Japanese electronics giant Sony Chairman and CEO Howard Stringerrndelivers a keynote speech at the annual Ceatec trade show in Tokyo. His company’s Blu-ray format DVD player is in a struggle with Toshiba’s HD-DVD format player.

At the 2005 edition of the Ceatec show in Tokyo, the new gadgets are sleek–and sometimes just plain cute. This is Hitachi’s Media Robot, a voice-controlled device that recommends TV shows according to a person’s viewing habits.

Gadgetry on display from Toshiba includes a prototype of the Gigabeat music player packed with a direct methanol fuel cell. The company has said that a 300-milliwatt version of the fuel cell could power a hard-drive-based player for approximately 60 hours on a single charge.

The fuel cell technology, still in prototype, also fits cell phones. Toshiba expects commercial products to be available in 2007.

This concept phone from Mitsubishi, for NTT DoCoMo, has a touch-panel display instead of keys.

Panasonic’s P901iTV mobile phone prototype, which runs on the DoCoMo network, can receive “one segment” digital broadcasting.

This handset prototype from DoCoMo features a bone-transmitting speaker. Users place the handset, designed like a ring, on a finger to make calls.

The battle over the successor to the DVD format is in full swing at Ceatec. On the one side is Blu-ray, supported by a host of companies including Sony. Shown here is a concept version of Sony’s BD-ROM player.

Blu-ray is also finding a home in Sony’s Vaio systems.

Leading the charge for the rival HD DVD format is Toshiba, whose gear includes a laptop PC with an HD DVD drive.

A concept 3D projector from Pioneer comes with a docent named Haruka.

Sony’s audio combo plays CDs and mini discs and has a hard drive. Still in prototype, it can store 20,000 songs and forward them to portable audio players directly.

Electronic paper on display from Fujitsu.