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Mitsubishi Breaks Up Famous Computer Science Lab
Andrew Koyfman writes "Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories is falling apart. Top researchers and scientists are being poached by the competitors, including BAE, Adobe, and others. The lab was responsible for much breakthrough research in the areas of computer vision, computer graphics, AI, and machine learning. They were the first group to develop the Diamond Touch table, an early precursor to Microsoft's Surface Computing. Now it looks like the famous lab will be no more, at least not in their original glory."
that a number of char. system said that the new fangled gui system was a passing fad. And then a guy from silicon valley got a free pass to see it at Xerox. Later,these guys passed it on to a small company who was doing compilers for them. From redmond. There, the small company was given ALL sorts of insider info. And what was not given, was flat out stolen. And it all became a vast step forward.
Ms said that the table was a vast step forward. They did not say that they developed it. Just that they are going to build them.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
Including this.
And this and this.
And this.
I think what he meant is basic research. This is research that has no immediate products, but might help future research that CAN produce new products. The idea is that research that isn't constrained by the need to be profitable is more free, more pure.
Japan is different than America - there, even though they share the same name, the affiliation is much looser than you might think. Thus the core product of the Mitsubishi brand is Mitsubishi brand itself - and each of the affiliated companies has it's *own* core competency.
What about the blue LEDs and violet solid-state lasers invented by Shuji Nakamura of Nichia, a company that was hardly a monopoly colossus astride the world?
Plenty of folks in industry do basic research. I should know, I help build their research tools, and help turn their discoveries into products. It isn't somehow polluted or cheating just because they hope it is useful, and know how to actually make it worthwhile.
Even though the US forceably broke up the Zaibutsu after the war, the affiliations are still strong (Keiretsu). The reason Mitsubishi Bank (now Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi after they merged with Tokyo Citybank) is one of the worlds largest banks is that all the Mitsubishi companies still do all their banking there.
They do.