charging for your handset as you select, buy and download that new anime episode. Of course, if you don’t have wireless charging (or TransferJet to grab the downloads in the first place), you might not get the most out of what Toshiba’s offering here, but the idea is to place the device in places like airports and convenience stores, where people are likely to have time to kill and want something to watch or listen to right away.
Darren Murph contributed to this report. %Gallery-slideshow99600%
Filed under: Cellphones
You know what makes a fuel cell charger in your pocket a little less frightening? Colors! CEATEC mainstay Rohm has arrived back in Japan with a new set of hydrogen-source fuel cell chargers, with the latest prototype lot boasting a litany of new hues that may very well match up with that iPhone 5c you’re (presumably) picking up soon. The actual technology used within hasn’t changed from last year, but the company is evidently considering the release of such portable chargers for those who’d prefer something a bit less drab. We’re told that a fully-fueled pack can keep the average smartphone alive for twice as long as it would otherwise last, but as has become the norm at this show, there’s nary a hint of a price / release date.
Mat Smith contributed to this report. %Gallery-slideshow99598%
Filed under: Peripherals
It’s been just over a week since we roamed the halls of the Makuhari Messe in Japan for the Tokyo Game Show, and we’re already back to take a broader look at tech coming from Japan, from the Sonys and the Panasonics down to the Companies You’ve Never Of. There’s going to be a particular focus on car makers this year, with both Nissan and Toyota promising us some interesting new things and you’ll find everything we discover at the dedicated CEATEC 2013 page.
Filed under: Cellphones, Robots, Wearables, Storage, Science
It wouldn’t be a CEATEC show without a new, left-field interface. This year, it’s Asukanet’s turn, with its Aerial Imaging Plate (AI Plate). “The one aerial imaging device that will change the future” is how the company’s selling it, and although we can’t quite vouch for that, the interactive concepts we played with were impressive enough. The plate combines reflective surfaces with a tablet interface, although the magic is how the touch display is projected into midair. Like 3D TVs, there’s a specific sweet spot you’ll need to stand in to use it, but Asukanet reckons that’s part of the appeal, with one of its concept ideas involving a touchpad interface for entering PIN codes — if only the user can see it, that’s pretty secure, right? Other benefits include hygiene: with no physical surface to interact with, there’s less chances of picking up any bugs the previous user might have had.
The first demo entailed a shopping mall menu, with a requisite anime hostess to help get us where we needed to go. There’s a motion sensor built into the unit to track your hand and the character’s eyes trailed our finger as it went around the ethereal display. We had to actually poke our finger through the projection to register a hit and get further into the system. To return to the home screen, we simply swiped back across the screen — it’s all very tablet user-friendly.
However, it’s a little trickier to describe how the projection looked: our photo above suggests that the image is resting on the flat surface, but in the flesh it floats above that, at a 45-degree angle to the user with no 3D effect or flicker. It’s a single two-dimensional pane, making it easy (once you’ve got the knack) to navigate through. We had no issues ordering plenty of fictional sushi plates on the second restaurant-esque demonstration. The company is still reaching out to businesses looking to adopt the tech, so there’s nothing approaching a release date, or even a place where you could test the tech for yourself… unless, of course, you can scrape a trip to Japan before Saturday. %Gallery-slideshow99625%
Now that Nissan’s partially automated Leaf has the proverbial green light to traverse some of Japan’s roadways, we figured we’d place our lives in the hands of various computer systems in order to have one whisk us around a test track at CEATEC. This year’s autonomous Leaf demo was a step up from last year, with our test vehicle trained to not only stay between the lines, but also pause and evaluate the situation when faced with a fellow car.
An on-site representative informed us that off-the-shelf PC components are being used to calculate its motions at the moment, and yes, it’s a Windows-based system underneath (for now, anyway). A suite of prohibitively expensive lasers keep the car from veering outside of its lane, while onboard processing determines whether a stopped or slowed vehicle is passable or not. The company has tested the automated Leaf at speeds as high as 70 kilometers per hour, but we barely broke 15 on the track. Speaking of which, you can catch a bit of footage from our ride just after the break.
Mat Smith and Richard Lai contributed to this report. %Gallery-slideshow99622%
Filed under: Transportation
Toshiba’s overall TV division may be ailing, but it’s innovations like this that’ll keep it from completely decaying. Displayed at the company’s CEATEC booth here in Japan are two new 4K HDTV displays — the 40-inch 40V and 50-inch 50V. Outside of devilishly-thin bezels and native 4K resolutions, the company’s not talking specifications. What it’s focusing on instead is the concept: it’s dreaming of an Ultra HD range of displays that can operate as televisions and as pro-grade reference monitors. After all, budding editors who are being tasked with cutting together 4K footage certainly deserve a monitor that won’t cut corners, right?
A company representative informed us that while the displays weren’t perfectly color accurate, they were far superior to rivals. Plus, the ability to easily toggle between reference mode and various other living room-accepted modes will enable a level of A/B testing that’s pretty tough to get right now. Naturally, both monitors looked stunning up close, and if we’re being candid, we’re fallen in love with Photoshop all over again after seeing it displayed on these guys.
Mat Smith contributed to this report. %Gallery-slideshow99599%
Filed under: Home Entertainment, HD
Elliptic Labs has already spruced up a number of tablets by adding the ability to gesture instead of make contact with a touchpanel, and starting this week, it’ll bring a similar source of wizardry to Android. The 20-member team is demoing a prototype here at CEATEC in Japan, showcasing the benefits of its ultrasound gesturing technology over the conventional camera-based magic that already ships in smartphones far and wide. In a nutshell, you need one or two inexpensive (under $1 a pop) chips from Murata baked into the phone; from there, Elliptic Labs’ software handles the rest. It allows users to gesture in various directions with multiple hands without having to keep their hands in front of the camera… or atop the phone at all, actually. (To be clear, that box around the phone is only there for the demo; consumer-friendly versions will have the hardware bolted right onto the PCB within.)
The goal here is to make it easy for consumers to flip through slideshows and craft a new high score in Fruit Ninja without having to grease up their display. Company representatives told us that existing prototypes were already operating at sub-100ms latency, and for a bit of perspective, most touchscreens can only claim ~120ms response times. It’s hoping to get its tech integrated into future phones from the major Android players (you can bet that Samsung, LG, HTC and the whole lot have at least heard the pitch), and while it won’t ever be added to existing phones, devs with games that could benefit from a newfangled kind of gesturing can look for an Android SDK to land in the very near future.
Mat Smith contributed to this report. %Gallery-slideshow99597%
Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Google
Source: Elliptic Labs
[CEATEC 2013] Here is one Indiegogo project that has definitely passed the mark of success. In fact, it managed to raise $580,000 plus instead of the $90,000 goal, which means more than 6 times of what it needed. Having said that, the Amiigo fitness bracelet was demonstrated today on the showfloor, with a model punching the air as well as performing high kicks to show off just how technology can end up as a viable exercising companion, where all of the vital details and information will be stored and displayed on your smartphone. There are iOS and Android versions of the app, so BlackBerry and Windows Phone users will just have to sit this one out.
Amiigo Fitness Bracelet Demoed original content from Ubergizmo. 
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