Fujitsu
| Fujitsu | |
|---|---|
| Information | |
| Type | Public (Tokyo Stock Exchange) |
| Industry | Information technology, electronics |
| Founded | June 20, 1935 |
| Headquarters | Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan |
| Products | IT services, computing hardware, enterprise wearables, Windows Mixed Reality headset |
| Website | https://www.fujitsu.com |
Fujitsu (Fujitsu Limited) is a Japanese information technology and electronics company headquartered in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, having relocated its head office from central Tokyo in 2024. It was founded on June 20, 1935 as Fuji Tsushinki Seizo (Fuji Telecommunications Equipment Manufacturing), a spinoff of Fuji Electric, and grew into one of the world's largest providers of IT services and computing hardware.[1][2] Within virtual reality and augmented reality, Fujitsu is a minor and largely Japan-focused player. Its two notable products in the field are the enterprise UBIQUITOUSWARE Head Mounted Display, an industrial wearable launched in 2015, and the Fujitsu Windows Mixed Reality headset (model FMVHDS1), a consumer mixed reality device sold in Japan from late 2017.[3][4]
Company background
Fujitsu traces its roots to 1935, when Fuji Electric spun off its telecommunications equipment business as Fuji Tsushinki Seizo. Fuji Electric itself had been formed in 1923 as a joint venture between Japan's Furukawa Electric and the German conglomerate Siemens.[1] The company moved into computer development in the 1950s and became a major manufacturer of mainframes, telecommunications gear, semiconductors, and personal computers. By the 2020s it operated as one of the largest IT services firms in the world, supporting customers in more than 50 countries and regions with roughly 124,000 employees.[1][2] The company's consumer PC business in Japan was marketed under the FMV (Fujitsu Micro V) brand, which is the line that the FMVHDS1 mixed reality headset belongs to.[5]
UBIQUITOUSWARE Head Mounted Display
Fujitsu's first head-mounted display was an industrial augmented reality device released under its UBIQUITOUSWARE line of IoT enterprise wearables. Announced on May 11, 2015 and put on sale to enterprises in Japan from mid-May 2015, the device was aimed at hands-free on-site work such as infrastructure inspection and factory assembly, where it could overlay images, video, and audio to guide a worker through a task.[3][6]
Rather than a full pair of see-through glasses, the unit used a single non-see-through display module positioned in front of one eye. The module carried a 0.4-inch panel at 854 by 480 pixels, presenting the equivalent of a roughly 15-inch virtual screen, paired with a camera of about 8.1 megapixels and two microphones.[6] The display could be operated by voice or with an included wearable keyboard, keeping the operator's hands free.[3][6] Because it was built for harsh field conditions, the device carried IPX5/7 water resistance and IP5X dust resistance, and it could be clipped onto a safety helmet. The main unit weighed about 315 grams and ran for roughly 4 hours on a charge over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, with a built-in accelerometer that could detect a fall and alert a manager.[6]
Windows Mixed Reality headset (FMVHDS1)
In October 2017 Fujitsu became one of several PC makers to release a headset for Microsoft's Windows Mixed Reality platform, joining Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung.[4][7] Like the other headsets in that program, the Fujitsu device, sold as the FMVHDS1, followed Microsoft's reference design and used inside-out positional tracking with no external base stations or sensors.[4] It shipped with a pair of wireless, optically tracked Windows Mixed Reality motion controllers.[4][7]
The headset used two 2.89-inch LCD panels running at 1440 by 1440 pixels per eye, a refresh rate of up to 90 Hz (dropping to 60 Hz on lower-powered PCs), and a field of view that sources reported as around 95 to 100 degrees.[4][5] It was announced for Japan with an expected release in late November 2017 at a price of about 50,000 yen for the headset and controller bundle, which converted to roughly 440 to 445 US dollars at the time.[4][5] Fujitsu also offered the headset paired with its FMV LifeBook AH-MR/B3 notebook, a 15.6-inch laptop with an Intel Core i7-8550U processor, as a bundle priced at about 240,000 yen.[5][7] The product was promoted almost entirely through Japanese channels, and because Fujitsu did not sell its full consumer PC line in the United States or Europe, the headset never saw a wide Western release.[4][5]
Market position
Fujitsu's role in VR and AR has been limited and tied closely to its broader IT and PC business rather than to a dedicated headset division. The UBIQUITOUSWARE HMD was one of an early wave of enterprise smart-glasses-style devices intended for industrial and field-service use, a category later contested by products such as the R-7 Smart Glasses and Daqri Smart Glasses.[3] The FMVHDS1 was a rebadged entry built on Microsoft's Windows Mixed Reality reference platform, and like the rest of that lineup it faded as Microsoft wound the platform down over the following years.[4] Fujitsu has not released a follow-up consumer VR or AR headset since.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Fujitsu Limited". https://www.britannica.com/money/Fujitsu-Limited.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Fujitsu". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujitsu.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 "Fujitsu Releases Head Mounted Display to Help Enterprises Innovate On-Site Operations". May 11, 2015. https://www.fujitsu.com/global/about/resources/news/press-releases/2015/0511-02.html.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 "Fujitsu is Making a Windows VR Headset Too, Arrival in Japan Expected Late November". October 2017. https://www.roadtovr.com/fujitsu-making-windows-vr-headset-arrival-japan-expected-late-november/.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 "Fujitsu Has A Windows-Based VR Headset Too". October 17, 2017. https://www.uploadvr.com/fujitsu-windows-vr-headset/.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Fujitsu Releases Head Mounted Display For On-Site Operations". May 2015. https://www.cdrinfo.com/d7/content/fujitsu-releases-head-mounted-display-site-operations.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Fujitsu reveals Windows Mixed Reality headset as Fall Creators Update rollout begins". October 2017. https://www.techradar.com/news/fujitsu-reveals-windows-mixed-reality-headset-as-fall-creators-update-rollout-begins.