The boffins at Fujitsu have have been scratching their heads trying to think of a better purpose for those front facing cameras on our smartphones, tablets and laptops. What they have come up with is a new imaging system which can calculate your pulse and help monitor health.

The system measures the amount of green light, which is absorbed by haemoglobin, reflected from your face to work out your blood-flow and calculate your pulse. The software can work using existing hardware and only requires users to hold still for 5 seconds to make it’s calculations.

Fujitsu aims to have the system adopted by device makers and also hopes it can be implemented to TV’s, mirrors and other household devices. What do you think of the idea, intrigued or not?

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It appears to work in a similar fashion as some of those laser-projected keyboards that you may have seen elsewhere, except there is no projection of the keyboard onto your desk. Instead, you simply place your fingers on the flat surface as if a full QWERTY keyboard were there and proceed to type out your blog posts, emails and Twitter updates.

The camera then tracks the movement of your hands and your fingers, translating those movements into where it thinks you might be typing if there were a physical keyboard there… except there isn’t. It’s invisible. It will take some time for the software to “learn” the nuances of your hands and how you type, but after that learning curve, it’s supposed to be fairly accurate. I’m not sure why it’d place the space bar to the far left like that, but I’m sure that can be adjusted in the software.

This doesn’t really seem like a viable solution for typing, but I’ll be happy if Fujitsu can prove me wrong. Where I think it could be fascinating is if it integrates with Google Glass, for example, to create a virtual keyboard and a Minority Report-like floating UI in front of you while you walk down the street.

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Fujitsu has now revealed plans to release its Raku Raku phone for seniors in the United States and Europe.

The Raku Raku smartphone has a simplified interface to make it easier for aging users to operate. The phone runs a modified version of Android 4.0 and has larger, better legible text and a home screen that allows just a few larger senior-friendly apps like email, phone book, phone dialer and the always requested weather app.

The phone also features a voice slowing feature that makes understanding those fast talkers easier. There is also noise cancelling features.

Masami Yamamoto, the company president said it hopes to bolster its sales from 8 million to a hopeful 10 million by 2014 with the overseas release.

There is no word on what carrier will have this phone or pricing, but we will continue to follow it and provide more details as they develop.

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When it comes to entrance exams, few are considered more difficult than the exam presented by Tokyo University. This is why scientists have decided to come together and see how hard the test really is by bringing in a unique student to take the exam- a robot.

Fujitsu hopes to create a robot that can easily pass the exam, pushing A.I. Intelligence as far as possible along the way. Fujitsu is teaming up with Japan’s National Institute of Informatics to develop this super-intelligent robot.

NII has already been working on an artificial brain that can score good grades on a test, for a whole year in fact. NII and Fujitsu hope to have the robot ready to take the test by 2021. That gives them ten years to do develop such an advanced system.

It’s not just about creating a ‘smart computer’, it’s about creating a robot that can analyze the test and use real problem solving skills based on high school-level mathematics. It means creating a robot that thinks less like a computer and more like a human.

The robot in works is already able to solve up to 60% of the math questions on a general nationwide entrance exam. That’s not a good grade by any means, but it’s a good start.

Thinking this over, things are about to get scary in a hurry. We have robots that control part of our food supply, our communications testing and now they can even get into college? So it begins..

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There seems to be an increasing number of devices in recent times that tout themselves as the perfect tablet experience for those that also want a laptop-like productivity experience, Windows Surface included. That being said, Fujitsu seems to do one better, creating a true hybrid tablet/laptop experience that is targeted at the business crowd, and best of all they are offering two different hybrids, the LifeBook T902 and Stylistic Q702.

The Q702 offers an 11.6-inch tablet that includes a keyboard dock, pen input and a form factor that is extremely business friendly with features such as Intel Anti-Theft technology, TPM, Computrace support, WWAN and LTE, and has tons of power with its Core i3 or i5 Ivy Bridge processor, 4GB RAM, and up to 128GB of SSD storage space. The tablet features a 1366×768 resolution, Gorilla Glass coating, and manages to weigh just 1.88 as a tablet, though obviously it gets a bit heavier when docked. The Q702 also has 4.5 hours without dock, or 5.5 with, and also adds 2 USB 3.0, Ethernet and VGA through its dock connector.

As for the Lifebook T902, you get a massive 13-inch Gorilla Glass display with a 1600×900 resolution and again Ivy Bridge Power, though this time through Core i5 or i7. Unlike the Q702, this tablet hybrid is a bit heavy at 4.1-pounds and has up to 16GB RAM, and optional WWAN and LTE radios. This more expensive tablet also has a modular bay for adding components like a HDD, extra battery or even an optical drive. Imagine a blu-ray convertible laptop.

The downside to these two devices are that they come with Windows 7, though they will both work perfectly well with Windows 8. Of course, it’s important to note that Windows 8 isn’t a free upgrade, even though its coming out so soon, but it can be bought for a discounted price. This is a change from the older Microsoft policy of offering free updates to the newest OS right when a new version is on its way.

Both tablet hybrids are expected to arrive in the 3^rd quarter of 2012, just months before Windows 8, and will start at $1,099 for the Q702 or $1,899 and up for the T902.

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Should you choose to go for the full Voltron-esque experience, all of these devices can be completely combined into one unified Fujitsu Lifebook. Based on this initial design by Prashant Chandra, the tablet part becomes a touchscreen keyboard, for instance, while the slim digital camera can mount to the lid of the notebook to work like an outward-facing webcam. They all integrate and work together combining their powers.

It could mean that the main Lifebook would have its own processor, which could then be supplemented by the processing power of the tablet and smartphone for even faster performance. All the data gets shared between all the devices, helping reduce the instance of repeated data and components. “For example if I have my songs on my music player, why do I have to block the same amount of storage on my laptop?” Chandra continues, “Similarly, if I have a processor sitting in my tablet, why can it not also run/assist my laptop?”

It is of course a concept, but is this what the future of computing will bring us? Would you want a modular computer like this? I would.

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If you have dropped your phone in the toilet, sink, swimming pool, or pond, you’re going to love Fujitsu. The device in the photo above is being is a new waterproof smartphone from Fujitsu, dubbed the ARROWS ES IS12F.

The ARROWS claims to be the “world’s thinnest smartphone”, and thin it is, measuring in at just 6.7mm.  That beats Motorola’s RAZR sitting in at 7.1mm but just a bit thicker than Huawei’s newly revealed at 6.68mm  P1 S.

Although being waterproof and thin, the device does come with decent specs. The ARROWS runs the Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread, comes with a 1.4GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8655 processor,  4 inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 480 × 800 and 100,000:1 contrast ratio and the front of the device is cased in Corning’s Gorilla Glass.

Other features include 1GB ROM, 512MB of RAM, a 5.1 MP CMOS camera, Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi connectivity, DLNA support and a microSDHC memory card slot. And all that is packed into a body that weighs in at only 105g.

Just in case you are wondering, the handset could withstand water up to 1.5 meters (4.5 feet) for up to 30 minutes.

The Fujitsu ARROWS was unveiled in Japan in December, and is now being shown off at CES 2012 in Las Vegas. It is currently intended only for the company’s home market, but is expected to hit some carriers from around the world sometime in the near future. We haven’t got any hints regarding pricing; we will let you as soon as it’s available. So, stay tuned.

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Are you looking for a super-fast computer to replace your current machine? If you have a spare $640,000 you could certainly pick up a one-rack model of the Prime HPC FX10 from Fujitsu. The new supercomputer is adapted from technology developed by Fujitsu for the Supercomputer “K”, which is the fastest of its kind in the world. The commercial FX10 will be offered globally and can be scaled up to 1,204 rack configuration with a top theoretical processing power of 23.2 petaflops, which is certainly a lot faster than my 3GHz Core 2 Quad PC that I’m using to bring you this update. The system leverages Fujitsu’s TOFU technology, an interconnect that offers high memory, bandwidth and scalability with 10 links, each link offering performance levels of 5GBPS in both directions. The max configuration sold will actually feature a total of 98,304 CPUS and 6 petabytes of memory.

According to Fujitsu the FX10 is the perfect solution for companies and research institutions. Fujitsu imagines a variety of specialized purposes for its new business computer, including drug development, disaster prevention, and security.

The current sales goal set by Fujitsu highlights a plan to sell 50 supercomputers of the course of the next three years and will go on sale starting in January of 2012, keep in mind that they intend to sell more than one rack per computer when possible. With the starting price of $640,000 this seems like quite a costly investment but for the right companies it could certainly prove to be an important research and development tool.

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The key factor that differentiates the Fujitsu Arrows Tab from all other tablets is that its rugged and runs Android 3.1 Honeycomb, of course, is its not the only ruggedized Android on the street.   Competition is good. We heard rumors about the Arrows Tab being waterproof, but it looks like it’s all set up to be military-level spec to battle the bumps and bruises that it’ll surely experience along the way. It’s high-spec with 4G LTE to work with Docomo’s Xi network. Yeah, as with so many other Fujitsu products, this will likely gear up to be a Japan thing.

Going through the rest of the spec sheet, we find a 10.1-inch capacitive multitouch display (not sure how rugged that can be; all other rugged tablets I’ve seen are resistive), the same dual-core TI OMAP 4430 1GHz processor as the BlackBerry PlayBook, 1GB of RAM, 16GB storage, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, WiFi-b/g/n, GPS, dual cameras (5MP in the back), microUSB, microSD, and microSIM, along with a 1-seg TV tuner.

It’s rugged, so it’s a bit beefier at 599 grams. Fujitsu and Docomo haven’t confirmed it yet, but a formal announcement is expected early next month.

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We’ve been hearing about the Mango update to Windows Phone 7 for a very long time, but we had yet to see any kind of official release. That has now changed, because the first Mango phone has been officially unveiled. It’s the Fujitsu-Toshiba IS12T. That’s the good news.

The bad news, at least for people around these parts, is that the IS12T is destined solely for Japanese carriers (KDDI and Okinawa Cellular) in September. We don’t see many (if any) Fujitsu or Toshiba handsets in North America, so it should really come as no surprise that’s not being sent over to Rogers or Verizon. Even so, this means that Mango is finally going live this fall.

In terms of the phone itself, the Fujitsu-Toshiba IS12T comes with a water and dustproof design, along with 32GB of space, 13.2MP camera, and 1GHz Snapdragon CPU. As a quick reminder, the Mango update for WP7 is said to bring 500 (!) new features, including multitasking, Groups, voice-to-text, and so on. It was unveiled way back in May, but should be hitting other manufacturers soon. The first Nokia WP7 phone, for instance, is being rumored for October.

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