Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 2013-5 (Vol. 64, No. 3)

Special Issue: Personal Business

• Next-generation System for Biometric Authentication and Virtualization

Today, there are many IT systems in companies, and most of them require a password for personal authentication. In such circumstances, a single-sign-on function and a function to automatically input IDs and passwords have been developed, and these are useful not only for administrators but also for end users. However these functions have problems in terms of security. So Fujitsu has developed a personal authentication server, "Secure Login Box," and client software, "SMARTACCESS/Premium," which support biometric authentication and single-sign-on. Recently IT systems have been moving to Web-based and cloud-based ones to make system management easier, and authentication systems should follow these environment changes. This paper describes the current status of and problems with personal authentication technologies and the next generation of biometric authentication systems developed by Fujitsu.

• Rack-Mounted Workstation to Realize Engineering Cloud: CELSIUS C620

There are movements to also virtualize workstations used in the design field of the manufacturing industry. In these circumstances, Fujitsu released Engineering Cloud in June 2011. It is a solution that adopts high-speed image compression technology to make it possible to use a range of applications, such as three-dimensional CAD and CAE, in a cloud environment. And with the concept of providing the optimal migration plan for customers who want to shift to virtualization in stages while utilizing their existing CAD assets, Fujitsu has developed the rack-mounted workstation CELSIUS C620. This paper introduces the points that were refined when designing the hardware for CELSIUS C620 and the characteristics of the developed solution.

• Development of Tablet PC for Sales in Life Insurance Business

Fujitsu has been utilizing the benefits that come from developing and manufacturing PCs in Japan and creating customized PCs that suit customers' industries and businesses. The Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company, Limited (hereinafter "Dai-ichi Life") is a leading company in the life insurance industry. Based on its management philosophy of "Customer first," it is working to provide high-quality and uniform consulting to all customers for all contracts. Dai-ichi Life has asked Fujitsu to develop sales PCs to be used by its sales staff who are working in about 1400 sales offices nationwide and its staff working at counters. In the development, we received a request from Dai-ichi Life for a highly portable PC that can be used in a similar way to paper, in consideration of ease of use and visibility for customers. After repeated trials, we realized a tablet-type sales PC equipped with high-speed communication LTE (long-term evolution) in 2012.

• Enhancing PC Security with Sense YOU Technology Biz

PCs are used in enterprises and all areas of social activity, and it is becoming more and more important to ensure PC security. Fujitsu has developed palm vein authentication, fingerprint authentication and smart card authentication products for reliable personal authentication, and an authentication server (Secure Login Box) to manage business systems. Sense YOU Technology Biz (continuance detection function) was developed as a product to enhance security after a user logs into a PC. This function detects whether or not a user is sitting in a chair and locks the PC screen as soon as the user leaves the seat. In this way, it can prevent malicious users from using the PC and stop confidential information from being leaked. This paper describes the background to the development of Sense YOU Technology Biz, which is technology for continuance authentication that detects a user's sitting state, and the functions of the product.

• Tablet Solutions Using Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Barcoding and Magnetic Stripe Reader Components for Retail and Vertical Customers

The Retail industry is undergoing changes with the advent of smart phones and tablets. Traditional cash registers and point of sales (POS) terminals are no longer adequate. There is a market need for mobile POS terminals that are flexible, portable, cost effective, durable and capable of barcode decoding and payment processing using credit and debit cards. This paper describes an unconventional approach to solving the problem of integrating barcode and magnetic stripe (credit card) readers with standard Fujitsu tablets thereby converting them to mobile POS terminals. Specifically, we detail how it's possible to use, integrate commercially available barcode readers and magnetic stripe reader components with Fujitsu tablets using minimal custom engineering.

• Business Expansion Leveraging My Cloud Platform

Services utilizing the Internet were mainly focused on searching and browsing during the early stage, and now online shopping and usage of digital content are expanding. In recent years, due to the rapid spread of tablets and smartphones, there has been a great increase in the number of situations for using the Internet. Accordingly, there are more opportunities for enterprises to expand business by combining Internet services in various fields of traditional business built on real stores. Under these circumstances, we released the My Cloud platform that is a common base for services that are provided by Fujitsu. Through this platform, we provide not only ubiquitous devices as goods, but also value-added services that can be responded to users' wants as a set. Enterprises can perform development and operation efficiently, and can reach My Cloud account owners effectively by promoting their services to consumers on this platform.

• Construction of Home Energy Management System (My Cloud Eco)

An energy problem has been reaching a turning point in Japan since the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, and it has become necessary to find the best control that balances energy supply and demand. To solve this problem, an energy management system is urgently needed. Among such management systems, there is a particular need for one that can collect energy demand data from homes with a home energy management system (HEMS). However, there is a high hurdle to overcome because additional hardware (a HEMS controller) is generally required in every home, and this is one of the factors that is hindering the spread of HEMS. Therefore, Fujitsu has taken a new approach to spreading HEMS and aimed to give PCs, which have become widespread and are commonly used in everyday life, a HEMS controller function. This is an attempt to lower the hurdle to introducing HEMS in general homes by freeing users from the need to purchase dedicated hardware. This paper outlines our new concept of PC usage, "My Cloud," and our approach to HEMS, "My Cloud Eco." It also describes the technical requirements and shows our solutions that use communication middleware.

• Small and Wireless Wattmeter F-PLUG for Home Use

With changes in consumers' attitude toward electric power resources, much interest has come to be placed on saving power. A small wattmeter that can be plugged into the electric outlet of a house to easily measure power consumption has also come to attract attention. Fujitsu has launched a small and wireless wattmeter called F-PLUG on the market and it comes as a built to order (BTO) option of a personal computer. The design was studied by Fujitsu Semiconductor, which is a company that develops the microcomputer installed in F-PLUG, Fujitsu and three other companies. The companies aimed to achieve a power-measuring system that is convenient and easy to use by repeating brainstorming sessions and looking at the device from the viewpoint of the user. F-PLUG can measure not only the electric power but also the temperature, humidity, and illumination, and it can communicate with a personal computer by Bluetooth. This report presents the concept and function of F-PLUG.

• "My Cloud – Best Life Support" Technology

The burdens imposed on customers when using PCs are getting heavier as PC functions evolve and become more for personal use and the environment surrounding PCs changes. As a result, customers are increasingly demanding manufacturers' support. We believe that the need for a customer to contact support is in itself a burden. Thus, not only is Fujitsu improving the quality of its support center but it has also developed new technology called My Cloud – Best Life Support that provides an environment which reduces the need for customers to make inquiries by focusing on the factors that generate inquiries. After considering why PC inquiries are generated, this article introduces the technology that is incorporated in My Cloud – Best Life Support in order to handle the inquiries that are generated in the following respective situations: when machines have just been purchased and after they have been used for a time. It also shows cases where the technology is applied to consumer PCs released in 2012.

• Ultrabook Designed Especially for Women: Floral Kiss

We released Floral Kiss, the first full-blown PC in the FMV series that is especially for women, in October 2012 with the concept "glad to own it, elegant PC for women," and started to sell it from the next month. While various digital devices such as digital cameras and smartphones have extended their product deployment by targeting women, PCs that were advertised as "being for women" only had a different body color or design of the top cover. Female employees who have wanted "to make a PC from scratch that women really want" gathered together, and started to drive this project, named elegant PC project, from June 2011. We examined what women consider to be attractive, what kind of life style they have, and what they use PCs for in the first place. We drove commercialization by adhering to "aspects that females like" in all areas of hardware, software, accessories, and promotions, by conducting thorough investigation and analysis. In this paper, we introduce our approach and efforts for commercialization focused on the hardware design, which we have paid the most attention to in the development of Floral Kiss.

• Development of Chassis Which Has Beauty, Lightness, Thinness, and Toughness

People have increasingly come to carry about information-processing devices along with the rise of smartphones and tablets in recent years. Under such circumstances, there is a need to make notebook computers, which have served as mobile devices, robust, thin and light; this is an important element that affects their portability. Accompanying an increase in usage scenes where people carry devices around, another important element that determines their commercial value is whether or not they have a beautiful appearance and design that differentiates them from competitors' products. In order to provide products that customers demand, Fujitsu must develop notebook computers that have both these elements. This paper introduces technology to achieve both these elements, although they tend to conflict with each other: a robust, thin and light chassis with a beautiful design.

• FM3-based Keyboard Controller

We at Fujitsu have developed a keyboard controller-cum-power management controller for notebook PCs, based on Fujitsu Semiconductors' FM3 microcontroller series (ARM^® Cortex™-M3 processor core). We have also developed control firmware that adopts a realtime operating system (RTOS) to give the controller a variety of features with minimal power consumption, and yet make it highly responsive.

• Palm Vein Authentication Technology Embedded in Laptops

Since the spread of the Internet, more people have come to be concerned about protecting their confidential information from being leaked. Under these circumstances, in recent years biometric recognition, which recognizes a user by determining the authenticity of a specific anatomical or behavioral characteristic possessed by that user, has been attracting more attention. Fujitsu was the world's first company to develop and deploy palm vein authentication technology for bank ATMs in 2004. Fujitsu has kept developing this technology and expanding it globally and now it is used for accessing information on PCs and logging into terminals, recording time and attendance, and authenticating patients and students. Even in personal business fields, Fujitsu has been developing both stand-alone authentication and server authentication systems to mitigate users' and administrators' burden of managing IDs and passwords, and also to provide safe and secure authentication. This paper describes the background to the development of reducing the size of palm vein authentication sensor to embed it in laptops. With the development this time, Fujitsu has made the sensor, which captures the characteristics of palm vein authentication technology, smaller and thinner. It has also improved the user interface to make authentication easy in various areas of use and enhanced the single sign-on authentication that works with BIOS vein authentication.

• Eye Tracking Technology to Assist PC Use

In recent years, with the vision of a Human Centric Intelligent Society using information and communications technology (ICT), Fujitsu has been shifting from conventional computer-centric ways of thinking to human-centric ways of thinking and working to realize a new information network society. As part of our focus on ICT systems which can comprehend users' actions and needs to proactively and subtly supply the required information, Fujitsu is developing a user-monitoring system called "Sense YOU Technology," which is installed on our computers. It is often said that our eyes are the window to our souls (thoughts and actions). Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories have developed eye tracking technology which can monitor the user's state. Using a small, low-cost camera and near-infrared light emitting diode (LED), we have developed miniature eye tracking technology which can be embedded in the frame of a PC without detracting from its design. In this paper, we introduce the essential elements of eye tracking technology, its features, applications, and future scope.

• PC Manufacturing Sticking to "Made in Japan"

While many competitors have been relocating their PC production overseas, Fujitsu is sticking to domestic production. Although we are faced with cutthroat cost competition from overseas vendors amid the global recession, our PC manufacturing that sticks to "Made in Japan" has surpassed them. Our innovative factories are succeeding in the global PC industry. In fact, our factories keep improving efficiency with activities for production innovation, offer high added value to customers through an in-house configuration service, and fulfill CSR by contributing to local societies and ensuring business continuity. These are the strong points of "Made in Japan" and that is why we are sticking to domestic production. This paper explains our PC manufacturing department's motto — takumi and hayate — and presents its activities that are carried out while sticking to the principle of "Made in Japan."