No. 648: Creating an electronic book at high speed without ripping the original book apart (November 16, 2012)

Technology:

Dainippon Printing and the University of Tokyo jointly developed equipment to create an electronic book automatically while flipping pages of the original book at high speed. In addition to eliminating the necessity to rip a book apart, the equipment can read 250 pages per minute automatically even if a page contains photos and illustrations besides letters. Dainippon Printing will sell this equipment to electronic book publishers starting in 2013.

The equipment utilizes the high-speed image recognition technology developed by Masatoshi Ishikawa of the University of Tokyo. A high-speed camera shoots a book 500 times a second from the above while a special machine is flipping pages, and infrared laser recognizes the distortion of a page created when a page is flipped. A high-definition camera shoots a well-organized page, and the image is corrected to eliminate distortion. The resultant digitalized images are good enough to bind them as an electronic book. The equipment can process a page that contains even handwritten characters and cartoons. Because it can also process a fat book, it is useful to digitalize bound corporate and academic materials.

 

Corporate introduction of Dainippon Printing

 

No. 647: Successful development of a technology to double the travel distance of an electric vehicle (November 15, 2012)

Technology:

Toyota developed an infrastructure technology for the next-generation storage battery that increases the travel distance of an electric vehicle (EV) by more than two times. The company developed a positive-electrode material to be used for the sodium ion battery. The new material is a chemical compound made up of multiple phosphate compounds, metals including nickel, and sodium. The trial battery of a coin size realized a voltage that is about 30% higher than the voltage by a lithium-ion battery at room temperature. A storage battery that allows for a travel distance between 500 km and 1,000 km per charge has come in sight.

A hybrid vehicle has a maximum travel distance of 1,000 km. However, the maximum travel distance of a lithium-ion battery will not exceed 300 km per charge, though a travel distance between 500 km and 1,000 km is vital to spread electric vehicles widely. Theoretically, it is said that a sodium ion battery cannot surpass a lithium-ion battery in performance, but the successful development of the new material allows it to be one of the candidates of the next-generation storage battery. Toyota is concurrently developing a solid state battery and air battery.    

A sodium ion battery 

No. 646: Japanese auto safety technology is growing more sophisticated (November 14, 2012)

Technology:

Toyota developed a new collision avoidance technology on high speed traveling. The new technology is effective even if the speed difference between your car and the car traveling before you is 60km/h. Suppose you are traveling at 80 km/h and the proceeding car is traveling at 20 km/h. The speed difference is 60 km/h. When you come close to the proceeding car, the new technology gives an alarm and activates the powerful automatic brake if your braking is not enough to avoid a collision. Toyota’s existing technology responds to a speed difference up to 40 km/h. In the case of speed difference of 60 km/h, the avoidance technology grows more demanding because the time before a collision becomes shorter. Toyota is trying to offer the new system for less than 150,000 yen.

Toyota also developed a technology to reduce the collision accident inside a parking lot. When you shoot a car in a place where an obstacle exists both before and behind your car, the technology will automatically regulate the engine and apply the brake. This technology will decrease the accident will prevent you from crushing your car into a convenience store. Honda also plans to develop a collision avoidance system. Using an in-car camera and radar, Honda’s technology is expected to perceive a pedestrian before your car and bring it to a stop automatically even if your car is traveling at 60km/h. Fuji Heavy is one step ahead in the collision avoidance system with its Eyesight, but Fuji Heavy’s system responds to a speed up to 30km/h.

Japanese automakers are sophisticating their safety technologies

Automaker	Technology trend
Toyota	Collision avoidance on high speed traveling. Collision avoidance in a parking lot due to mistaken application of the accelerator
Nissan	Plans to install a collision avoidance system based on automatic operation of steering beginning in 2015
Honda	In the process of developing a technology to predict moves including lane changes of cars around you when you are traveling.
Fuji Heavy	The Eyesight is already installed on upmarket vehicles

 

Toyota’s latest collision avoidance technology

 

Nissan’s collision avoidance technology 

 

Fuji Heavy’s Eyesight  

No. 645: Japanese presence in the smartphone material market is growing (November 13, 2012)

Business trend:

According to a U.S. survey company, worldwide smart phone shipments are estimated to increase 2.5 times over the level in 2011 to 1,260 million units in 2016. Japanese companies have a tough game in the finished product market, but they enjoy an established presence in the material market thanks to its advanced technology. They increase the investment in the development and production of smartphone materials to strengthen the competitive edge further.

Kuraray will mass produce film materials for clearer image. The company has 80% share in the world market of polarizing plate films for liquid crystal displays, and it will start mass production of insulator films for printed circuit boards. It will increase the annual production capacity 15 times to 3 million square meters. Sumitomo　Chemical will increase the production capacity of semiconductor materials for high-speed wireless radio communication. The company will increase the production capacity 25% with an investment of 5 billion yen. JX Nippon Mining and Metals will start world’s thinnest 6 micrometers foldable material for printed circuit boards.

Strategic moves of other major companies in the material market

Company	Strategy
Central Glass	Plans to produce glass for touch panels. The new glass is 50% lighter than the existing products.
Nippon Gosei	Plans to increase the production capacity of lightweight resin sheets for touch panel by five times
Showa Denko	Plans to double the production capacity of packaging material to protect lithium-ion battery

No. 644: The possibility to utilize a carbon nanotube for caner treatment (November 12, 2012)

Technology:

A research team led by Tatsuya Murakami of Kyoto University explored the possibility of utilizing a carbon nanotube for cancer treatment. The research team confirmed that if a carbon nanotube is irradiated by near infrared light with the property to transmit a human body, active oxygen is generated to kill cancer cells effectively. If combined with a technology to aggregate pharmacological agents in an affected area like tumor, a carbon nanotube could be utilized to develop a new cancer treatment.  

The research team coated a carbon nanotube with a kind of cholesterol like phosphatide to allow it to exist in a human body in a stable manner. They put the coated nanotube in a culture of lung cancer cells and irradiated a near infrared light with a wavelength of 808 nanometers for 10 minutes. They counted the number of lung cancer cells one day later and found that the number decreased by 45%. The number decreased by 28% in the case that a reagent to control active oxygen is put in the reagent, showing that active oxygen is effective to kill cancer cells. Please click here for further details in Japanese, and here for further details in English. 

Carbon nanotubes

No. 643: A micro machine that moves autonomously on the water surface (November 10, 2012)

Technology:

Susumu Kitagawa of Kyoto University developed a micro machine that moves autonomously on the water surface while emitting a chemical substance that repels water in alliance with Hiroshi Matsui of New York City University. Made of special crystals, it is about 5 mm square. They constructed the micro machine with porous metallic complexes where cubes of 0.7 nanometers square each stand in neat rows. They put diphenylalanine that has hydrophobic property inside the machine.

In the experiment, they put it in a solution mixed with a substance that melts down the cubic. They confirmed that the hydrophobic substance seeps gradually and the micro machine moves autonomously on the water surface for more than 20 minutes. Please click here to read further detailed information in the Nature Materials.  

No. 642: IHI constructs the world’s first plant to mass produce ammonia from coal in Indonesia (November 9, 2012)

Technology:

IHI will construct the world’s first plant to mass produce ammonia from coal in Indonesia. The company will start the substantiative experiment in alliance with a local fertilizer company in 2014 and deliver a 100 billion yen plant toward 2016. The Indonesian government will support the project. Although natural gas is usually used to produce fertilizers, IHI developed a technology to reduce the production cost by one third using cheaper low-grade coals.

Coal reserve is estimated to satisfy world’s demand for 200 years, but about 50% of the coal reserve is low-grade coals like brown coal that is hard to burn due to a high water content. IHI opened up way to the practical application of a technology to reform brown coals to hydrogen using a high temperature gasification furnace to produce ammonia. Indonesia is rich in coal resources, 70% of which is low-grade coals. Indonesia can increase exports of natural gas to Japan if it can reduce domestic consumption of natural gas.

IHI will build a demonstration facility outside Jakarta that has a production capacity of 50 tons per day. The initial investment is about 5 billion yen. The 100 billion yen plant will have a capacity to produce 500-1,000 tons of ammonia per day. The Indonesian government pays the construction cost.