Fujitsu’s Drinkbot
We kept our eyes out for robots but didn’t find the army of them we had expected. Fujitsu was showing off some domestic bot prototype that seems help you set the table or clean up afterwards. Unfortunately, it can’t also act as a Japanese to English interpreter, so that’s all we could figure out from the demonstration.
Sony’s Bigger OLED Display
While Sony so far can mass-produce only tiny 11-inch TVs, it showed off prototypes of a 26-inch model. Now that’s more like it.
Sharp’s Optical Touchscreen
Move over iPhone. Now there's something touchier. Sharp takes touch display one better. Instead of sensing electrical field disturbances as the iPhone screen does, Sharp’s prototype screen captures images of what touches it, and it can already detect at least three individual touches, vs. the iPhone’s two. Every screen pixel in this gadget is also a photographic pixel. So you can lay a piece of paper like a business card on it and get a detailed digital scan. Samples are going out to un-named phone makers now. (And of course, Sharp itself makes cellphones.)
Lamest Touch Screen Tech
Mitsubishi was showing off an old, tired technology that looks pathetic next to the new Microsoft Surface devices. Like surface, the screen uses a projected image—but projected from above, not below, so your hands obscure the images. And the capacitive screen was very slow to react to our hands, if it reacted at all.
OLED Lighting
Japanese university researchers showed off a concept lighting product with four adjustable OLED panels. It’s not visible in the video, but the entire booth was illuminated by such OLED lights hanging from the ceiling.
—Sean Captain
The incredible innovations, like drone swarms and perpetual flight, bringing aviation into the world of tomorrow. Plus: today's greatest sci-fi writers predict the future, the science behind the summer's biggest blockbusters, a Doctor Who-themed DIY 'bot, the organs you can do without, and much more.


Online Content Director: Suzanne LaBarre | Email
Senior Editor: Paul Adams | Email
Associate Editor: Dan Nosowitz | Email
Assistant Editor: Colin Lecher | Email
Assistant Editor: Rose Pastore | Email
Contributing Writers:
Kelsey D. Atherton | Email
Francie Diep | Email
Shaunacy Ferro | Email