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PMA is just kicking off in earnest down in Anaheim, and it looks like Sony has arrived in a big way. Looking to make a splash in a DSLR world dominated by Canon and Nikon, the outfit has brought a few of its best and brightest concepts to SoCal. Up first is an ultra-compact "interchangeable lens" concept, which is no doubt Sony's attempt to get in on the fledgling Micro Four Thirds game before it blows up big. Few details on the device are available, but we'll be doing our best to pry whatever specifications we can from the booth representatives in short order. Moving on, there's a conceptual model of the Alpha A700 replacement, complete with an Exmor APS HD CMOS sensor that promises full AVCHD video capabilities. There's also a prototype of a Super Telephoto Lens (500mm F4 G) as well as a prototype Distagon T 24mm F2 ZA SSM, which ought to make wide angle junkies drool profusely. The company's also dishing out a raft of accessories, including underwater housing devices, HD lenses and output cables, tripods / accessory packs and a Compact PictureStation photo printing kiosk. Stay tuned for some hands-on action from the show floor

Sony Corp. has developed a highly flexible OLED display that can be rolled around a pencil and continue to operate. The 4.1-inch diagonal isplay is 80-microns thick and offers 432 by 240 by RGB pixels resolution at 121 pixels per inch. It is an organic LED full color display driven by an organic thin-film transistor matrix.

Bipedal humanoid robots can step over obstacles and negotiate stairs where their wheeled counterparts cannot, but this comes with the risk of falling down.  Naturally, humanoid robots will never be accepted in society if they break when they fall down.  The bigger the robot, the more likely it is that it will damage itself during a fall and be unable to get up. In 2003 the HRP-2P was the first full-scale humanoid that could fall over safely and get back up, and so far remains alone; not even Honda’s ASIMO can do this.  As soon as it detected that it was falling, the HRP-2P would bend its knees and back, which helped to reduce the ground impact.  This motion, called “UKEMI”, is quite similar to how the SONY QRIO would react when falling over to reduce the risk of damaging its components.

The first part of this white paper explores the basic concepts behind HDMI, the markets it serves and its leadership role in multimedia interfaces. This is followed by a tutorial on the new capabilities of HDMI 1.4 and their role in providing a richer, more straightforward user experience. Next, we'll explore a series of user case scenarios that illustrate how the HEAC feature can simplify cabling requirements between digital home multimedia devices. The last portion of this paper discusses the architectural considerations and technical details involved with incorporating the Ethernet and Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format (S/PDIF) standards into the HDMI system-on-chips (SoCs) to support the HEAC feature.