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Mitsubishi
Motors and its largest shareholder, DaimlerChrysler, have
broadened their strategic cooperation to include trucks
and buses, as well as passenger cars. DaimlerChrysler replaces
Volvo as Mitsubishi Motors' partner in trucks and buses,
purchasing the Swedes' 3.3% stake in Mitsubishi Motors.
In 2000, Mitsubishi Motors sold more than 150,000
trucks and buses worldwide. It is Japan's market leader
in that sector, with a market share of more than 30%. DaimlerChrysler
also has a large global presence in trucks and buses. Companies
in both businesses have set up subsidiaries to enter each
other's turf. But Millea is the first organization to possess
an extensive presence on both sides of the insurance industry.
It also will engage in financial services business besides
insurance, such as asset management. |
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Mitsubishi
Electric has developed a chaotic-signal radar system that
could prove useful in traffic monitoring systems. It uses
a novel processing scheme in conjunction with chaotic noise-like
signals to monitor the distance to an obstacle. The system
is simpler and potentially less expensive than other radar
systems. It could make an important safety technology available
for monitoring the status of vehicles.
Highway agencies, for example, have begun equipping
traffic monitoring and collision avoidance systems with
radar and laser detection functions. Thus equipped, the
systems monitor the distance to obstacles and can provide
feedback to drivers and traffic operators, depending on
the detected distance.
In commercializing mass-produced radar products,
the biggest issues are cost and operability in environments
subject to high levels of electromagetic noise. Operability
amid noise is increasingly important as mobile telephones
and other electronic devices flood the air with electromagnetic
signals.
The radar systems presently on the market use
periodic signals, which are vulnerable to noise. They require
complex schemes to compensate for interference. Mitsubishi
Electric's system uses chaotic, random signals, which are
less vulnerable to noise. It is more reliable than laser
systems--which don't work in the rain--and is simpler to
use. The system estimates distance quickly, simply, and
extremely accurately. Its accuracy is the result of a novel
algorithm for sampling and averaging the received radar
signals. |
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Mitsubishi Electric's
chaos technology promises to help keep cars at a respectable
distance from each other. |
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Management at Mitsubishi Chemical
has expressed a strong commitment to stepping up ties with
third parties in academia and industry. And the company
is making good on that commitment. It has announced wide-ranging
tie-ups in 2001 with the University of California at Santa
Barbara and with Fujitsu Limited.
With the California university,
Mitsubishi Chemical will establish the Mitsubishi Chemical
Center for Advanced Materials on the Santa Barbara campus.
The company will fund research on themes selected by the
governing board of the center. Heading the board are Mitsubishi
Chemical's chief technology officer, Dr. George Stephanopoulos,
and the university's dean of engineering, Dr. Matthew Tirrell.
The University of California at Santa Barbara is a world
leader in work on advanced functional materials. On its
faculty are Alan Heeger, who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize
in chemistry for work in conductive polymers, and Herbert
Kroemer, who shared the 2000 Nobel Prize in physics for
work on semiconductor heterostructures.
Mitsubishi Chemical holds the right to commercialize
technologies developed at the Mitsubishi Chemical Center
for Advanced Materials. Research themes under consideration
include novel designs for advanced optoelectronic materials
and devices, organic semiconductors, biosensors, and nanotechnology,
among others.
The collaboration also includes company funding
to establish a chaired professorship in the university's
Center for Solid State Lighting and Displays and to support
research at the center. Director of the center is Professor
Shuji Nakamura, who is renowned for inventing the world's
first blue LEDs.
Meanwhile,
back in Japan
With
Fujitsu, Mitsubishi Chemical will apply leading-edge information
technology to genomic science. Fujitsu is an industry leader
in information technology. Mitsubishi Chemical, Japan's
largest integrated chemicals company, is a leader in basic
and applied research into genetic science. The partners
thus marshal a powerful combination of resources for tackling
the most exciting field in science today. |
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Mitsubishi Chemical's
chief technology officer, Dr. George Stephanopoulos,
announces the tie-up with the University of California
at Santa Barbara. Behind him are representatives of
the company and the university. |
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On hand for the press
conference in Tokyo were University of California
at Santa Barbara professors (from left) Steven DenBaars,
Anthony Cheetham, Shuji Nakamura, and Alan J. Heeger. |
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Mitsubishi Chemical
president Kanji Shono (left) and Fujitsu president
Naoyuki Akikusa announce their companies' collaboration
at a March press conference in Tokyo. |
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Mitsubishi
Electric and Electronics U.S.A., a subsidiary of Mitsubishi
Electric, will install three huge video displays in June
on Las Vegas's fabled Strip. The screens enliven a three-sided,
46-meter (150-foot) tall structure at Bally's Las Vegas
Hotel Casino Resort on the bustling corner of Las Vegas
Boulevard and Flamingo Road.
Park Place Entertainment, owner of Bally's,
selected Diamond Vision because of "the quality of
the ... product," explained the company's director
of graphics and signage, Rick Juleen. He added that another
important consideration was "Mitsubishi's ability to
deliver their high-quality product to meet the fast-track
time frame for this project." Park Place Entertainment,
the world's largest gaming company, owns such famous names
as Bally's, Caesar's, Paris, Hilton, Flamingo, and Grand.
The three screens supplied by Mitsubishi Electric
and Electronic use light-emitting diodes (LEDs). Two of
the screens measure 7.3 meters (24 feet) by 12.2 meters
(40 feet). The third is 5.5 meters (18 feet) 10.4 meters
(34 feet). They will be a landmark for the more than 35
million visitors who visit Las Vegas each year.
Mitsubishi Electric and Electronics has delivered
62 Diamond Vision displays over the past two years. Those
displays render service in professional basketball arenas,
outdoor stadiums, and commercial installations. |
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Ante up! This is an
artist's rendering of the display tower that Mitsubishi
Electric's LED technology will bring to life in Las
Vegas in June. |
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