DOES A SPLIT SECOND
DOES A SPLIT SECOND MATTER? COME VISIT US AT HALL 5.2 A split second can mean you win or you lose. You succeed or you fail. You see something or you don’t. The Panasonic Viera captures motion better than ever before. Because every moment matters, EVERYTHING MATTERS. www.panasonic.eu
NEWS TWF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY FORUM: WHERE THE FUTURE HAPPENS FIRST By Gary Smith and Joanna Stephens Future standards for digital television, HD vision in cinema quality, screens and projection systems for 3D-TV, robot intelligence, next-generation games: the TWA Science and Technology Forum is your chance to glimpse tomorrow's world today. IFA International talked to some of the exhibitors that are inspiring people and moving markets. AMERICO MACHADO, DIRECTOR, ELECTRONICS INDUSTRY, EMEA, IBM At its second year at IFA, IBM is demonstrating voice recognition software; a 3D platform for application development; an entry portal for interactive applications on the TV and a real time language translator. “These are highly advanced applications that we don’t intend to use to build devices ourselves. But we do want other companies to embed them in their hardware.” IBM is increasingly positioning itself as a neutral enabler providing a bridge between consumers and manufacturers. The IBM conferences covering the empowered consumer and ecological issues held in the Red Lounge this year are part of that strategy: “It’s important that people are not afraid of us. We see that many companies are now coming round to the idea that we are not a threat,” Machado said. “We retain our core technology business but our attitude is that what’s good for our clients is good for us. We are keen to become much more involved in consulting in order to find industry solutions that are relevant to consumers and that recognise the fact that innovation is no longer solely driven by R&D Departments. Innovation now comes from being able to recognise and react to what consumers Americo Machado, Director, Electronics Industry, EMEA, IBM want.” MARY WOOD, GENERAL MANAGER, EMEA UGOBE LIFE FORMS "Pleo has been the star of the show: people have been coming from all over IFA to see him. He's our first and only product at the moment – we actually call him a 'life form' – but he took three years to develop. He was invented by Caleb Chung, who co-invented Furby, and he was designed originally as a toy. But he's now evolved into much, much more. In fact, he's on the leading edge in terms of showing us how humans and robots interact. He also appeals to a range of consumers, from early adopters into robotics to young women, pet owners and, of course, children. He's in the shops now – and he costs €300.00." Hall 5.3 / Stand 9 Hall 5.3 / Stand 6 SILKE FREITAG, MARKETING APPLICATION CENTRE, SMART SYSTEMS INTEGRATION, FRAUNHOFER INSTITUTE ZUVERLASSIGKEIT UND MIKROINTEGRATION Mary Wood, General Manager, EMEA Ugobe Life Forms "Normally, products are adapted to electronics, but we approach it from the other direction: we take a traditional, non-electronic product and think about how it could be made smarter, better and more intelligent by introducing electronic features. A prime example is eScrabble, which includes a dictionary and an electronic rack that displays the highest potential score that could be achieved from the tiles in your hand. From the outside, it looks like a classic Scrabble set, but it's packed with highly complex recognition and analysis electronics. It wasn't an easy task to encase all the electronics, from power supply to wireless communication, within a 3mm board." Hall 5.3 / Stand 3 Silke Freitag, Marketing Application Centre, Smart Systems Integration, Fraunhofer Institute Zuverlassigkeit und Mikrointegration IFA International • Wednesday, 3 rd September 2008 www.ifa-international.org 9
