Earlier this week, struggling electronics maker Sharp outlined its plans to expand its presence in new business areas, including medical services, robotics, smart home, safety of food and education. Speaking at a press conference held in Japan on June 10, Shigeaki Mizushima, Sharp Chief Technology Officer, talked about Sharp's efforts to offer healthcare equipment utilizing cloud and sensor technology, tablets and smartphones, in the areas of such as intial diagnosis.

Sharp also plans to commercialize cleaning robots and care / welfare robots utiziling the company's robotics technology.

Sharp plans to set up a network between home appliances, contributing to optimum energy control, as well as realizing a secure and comfortable lifestyle within a Smart Home environment.

For "Safety and Security of Food / Water / Air," Sharp's featured technology in plant factories and environment sensors will be utilized to promote a safe environment.

In addition, Sharp will combine its educational solutions with connecting systems of information displays and tablet devices, offering a proactive education environment.

Sharp will also develop a "fit strategy" to create attractive products that meet consumers' lifestyle and needs.

Sharp also showcased an interactive white board that uses character recognition to convert characters scribbled on its surface, then allows users to drag them around on its surface and create spreadsheets on the fly. The company also showed a small screen based on MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) technology, which it is developing together with Qualcomm. The screen replaces the liquid crystals used in current displays with ultr-small devices that act as gates to let colored light through to the viewer, a technology that has the potential to create screens that refresh faster and draw less power.



Finally, regarding its core LCDs and semiconductor buusinesses, Sharp will aggressively promote alliances with various partners in order to expand its sales.