- Title: Flying high-tech: Japan’s biggest electronics exhibition kicks off
- Date: 15th October 2019
- Summary: VARIOUS OF PERSONAL FLYING MACHINE DEMONSTRATION
- Embargoed: 29th October 2019 13:40
- Keywords: CEATEC ANA avatar TE Connectivity Mitsubishi Electric Makuhari Messe Chiba Japan
- Location: CHIBA, JAPAN
- City: CHIBA, JAPAN
- Country: Japan
- Topics: Science
- Reuters ID: LVA002B17HBOB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Japan's biggest high-tech electronics exhibition, CEATEC 2019 kicked off on Tuesday (October 15), showcasing a glimpse of how the future could look.
The Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, or CEATEC this year holds a theme of "Connecting Society, Co-Creating the Future", with over 780 companies exhibiting their latest creations.
Japan's major airliner and a first time exhibitor at CEATEC, ANA Holdings, showcased "Avatar" robots, which people can remotely control and interact with others. Among them, a twin-armed robot called 'Tactile Telerobot' that can dexterously duplicate users' slight movement of fingertips and provide haptic feedback to the operator.
Another avatar called "newme" is an upright mobile robot with a tablet for a head that can be remotely controlled by a human operator over great distances. Wearing a VR headset, the user could remotely control the robot from one part of the world while it trundles around in, for example, a family member's house in another country.
The makers say it could be particularly useful for people not able to travel by plane.
"We want people (who do not ride on airplanes) to use this avatar," Vice President of ANA Digital Design Lab Yoshiaki Tsuda said.
"Although you cannot travel physically, you can move your conscious to other places and have a tele-communication experience. This is what we want to achieve."
TE Connectivity showcased the development of a new personal flying machine under development from start-up company "rFlight". The company says the single-user battery-powered flying device would be able to take off and land vertically, and give riders a way to beat the traffic jams.
"We hope this flying machine will fly around the sky in the near future and be a solution to traffic jams. Or when roads are blocked during a disaster, this machine can help save or support people. We hope to contribute to achieve that kind of society," said TE Connectivity's Aki Yagi.
For now, visitors to CEATEC had to make do with an AR demonstrator model to see what it would be like when it is fully developed.
Mitsubishi Electric previewed "SwipeTalk Air", where users can place three-dimensional letters on screen of smartphone or tablet devices by just speaking out what they want to "write". It can translate Japanese into English and about 10 other languages. Mitsubishi Electric Designer, Takumi Akiyama said: "You can use this device to share videos or improve work efficiency at construction sites."
CEATEC 2019 will run until Friday (October 18) and its organiser expects 160 thousand visitors.
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