Daisuke Papipupipu's Technology Guide » technology http://daisukeinoue.edublogs.org A guide to the world's technologies by Daisuke Daichi Papipupipu Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:44:58 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.2 en hourly 1 Panasonic GPS Strada CN-HX1000D and CN-HW1000D http://daisukeinoue.edublogs.org/2008/05/22/panasonic-gps-strada-cn-hx1000d-and-cn-hw1000d/ http://daisukeinoue.edublogs.org/2008/05/22/panasonic-gps-strada-cn-hx1000d-and-cn-hw1000d/#comments Fri, 23 May 2008 00:31:15 +0000 papipupipu http://daisukeinoue.edublogs.org/2008/05/22/panasonic-gps-strada-cn-hx1000d-and-cn-hw1000d/ Matsushita Electric’s most famous brand, Panasonic, recently announced the public of its planned launch of the world’s first HDD car navigation system with linkage between the car and the home. Two of these kinds of GPS would be introduced under the F Class Strada navigation category with the serial numbers of CN-HX1000D and CN-HW1000D. What left many people’s mouth open about this navigation system is the first unique use of the Bluetooth technology to control all the features of the home through the car. By using this, people may leave their doors unlocked, or the electrical appliances on and control everything via the automobile. This system even allows the person to adjust the temperature of the air conditioner, turn the alarm on and off, and surprisingly, it allows the person to view the home on the screen through the use of an IP camera. The interesting part is that this is done through a navigation system which is normally used as a device to understand the roads. But this, in contrast from traditional GPS systems, may serve as an inside-car multimedia center since it even includes a DVD player, a 7 inch Viera LCD screen, a mobile TV tuner, an I-Pod link, and the Bluetooth. In order to improve the image quality of the screen, Panasonic developed a high quality circuit with the high definition technology of plasma televisions. This GPS system is also unique with its excellent sound quality achieved through  the supervision from a group of recording engineers from MIXE’s Lab. The engineers of Panasonic are incredible by finding an efficient and hard way of connecting to the home through Bluetooth technology. According to the Japanese site of Panasonic, the car navigation first transfers the information to a Bluetooth enhanced mobile phone, and then the phone transfers it to the domotic system of the house.  This was all done through collaboration with all of the major Japanese phone operators such as AU, Softbank, and NTT Docomo. Since Japan was the first country to utilize the third generation technology of mobile phones, most of its mobile phone bands are wide range and this is the reason why the transfer of data was possible.  However, there is a low chance for this GPS to go to foreign countries since there is almost no other country in the world with a mobile phone system like Japan’s, so don’t expect this to appear in any of your countries.

In Japan, the company is planning to sell 8000 sets per month, but Panasonic official Naohisha Morimoto said, “The catch is you need a special Internet-linking home with its own server that hooks up gadgets and lighting to work with mobile phones and products like Strada F-Class. Only about 2,000 homes in Japan have such Net-linking systems so far.” This basically means that Panasonic is planning to increase these kinds of homes in the country and therefore, the plan was 8000 sets.

Panasonic is planning to introduce an in-dash type navigation system which is the CN-HX1000D (planned to be introduced at June 13) and a 2DIN type which is the CN-HW1000D(planned to be introduced at June20). The features included in these two navigation systems would be the same but will have different price tags. By having two different models, Panasonic is planning to accommodate many different kinds of car models since the models differ in the way of placement.

Information about Panasonic

Panasonic started its operations in 1955 and soon grew itself into a multinational brand with a revenue exceeding 8000 billion yen.  This company is a major employer with over 340,000 workers worldwide and has a product range from TV sets to vacuum cleaners.

Information about Matsushita Electric Industrial

Matsushita Electric Industrial is a global multinational company founded by Matsushita Konosuke in 1918. The company is mainly known through the Panasonic brand, but they also own other companies such as National and Technics. With its huge industry, Matsushita was able to gain net sales exceeding 9 trillion yen and increase its research and development. BY having all of this, the company manages to have corporate offices in almost all of the major countries and stock market listings in Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, and New York. The company is based on Osaka with headquarters at 1006 Kadoma, Kadoma-shi, Osaka 571-8501, Japan.

Information from:

http://www.japancorp.net/article.asp?Art_ID=18154

http://panasonic.jp/car/navi/products/HX1000/contents_a/design.html

http://www.zonagps.com/

http://www.techradar.com/news/portable-devices/satnav/panasonic-car-navigation-knows-way-round-home-368106

http://in.news.yahoo.com/associatedpress/20080514/r_t_ap_tc/ttc-worried-about-your-pet-forget-to-loc-02c743b.html

]]> http://daisukeinoue.edublogs.org/2008/05/22/panasonic-gps-strada-cn-hx1000d-and-cn-hw1000d/feed/ 2 BMW Hydrogen 7 http://daisukeinoue.edublogs.org/2008/04/09/bmw-hydrogen-7/ http://daisukeinoue.edublogs.org/2008/04/09/bmw-hydrogen-7/#comments Wed, 09 Apr 2008 23:54:30 +0000 papipupipu http://daisukeinoue.edublogs.org/2008/04/09/bmw-hydrogen-7/ Everybody has heard of the luxury of BMW and other famous makers like Audi and Mercedes-Benz. But many of the cars in this luxury lineup have huge and powerful engines that destroy our environment. In this case, their problems will be further intensified from the higher oil prices and the low numbers of oil reserves in the future. It is said that there are only 40 years of oil production left (according to USA Today news paper in 2004) since the amount of this source is going down in a rapid pace. For this reason, car manufacturers with vehicles that consume high amounts of oil would fail in the future if the companies continue in the same way. In response, the reputable German auto maker BMW decided to introduce the technology of hydrogen energy in the 7 series, the flagship line of automobiles in the company.

From this, the Hydrogen 7 was produced involving many new technologies. According to BMW, the Hydrogen 7 was the “world’s first production-ready hydrogen vehicle.” The car boasts an internal combustion engine (ICE) with a double engine that allows the driver to switch between a more traditional gasoline fuel from a hydrogen fuel. When the automobile is in hydrogen mode, the car could drive distances up to125 miles which is sufficient enough for many cases. Even more incredible is the fact that this car rates “well-below super-ultra low emission vehicle standards.” According to Science Daily news website, the car actually cleans the air by burning harmful gases in our atmosphere. This is possible since the car uses a more conventional engine that uses ICE, while other hydrogen vehicles in testing uses FCEV, which is a type of engine that has no burning in the process. By simply hearing that the car uses burning, people will assume and question the truth of this research. However, the burning of hydrogen only creates water vapor, which certainly does not harm the environment. After the car test was taken, one of the mechanical engineers involved in the testing commented, “The BMW Hydrogen 7’s emissions were only a fraction of SULEV level, making it one of the lowest emitting combustion engine vehicles that have been manufactured.” In my opinion this will be a great help on alleviating our environmental problems if people start to buy it. Sadly, BMW is currently not planning to mass produce the vehicle and are only intending to sell it to some famous and privileged people. Currently, there are only about 100 of these magnificent cars that are produced.

Even with these positive aspects, the car still has some negativities. One of the negative things is the refilling problem. Currently, there are only 5 hydrogen refilling stations managed by BMW in the world. Owners would find the refilling of the vehicle’s hydrogen as something that is highly difficult. Apart from this, if the car heat gets too high, the hydrogen will start to vaporize. This happens since the hydrogen needs to be super cooled to be in a liquid state. If all the hydrogen evaporates, there is no meaning on having a hydrogen powered automobile. This car also faces price problems since it uses technological equipments that have high production costs. It is said that if the car goes on sale for the general public, the price will be significantly higher than the other cars in their current lineup, becoming the most expensive car in BMW.

In conclusion, BMW’s Hydrogen 7 has many positive aspects, such as a bivalent engine and the ability to clean the air, but still has some negativity. However if all the unwanted aspects of the car are corrected, the vehicle will become something that people will desire and will turn into a revolutionary vehicle.

Information from:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080328070103.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_Hydrogen_7

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