Monday, April 15, 2002		Lens on IT

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co, also known as National/Panasonic, unveiled B-flat Tube CQ-TX5500D, the electronics giant's latest car audio apparatus with what it says is the world's first CD receiver with a tube , at a hotel in Yokohama, west of Tokyo. The company said the product copes with MP3 and reproduces deep sounds fom compressed music sources, and will cost 1,05,000 yen ($ 796).

A woman tries out a chair designed by Germany's Andreas Kraechter specifically for watching television and using a computer at a Design Fair in central Milan.

Compact disc replicating towers, used to illegally copy CDs, are displayed by customs officers from Hong Kong's Intellectual Property Investigation Bureau during an operation against counterfeiting and piracy in the territory. Pop stars from Taiwan and Hong Kong joined thousands of protesters earlier in the week to call for tougher government action against compact disc piracy.
 

A humanoid robot developed for use in the medical field is shown to the media at a demonstration in Tsukuba, north of Tokyo. Japan, the world leader in robotics, has been conducting a five-year research and development study, the Humanoid Robotics Project, aimed at creating a robot that can execute complicated work.

U.S. President George W. Bush looks at a bomb disposal robot while touring the Citizens Police Academy with police officers while in Knoxville, Tennessee. 

— Reuters photos