Japan Business

ASUSTOR will be attending Computex 2013 and exhibiting a brand new series of NAS devices featuring the latest Intel® Atom™ processor along with its new-look ADM 2.0 operating system and 2 new mobile apps, AiData and AiMaster. ASUSTOR sincerely welcomes everyone to visit them at Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center, 4th Floor, Booth L0404, from June 4th – June 8th, 2013. Taipei, Taiwan, May 8th, 2013 – ASUSTOR Inc., a leading innovator and provider of network storage solutions, has announced today that it will be exhibiting at Computex 2013, the second largest consumer electronics show in the world. At the exhibition, ASUSTOR will be showcasing its award winning high performance AS 6 Series NAS devices (AS-602T/ AS-604T/ AS-606T/ AS-608T/ AS-604RD/ AS-604RS/ AS-609RD/ AS-609RS) as well as introducing a brand new series of NAS devices designed for home and SOHO users, the AS 3 Series. The new 3 Series uses the latest Intel SoC (System on Chip) which is designed for home multimedia use. It also features an HDMI interface along with a built-in infrared receiver that allows for it to be used with a remote control. The available models in this series are the 2-bay AS-302T model and the 4-bay AS-304T model. ASUSTOR will also be unveiling its newly styled ADM 2.0 operating system along with 2 new mobile apps. These 2 apps are AiData, which can be used to remotely browse and access data on an ASUSTOR NAS and AiMaster, which can be used to remotely monitor and manage a NAS. The 6 Series All of ASUSTOR’s AS 6 Series devices come equipped with an Intel® Atom™ 2.13 GHz dual-core processor and 1GB of DDR3 memory (expandable up to 3GB). The devices also feature SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and eSATA ports along with support for SATA III and SSD hard disks. Dual GbE Ethernet ports provide support for link aggregation and blazing fast transfer speeds of over 200 MB/s. All devices in the series are also verified as being VMware, Citrix and Hyper-V ready. Business-ready features such as two-way transfer support, AES-256 bit shared folder encryption, and video surveillance make the 6 Series an optimal choice for small to medium sized businesses that are looking for a flexible and cost-effective virtual storage solution. The 3 Series The 3 Series features a new platform that is based on the latest Intel SoC (System on Chip) which integrates a dual-core Atom™ processor with a handful of media processing units and communication interfaces. The devices also feature an HDMI interface that provides HD audio-visual output which allows the NAS to become a high quality multimedia player. The built-in infrared receiver allows users to use a remote control to control the multimedia playback on the NAS. Further pairing the NAS with a stereo amplifier truly allows users to create a one-stop home entertainment center. Users can also download any NAS Apps of their choice from ASUSTOR’s App Central. App offerings include: Download Center, iTunes Server, Surveillance Center, Dropbox, SABnzbd and more. In addition to being used as a digital entertainment center, the 3 Series can also be used as a full featured private cloud storage server that is able to safely store all of the users’ ever-expanding digital multimedia content.   ADM 2.0 ADM (ASUSTOR Data Master) is an operating system designed exclusively for use with all ASUSTOR NAS devices. Different from traditional NAS operating systems, ADM was designed using an App-based concept that provides a user experience closely resembling the simplicity that can be found on most tablet computers. It features an elegant web-based user interface that is intuitive and easy to use, bridging the gap between user and machine. ADM provides users with a bevy of convenient features such as Dr. ASUSTOR which performs health checkups on the NAS, automatic firmware updates, and Cloud Connect technology which allows users easily connect their NAS to the internet, creating their own personal cloud. Newly updated version includes: Fresh

ZMP Inc released the "RoboCar MV2 Autonomous Driving Package," a single-seat robot car equipped with a function to create routes for autonomous driving.

Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd unveiled an SiC MOSFET and a so-called "full-SiC" power module using the MOSFET and an SiC Schottky barrier diode.

Announced last Friday in Japan, JVC’s new powerful camcorder the GC-P100 is the sport oriented or action amateur filmmaker dream comes true! Indeed thanks to JVC’s Falcon Bird technology the GC-P100 is capable to shoot by default Full HD 60p videos in 36Mbps as well as stunning 600fps ones in 320×176! Announced at around 130,000 Yen and set to arrive in Japan at the end of May, the GC-P100 comes with a 12.76Mpix CMOS sensor, a JVC HD GT Lens with a 10x optical zoom, IS, Zoom Position Memory, a 3″ Monitor and additional 0.24 Viewfinder and support both SDHC and SDXC Cards. Finally one more interesting feature on the GC-P100 is its 4sec shutter speed function design to give you stunningly clear videos at night without suffering from too much visible noise. JVC GC-P100

This week it’s American gas, Japan’s lack of startups, and J-tech to make horses happy! Welcome to Japanese Technology from the Future Friday: It’s already Friday west of the international dateline – here in Japan, it’s totally the future. The weekly JTFF is our somewhat technosnarky coverage of 2-5 particularly important, specifically Japan-related tech stories. Get yourself hip to the micro & macro that went down while North America was sleeping – check in with Akihabara News every Friday morning and BOOM! Ahead of the game, you win. :: JTFF – May 17, 2013 :: • Japan Wants American Gas (the natural kind – from the U.S. Shale boom, that is) The combined monetary instruments of Mitsui & Co., Mitsubishi, and Nippon Yusen (a global shipping giant in Mitsubishi’s pocket), along with some French cash, have secured an almost 50% interest in a US $10 billion Louisiana LNG venture. The why of it is that, outside of nuclear expertise and reserves of favorable public sentiment toward cleaner technologies, Japan doesn’t have much in the way of domestic energy resources. As such, and as mentioned in the JTFF two weeks back, Japan’s very necessarily been making global rounds to secure energy deals & resources. Not much choice, really – since the 2011 Tohoku disaster allowed neo-J-Hippies to successfully monkey-wrench the nuclear energy industry, importing fossil fuels is pretty much all that’s keeping the lights on here. [JAPAN INVESTS LOTS OF CASH IN U.S. SHALE GAS - FINANCIAL TIMES] • Where are Japan’s Startups? Very decent discussion/overview of why startups can’t (yet) get a lot of traction here in Japan. Both domestically and in the pan-mutally co-dependent economies of planet Earth, the question of J-startups comes up a lot because 1. basically every other advanced economy has a healthy startup culture, and 2. Japan is just not innovating like it used to. What makes the most sense is that the lumbering giants of J-tech, your Sony, your Sharp, your Panasonic, etc., have reached a point of monolithic immobility that makes them either oblivious to the need for or incapable of re-working a pervasive corporate culture that rewards staying the path and profoundly undervalues initiative and innovation. Decent read. It should be translated and printed on the front page of every major J-newspaper (yeah, they still have those here). [IN SEARCH OF JAPAN'S MISSING STARTUPS - FORBES] • How Much Human and Human Stuff Can a J-Horse Comfortably Carry? Uhhh… reasonable question, if somewhat amusing. Like, remember back in the day when that American research team was totally belittled and ridiculed for studying cow flatulence – but then we learned that one single cow farts out more greenhouse gases than a full-sized truck left running all day? It is curious though, that until now no one ever bothered to get horses up on treadmills and do this kind of research. Even more curious that it was undertaken here; Japan ain’t exactly lousy with horses. Well, this J-tech development might not do much for global warming, but horses will dig it – and it goes to show that applying science & technology to stuff that might seem inane and ridiculous might just have some merit. Oh, and there was probably a “horse sense” pun to be used there, but the JTFF is better than that. See what just happened there? And also probably nobody knows what that means anymore. [HOW MUCH WEIGHT CAN A HORSE COMFORTABLY CARRY? - THE HORSE] That was the JTFF, and live from the future – that is all! _________ Reno J. Tibke is the founder and operator of Anthrobotic.com, where the JTFF was born. Tokyo at Night image via PhotoEverywhere.

Fujitsu has developed technology which can measure a person’s pulse in real time by analyzing video of their face. “As blood circulates through the body, the amount of light absorbed by the face varies, depending on how much blood there is in it. The first point about this technology is, it identifies minute changes in light intensity on the face, and converts them to a pulse. Also, it accurately detects people’s movements, to distinguish noise. Consequently, it can make a measurement in as little as five seconds.” When the user is sitting still, the system continuously detects changes in light intensity on the users face, as shown by the green waveform. The red waveform shows the resulting wave with noise associated with movement removed. Fujitsu has found that that accuracy of the system is within about three beats per minute. “The main point about this technology is, it can make the measurements naturally. All the person needs to do is be in front of the camera, without operating a device. For example, when you’re working on a computer, you often stop moving for at least five seconds while you’re thinking. We think that, by detecting those moments and measuring your pulse rate, this system could be used to support health management, by recording changes throughout the day.” “In the case of a security camera, it might be possible to detect suspicious persons, based on the assumption that people about to do something risky have a high pulse rate. However, we don’t think that can be done using this technology alone. We think it might be possible through all-round analysis, by combining this with other technologies.” “We’d like to release this as a device embedded in our products. Right now, we’re working to bring such products out this year, including smartphones as well as PCs.” This Video is provided by DigInfo.tv, AkihabaraNews Official Partner.

Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and Sumitomo Chemical Co Ltd developed a "power-saving" sheet that blocks sunlight in summer and lets it through in winter.

Kokuyo S&T Co Ltd will release an instant adhesive that prevents the user from spilling the adhesive or applying too much of it May 29, 2013.

Japan Display Inc developed a 12.2-inch LCD panel that enables to switch between 2D and 3D display modes for automotive use.

Samsung’s roadshow of the GALAXY S4 finally arrived in Tokyo a month after kicking off in London and hitting several other cities and continents on the way. The late timetable may have been through coordination with exclusive Japanese partner, mobile provider NTT Docomo, which announced its addition to its smartphone lineup yesterday. Or it may have been out of sensitivity to giving the product enough exposure around the world to raise its credibility in Japan. But better late than never and we see a real buzz here for its roll-out which will happen later this month. This is Samsung’s flagship mobile product and I thought the company did a great job to raise the level of excitement during the presentation. The President and the Executive VP of Samsung Japan as well as the Deputy President from Headquarters all gave great talks about the S4 and the vision for what Samsung is doing. They were joined by some famous Japanese Talento, who together with Samsung people very effectively illustrated the