Denso 2015.Mitsuo Matsushita has hardly gotten his seat warm as the new president and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Denso International America, Inc. and he's already talking about where the company wants to be in 2015. In a discussion of the recently formulated "Denso Vision 2015" plan, he lays out some key technologies that Denso has targeted to become important parts of the company's product portfolio within the next decade. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] * HEADS-UP DISPLAYS A display technology that superimposes images onto the inside of the windshield to enable drivers to view the information while keeping their eyes on the road. Heads-up displays (HUDs) are also used in goggles and helmets (see head mounted display). . As an early pioneer and top provider of navigation systems A GPS-based electronic system in a car or truck that provides a real time map of the vehicle's current location as well as step-by-step directions to a programmed destination. See GPS and vehicle tracking. , Denso has a lot of experience in fitting in-dash displays. Matsushita says that in the future the company will concentrate more on windshield display technology. "The main reason is safety. It is a disturbance to the driver to have to look at a console-mounted display," he says. But that doesn't mean the company is giving up on in-dash displays altogether. Matsushita thinks that many future vehicles will be equipped with both, even though a dual system would not be cheap. However, he acknowledges, "We must have a new breakthrough in technology to bring costs down." * BIOMETRIC MONITORING. Denso engineers are working on an HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) In the home or small office with a handful of computers, HVAC is more for human comfort than the machines. In large datacenters, a humidity-free room with a steady, cool temperature is essential for the trouble-free system that can measure occupant data like body temperature and heart rate and automatically adjust each passenger's microclimate microclimate Climatic condition in a relatively small area, within a few feet above and below the Earth's surface and within canopies of vegetation. Microclimates are affected by such factors as temperature, humidity, wind and turbulence, dew, frost, heat balance, accordingly. And while this might seem like technological overkill overkill Vox populi An excess of anything to some, Matsushita says the goal is to achieve more subtle changes than can currently be achieved and give a vehicle's interior climate a more natural feel. * ADVANCED COMMON-RAIL DIESEL. To boost the efficiency and environmental friendliness of its fuel injection systems, Denso is working on a very high-pressure 200-megapascal common rail diesel system that's targeted at meeting Tier II federal emission requirements with a minimum of after-treatment. Matsushita is bullish on the prospects for telematics Originally coined to mean the convergence of telecommunications and information processing, the term later evolved to refer to automation in automobiles. GPS navigation, integrated hands-free cellphones, wireless communications and automatic driving assistance systems all come under the in the U.S., though he acknowledges that it is a harder sell than in trendy, tech-savvy Japan. "People are more practical in the U.S.; if a device is not practical they don't buy it," he says. "But things will change when people start to grasp the services available through telematics. When they get to know the conveniences, they will go for it."--KEW |
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