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Mitsubishi
Digital Electronics America is emerging as the leader
in high definition home theater. Heralding its theme,
–More Than Just TelevisionÈÄMitsubishi Television,”
the California-based company introduced 27 widescreen
displays and televisions, along with the consumer
electronics industry's most advanced HDTV receiver/controller,
at its annual dealer line show in April 2004.
–Never before have consumers
had such a wide selection of digital home theater
products from one manufacturer,” said Max Wasinger,
senior vice president of sales and marketing for
the company.
In
fact, this year's product line, ranging from 22
to 82 inches in size, includes LCD monitors, rear-projection
TVs (with HD and HD-upgradeable versions), plasma
monitors and widescreen televisions. The standard-bearing
82-inch, three-chip LCoS HDTV, the Mitsubishi Alpha,
which hit the market last year, rounds out the microdisplay
lineup. A new twist
is televisions that integrate HD PVRs (personal
video recorders) and MPEG SD encoders. The compact
HD receiver/controller, HD-6000, can be discretely
added to any display, eliminating the need for set-top
boxes, cables and PVR subscription fees. This
latest-generation technology uses Mitsubishi Electric's
strategic resources on a global level. Mitsubishi
Electric is committed to lead the way in home-theatre
displays regardless of technology. See
the lineup at www.mitsubishi-tv.com.
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Photo from ESO home page, http://www.eso.org
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Mitsubishi
Cable Industries, Ltd. has supplied the world's
first photonic crystal fiber (PCF) cable to the
European Southern Observatory for use in a laser
guide star system. The cable was installed in the
Observatory's facility in Chile in July 2004 for
use in fine-tuning the observation performance of
its large telescopes. The system creates an artificial
star using a high-output special laser (with a wavelength
of 589 nm) focused on sodium atoms about 90 km above
the Earth. The artificial star is positioned in
the sky near an extremely faint target object to
give the telescope system something to lock onto,
improving the sharpness and brightness of the object's
image. To relay the special laser light from the
laser pumps to the launch telescope, Mitsubishi
Cable's DIAGUIDE® PCF single-mode photonic crystal
fibers were selected. Despite
having obvious potential for fiber optics, PCF's
physical properties resisted practical application.
Mitsubishi Cable's unique technology presented solutions
for both the original production of PCF cable, and
later, for effective connector processing that made
possible its application in a laser guide star system.
Large telescopes
of the same type as at ESO are used in the national
observatories in Japan and in other overseas observatories.
This means additional orders for PCF cables are expected
in the future. |
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In India,
a country that employs 60% of its work force and
50% of its land in agriculture, a new type of weather
insurance developed with the knowledge and expertise
of Tokio Marine is bringing a much needed promise
of stability to the lives of millions of farming
families. Many of the country's regions still lack
irrigation and other systems, and annual grain harvests
are extremely vulnerable to weather conditions each
year. Droughts can have particularly serious impact
on farmers' income, and many are compelled to sell
their livestock, land and other assets. The
weather insurance provides indemnity if a drought
occurs during the monsoon season (June to September),
with payment levels linked to the severity of the
drought. The product will be sold by IFFCO-TOKIO
General Insurance Co., Ltd. (ITGI), an Indian non-life
insurance company and another member of the Millea
Group. It will be marketed to the agricultural sector
through a network of approximately 36,000 cooperative
distribution outlets of the Indian Farmers Fertilizer
Cooperative Ltd., which is India's largest fertilizer
company and an investor in ITGI. The
Tokio Marine & Fire Insurance Co. and Tokio
Marine Financial Solutions Ltd. brought their experience
in weather derivative sales and weather data analysis
in Japan to the immense task of calculating drought
probabilities from vast volumes of data on Indian
weather patterns over the past century. |
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Mitsubishi
Heavy Industries, Ltd. has won an order for 58 MWT-1000A
1,000-kW wind turbines from Eurus Energy Japan Corporation,
making it Mitsubishi Heavy's most popular model.
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the previous model of MWT-1000A before improvement.
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Driven by a new high-efficiency
62-m rotor and perched on a 68-m tower, the MWT-1000A's
wind turbines will be installed in Hokkaido, with
57 destined for Japan's biggest wind power generation
facility, the Soyamisaki Wind Farm, which will be
built in Wakkanai City, Hokkaido, and one for the
adjoining Hamatonbetsu Wind Farm.
The structure and shape
of the blades on the MWT-1000A system have been
modified to ensure efficient generation even in
low winds, improving the annual power output in
a location with an average annual wind speed of
6 meters per second by around 20%. In February 2004,
it won the Japan Machinery Federation Chairman's
Award, for energy conservation machinery and the
Nikkei Business Daily Environmental Award for Excellence.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
is Japan's only manufacturer of large wind turbines
and has built an excellent reputation in this field.
Contracts were signed with Hokkaido Electric Power
Co., Inc. and Eurus Energy Japan on March 30, and
the project is now moving forward. |
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Mitsubishi
Corporation is currently focusing special effort
on businesses that serve consumers directly, such
as retailing and restaurant operation, and among
these, Smiles Co., the first –in-company venture”
established by Mitsubishi Corp., is drawing extra
attention. Smiles is the operator of Soup Stock
Tokyo, a chain of eateries that specializes in wholesome,
natural soups. The idea of Soup Stock Tokyo was
proposed by Mr. Masamichi Toyama, Smiles' President,
who remains an employee of Mitsubishi Corp. The
company and Mr. Toyama provided 87% and 13% of the
capital, respectively, to establish Smiles.
Soup
Stock Tokyo's core concept, –Natural and tasty soup
for all ages that is additive-free and full of plentiful
ingredients,” has proven to be particularly popular
with women. On any given day, a Soup Stock Tokyo
outlet will serve seven or eight of their rich,
stew-like soups. They are varied weekly and with
the seasons from some 30 recipes made from natural
ingredients and without artificial flavorings or
preservatives. Each outlet presents a very simple,
no-frills, but decidedly refined appearance that
belies careful cost control. With
soups well established, Smiles is expanding into
new fields. In November 2003, the company launched
Tokyo Roux, a new business specializing in dishes
that combine rice with various thick sauces, such
as curry, stroganoff and ragout. And, in January
2004, Smiles developed canned soup in collaboration
with Kirin Beverage Corp., which put them on sale
at thousands of convenience stores.
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Recently,
Mitsubishi companies unveiled major progress in
fuel cell related technology as a key next-generation
clean energy.
Nippon Oil, together
with Ebara Ballard Corporation, has commenced
trials of the world's first practical prototype
1kW residential polymer electrolyte fuel cell
(PEFC) system fueled by economical kerosene.
Although
a kerosene fuel cell requires difficult and complex
hydrogen generation technology, the partners achieved
a major milestone with a practical PEFC prototype
with a power generation efficiency rating of 33%.
The two companies plan to expand their joint effort
toward full commercialization in fiscal 2006.
Mitsubishi Corporation
has reached new heights in hydrogen generation
technology with its successful development of
the high-pressure hydrogen energy generator (HHEG),
based on its exclusive technology.
This is
the first system in the world to generate hydrogen
gas at high pressure solely through electrolysis,
without the use of a compressor, which makes the
new system more durable and energy efficient than
other types of systems. Mitsubishi Corporation
plans to increase the hydrogen generation capacity
and pressure rating of the system to match the
specifications of existing hydrogen filling stations.
Mitsubishi Kakoki is
leveraging its four decades of advanced hydrogen
generation involvement. In 2003, it began offering
a package of equipment necessary for filling stations
to serve hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. In April
2004, it delivered its fourth installation to
a station constructed under the policy-driven
Japan Hydrogen & Fuel Cell (JHFC) Demonstration
Project. It features the world's first use of
on-site kerosene-based hydrogen production and
employs a special reaction process that improves
the heat-recovery ratio for higher energy-conversion
efficiency.
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Mitsubishi
Kagaku Media has begun producing the world's first
double layer DVD recording disc. The DVD+R DL discs
went on sale in May. The move comes amid an explosion
in demand for DVD recording media, which is expected
to double this year in Japan. The
discs, developed jointly by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
and Philips, employ a second recording layer placed
directly below the first. They offer 8.5GB of recording
space compared to the 4.7GB of space available on
a standard DVD+R disc, when used with the new double
layer DVD recording drives, which made their debut
at the same time.
Mitsubishi
Kagaku Media first had to overcome numerous challenges.
Not only must the two layers be flawless, but data
in the top layer must not be altered when the laser
beam shines through it to record on the second layer.
To make it possible for a single laser to access
both recording layers, the top layer must be semitransparent,
but at the same time it must have enough reflectivity
for data storage and playback, even as it allows
light to pass through to the second layer.
Although physically different,
commercial DVD-Video discs employ a similar double
layer technology, so users should be able to play
back data recorded on the new discs in almost all
DVD drives currently on the market. Mitsubishi
Kagaku Media markets its discs overseas under the
Verbatim and Mitsubishi brand names. |
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