On December 7 Sony Group Corporation held “Sony Technology Day,” which is an online event whose aim is to exhibit various Sony Group technologies. The company introduced eight technologies, under the theme of “Technology that inspires emotion,”. They connect the various businesses of the Sony Group and support the evolution of the company.
Toru Katsumoto, Sony Group Corporation Executive Deputy President and CTO, said:
“I hope to take the lead in uniting the Sony Group’s diverse businesses through talent and technology, which will leverage to evolve our products, content, and services in ways that fill the world with emotion.”
Fusion of the Physical and Virtual Worlds
Virtual Production is a term for new video production technology. It synthesizes live-action video and computer graphics (CG) in real-time. This discharges all creators from the nuisance of CG composition which is required for conventional green background shooting. The digital cinema camera “VENICE 2,” equipped with the newly developed 8.6K image sensor, offers high-resolution and a wide colour gamut for rich expression. Sony Group will strengthen collaboration with creators inside and outside the Sony Group, as well as with engineers involved in actual filming in order to promote the development of Virtual Production solutions.
“EPTS and Data Visualization Technology” – Visualizing all performances
SkeleTRACK, are the Sony Group company’s Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd’s Electronic Performance Tracking Systems (EPTS) in football, which captures the movements of players and the match ball from live video feeds. The advanced image processing, AI recognition technologies perfected by Hawk-Eye, fused with Sony’s speciality broadcast output capabilities and image sensor technology, entire games, including details down to the posture of the players, are converted into data, making it possible to visualize performances that were previously impossible to capture.
Pursuit of Reality
This is a virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) that projects a high-definition 3D space and achieves a high-resolution of 4K with one eye and 8K with both eyes. High image quality is achieved through multi-pixel and miniaturization using fine processing and advanced packaging technology. The processing time is reduced by decreasing the amount of latency throughout the entire system thanks to the integration of data from multiple sensors. The person watching in VR can experience high-definition images in real-time according to the movement of his/her head.
“Using super-resolution technology in ray tracing” – Balancing high-resolution and production efficiency
The know-how technology maximizes performance with limited computing resources. It also achieves high resolution with high precision from various perspectives for images of a variety of scenes and quality. The development is being carried out in cooperation with Sony Pictures Entertainment, reflecting the voices of creators, with the aim of expanding the range of applications from 2D to 3D and developing a wide range of applications in the entertainment field.
“Three technologies used in the PlayStation®5” – Realizing breathtaking immersiveness
Tempest 3D audio, haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Tempest 3D audio is designed with DSP (Digital Single Processor) to achieve extremely accurate audio positioning so that the sound can be heard from anywhere 360 degrees around the listener. The adaptive triggers adopted to the L2/R2 buttons of the DualSense™ wireless controller enable powerful real-time tactile sensation in response to in-game actions with a small precision gear and built-in high-torque motor.
Contribution to People, Society and the Earth
Also introduced were sensors that detect the distance to surrounding objects with high accuracy by capturing low levels of light energy. The sensors consist mainly of three elements: SPAD pixels, that capture light and convert it into electrical signals, Cu-Cu connections, and logic chips. By utilizing strengths cultivated in the development of Sony’s CMOS image sensors, they realize high-speed and high-precision distance measurement from short to long distances with a single, compact chip.
“Manipulator” – Reproducing the delicacy of the human hand
With this technology, robotic hands can grasp an object without dropping it by adjusting the force appropriately. The robot can grasp the object in the appropriate position and posture since the distance sensor detects the distance from the fingers to the object. As the manipulator can grasp objects as delicately as human hands, it can be expected to help human beings in new areas where it was difficult to introduce conventional industrial robots.
“Earth ‘MIMAMORI’ platform” – Watching over the Planet Earth
The system would urge humanity to act with sustainability in mind by alerting them of potential abnormalities in advance. The system would consist of the Sony Group technologies such as soil moisture sensors capable of measuring moisture content; ELTRES™, a satellite communication system using LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) wireless communication technology; and sophisticated predictive data analytics technology utilizing AI.
