Cover Story
Design an “Experience” for Users
A large number of companies are seeking detailed information from end users that will hold clues for products offering a brand new experience. But for an idea to become reality, companies will have to discard any basic assumptions they already hold.
Sony Television, Google Television
Structure
Modifying technology-oriented development to deliver innovative new experiences
Many companies in the fields of digital consumer electronics to semiconductors and software are beginning to direct energy into field research targeting end users.They are searching for clues for new devices and services that will present users with new experiences.Technology has simply been unable to attract consumers to products and fresh opportunities can be seen in the recently-advancing network society.However, companies will not be able to capture the hearts of consumers solely with ideas originating from users’ own observations.They will need to formulate a completely new approach if they wish to fully assimilate novel ideas into products and services.A vision to guide users and a software platform compatible with any number of devices will be crucial.
Approaches
Discovering hidden demand through observations of daily activity
Many firms are embarking on user surveys using ethnographic methods, allowing them to discover new needs that conventional research methods have been unable to find as well as unify opinions among development groups. The surveys are being used for a broad range of objectives, from the formulation of corporate strategy and exploration of new product domains, to the enhancement of individual products, and already we are beginning to see results in actual products. Companies are doing their best to adapt what were originally academic research techniques to business. Here we introduce the actual survey methods, necessary preparations and data analysis techniques used by various firms.
Special Feature
2008 International CES: The Search for the “Ultimate” Internet Client
The search for an ultimate, easy-to-use, portable Internet terminal—the 2008 International CES, an exhibition of the latest trends in the electronics industry, delved into this theme.A large number of manufacturers in fields relating to such products as PCs and mobile phones presented their blueprints for a terminal that would possess unknown potential.In the television field, plasma display panels could be seen instigating a counter offensive after falling out of favor in recent times, while technologies enabling wireless transmission of uncompressed high-definition television (HDTV) images were also demonstrated.We report the latest trends in each field—mobile, television, wireless communication, digital audio/video, and automotive—as featured at the CES.
Tearing Down Hitachi’s 35mm Depth LCD TV
Flat panel televisions are beginning to change dramatically.Manufacturers are no longer competing on image quality, but in the sphere of “wall-mountable” technologies that seek to offer a certain new style of living.We disassembled the television that initiated this trend and revealed the technology that will serve as a benchmark for future progress.
The 2007 IEDM: The Focus Is on 32nm Generation Logical LSI and Stacked Cell Flash Memory
Logic LSIs, memory products, and other cutting-edge semiconductor technologies used to prop up various devices keep on evolving. At the 2007 International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), a semiconductor manufacturing technology conference held in December 2007 in Washington D.C., the spotlight was shone on logic LSI miniaturization, power-saving technologies and technologies used to heighten the density of memory products. Of particular note were 32nm logic LSI manufacturing technologies, high-k gate insulating films, and flash memory cell-stacking technologies.
3D Graphics LSI: User Interface Innovation Continues after the iPhone
3D graphics processing LSIs are used widely in game applications. Now attention is focusing on their application to user interfaces for embedded devices. One typical such application is the iPhone, launched by Apple Inc. in 2007. An iPhone, which is operated using a touch panel as if you were actually touching the objects on the screen, contains an LSI with a 3D graphics processing core. Graphics API standardization and the development of LSIs that speed up processing have progressed, facilitating the development of devices with a sense of depth in their displays.
Guest Paper
Lens Manufacturing Technology With Wafer Level Packaging and Graphics Rendering
Advancements in camera module technology have significantly altered our world these last five years. We are now able to transfer images and video around the globe in real time, regardless of location or time zone. This article introduces lens manufacturing and image processing technologies that will help bring about even smaller and cheaper camera modules.
Documentary
A Patent Battle on Enemy Territory (Final): They Invented a Patent
Academy 2
Part 4: Making an Architecture Design Model (First Half)
Tutorial
Introduction to CMOS RF Circuitry Design (Part 2): Issues with Frequency Conversion and Modulation
The ease with which RF circuits are integrated using CMOS technology depends on the methods of wireless transmission and modulation.This installment refers to current mainstream methods in explaining the unique properties and problems of wireless communication circuits—basic knowledge that is indispensable to the circuit designer.
The Low Current Design Flow for Under 65nm Is Optimized from the Architecture Level
Reducing power leakage is fast becoming the biggest issue for LSI design. Sub-threshold leakage, a problem that continues to worsen as the product gets smaller, is particularly difficult to deal with using process technologies. Improvements in approaches to design are therefore essential. This tutorial introduces various methods for decreasing leakage at circuit to architecture levels.
World Report
From the US: Analyzing “Black Friday”-Most Japanese Television Manufacturers Stagnate
Keyword
Transcode
Key Person
The Author of the Novel “Impedance Matching,” Kazuki Sumino: “As You’d Expect, Electronics Engineers Are Interesting”
NE Interview
Ricoh Co., Ltd., President and CEO, Shiro Kondo: “If You Just Build In Features, It Won’t Be Used at All”
News
- 130 Companies Including Sony and Nokia, Join in the Planning for the USB 3.0 Specification
- Toyota Reveals the Vision behind Its Automobile Information Client Program
- University of Michigan Realized “Cyborg Beetle”, IC and a Battery Implanted
- Silicon Image’s New Mobile Phone Small Interface
- From INTERNEPCON
