A major exhibition showcasing the latest trends in technology kicked off near Tokyo on Tuesday.
This year’s CEATEC features cutting edge advances in AI.
More than 800 businesses and organizations from Japan and abroad are taking part in CEATEC 2024.
Over half are demonstrating AI-driven technologies.
One company showed how AI can be used to keep plants healthy. The system analyzes a plant and tells people what it needs when they touch its leaves.
But a major focus of the event is using AI for human health. NEC is showing a technology that can analyze a person’s wellbeing without a wearable device.
The system uses 10 seconds of video of a person’s face to determine pulse, blood oxygen level and more.
The company hopes it will help people identify potential health problems by just looking at their phones.
Another AI technology is helping athletes level up.
It can analyze a person’s basketball shooting form, examining their skeletal framework when moving the ball and giving feedback on how to hit the net.
AI is being used to help improve not only physical but also mental states.
Audio equipment maker JVCKenwood has a technology that it says can read brain waves. The system uses the information to determine how a person feels and create suitable music.
JVCKenwood officer Sukegawa Tatsuhiro says, “I think it could be used to provide emotional support and healing for people who may be depressed and not realize it.”
Nakamura Hirohiko, an expert from the Mitsubishi Research Institute, says AI technologies that analyze and estimate moods are getting closer to reality.
But he cautions that it’s important to protect privacy and avoid taking the analysis at face value.
Nakamura says: “These technologies can give very helpful information. But users should not completely believe all of it, instead they should regard it as referential information.”
CEATEC 2024 will be open to the public until Friday.