Open House reveals company’s best-of-class R&D results

TOKYO, February 5, 2002--Mitsubishi Electric Corporation will display its latest research and development results at its annual R&D Open House event in Amagasaki City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan on February 6, 2002. The exhibit will display a wide range of items that include technologies for the environment, space, elevators and escalators, industrial devices and semiconductors. The technologies are either far along the development stage or nearing commercialization.

Exhibit 1: Highly Sensitive Odor Detector for Water Contamination Prevention
Addressing the needs of drinking water plant operators and river maintenance management, Mitsubishi Electric’s oil odor detector for water monitoring can detect gasoline, kerosene, diesel oil and fuel oil contamination better than the human nose. Using a special sensing film made of hydrocarbon copolymers, which has a high affinity for the smell of oil, the sensor can alert maintenance management within five minutes after contaminated water has been detected.

Exhibit 2: Compact and Low-cost Advanced Star Sensor System
The Advanced Star Sensor System is a compact, lightweight and low-cost satellite attitude control system that helps facilitate communication, observation, navigation, and other valuable services for satellites. It determines a satellite's exact attitude using a single sensor from the images of bright fixed stars with a magnitude of up to 5. The system will be included in the payload of the Unmanned Space Experiment Recovery System (USERS) satellite scheduled for launch in the summer of 2002, where it will be subjected to rigorous in-flight testing.

Exhibit 3: High-speed Inclination Section for High Rise Escalators
A foundational technology that drives the inclination section of escalators at a higher speed than the landing section will be demonstrated on a one-fifth-size model. If this technology is incorporated into high rise escalators, such as those used in high depth subways or stations with multiple layers, movement time will be shortened greatly and passengers will enjoy improved safety when getting on and off.

Exhibit 4: Active Roller Guide System for High-speed Elevators
Mitsubishi Electric’s active roller guide system is capable of reducing the lateral vibration of high-speed elevator cars by less than 10cm/s² which makes it possible to achieve both high transport efficiency and better ride comfort than usual without special installation techniques. This active roller guide system will be applied to high-speed elevators that travel at a speed of more than five meters per second.

Exhibit 5: Optical Transmission Technologies for Intercontinental Cable Systems
Mitsubishi Electric’s new optical transmission technologies for use in next-generation submarine cable systems are planned to connect Japan, the U.S., Asia and Europe. Advances in key technologies include transmitting massive light signals through a long-distance optical fiber, advanced optical device supporting systems and integrated technology for optical networking.

Exhibit 6: MPEG Standard for Next-Generation Multimedia Applications
Using the MPEG compression and retrieval standards, Mitsubishi Electric has developed a number of applications that aim to set new standards in next-generation multimedia and content transmission. New applications include ways to store HDTV data on recordable DVDs using MPEG-2, a new home-use videophone based on MPEG-4 and a video browser and intelligent surveillance equipment utilizing the MPEG-7 standard.

Exhibit 7: Eye Vision--A New Concept Wearable Display
Mitsubishi Electric’s prototype compact wearable display is especially suitable for users who want to do more than one task simultaneously. While current wearable displays completely cover one’s eyes, Mitsubishi Electric’s prototype model does not hamper the visual field--users have a full visual range once they take their eyes off the LCD display piece in front that is positioned under the eye.

Exhibit 8: Multi Markup Language Browser for Embedded Systems
This new browser will enable mobile phones, car navigation systems and other mobile terminals to handle XHTML Basic/CSS 2.0 MP, the markup language set to become the standard way to display next-generation Internet content. Since the browser can also work with the markup languages used by NTT DoCoMo’s iMode and J-Phone’s J-Skyweb wireless Internet services, it will allow smooth compatibility between the old and new systems.

Exhibit 9: High-performance Parallel Information Retrieval System
This new high-performance parallel information retrieval system is geared for electronic application, patent search, document management and filing service systems. Based on the parallel processing technology of a large-capacity storage system that consists of 16 PC servers, the system can perform the industry’s fastest full text search--100 billion characters (approx. 1000 years worth of newspapers) by free keyword in one second.

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About Mitsubishi Electric Corporation
With over 80 years of experience in providing reliable, high-quality products to both corporate clients and general consumers all over the world, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (FTSE: 6503q.l) is a recognized world leader in the manufacture, marketing and sales of electrical and electronic equipment used in information processing and communications, space development and satellite communications, consumer electronics, industrial technology, energy, transportation and construction. The company has operations in 34 countries and recorded consolidated group sales of over US$33BN in the year ended March 31, 2001. Additional information on Mitsubishi Electric is available at global.mitsubishielectric.com.

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