Recently, we went to Tokyo helping pick out the coolest and most innovative new technologies at CEATEC, the annual Japanese consumer electronics show. Along with four other reps from Popular Science, CNET, and the Envisioneering Group, we narrowed down our short list to just ten items, either finished products or promising prototypes with some sort of vague plan to eventually get released. It took us a while to unpack, decompress, and get over jet-lag, so at long last, here's what we picked.

Pioneer's Image Recognition Car Navigation System: This is a cool new prototype that uses GPS and a camera to tell you where to drive, whether it's down a more scenic or less trafficked route, or to avoid a nearby car. Unlike traditional GPS systems, this one shows a camera view of the road rather than a graphical map.

NTT Docomo Wellness Phone: While there's nothing new about a portable pedometer, heart rate monitor, calorie counter, or breath analyzer, this prototype is the first that combines these health-monitoring features with a cell phone. The killer app is the ability to transmit the heath information to the doctor, diet specialist, or hospital via the cell phone network. It seems pretty much everything else has already been added to the cell phone, so how about some life- and health-saving features!

JVC's LED Backlit Television: We picked this LED (light-emitting diode) TV prototype because – unlike LCDs –- it's both energy-efficient and mercury-free. It also offers super high contrast (100,000 to 1) and more colors – a combination that no company has managed to pull together thus far.

Sharp Electronics' System LCD Module with Embedded Optical Sensors: At first glance, this touchscreen seems like an iPhone wannabe – it lets you zoom in and out using your fingers – but it's actually much more powerful, since it lets you use more than two fingers at once. So, for example, you can play several "keys" of an instrument, or more than three button commands on a virtual keyboard.

NEC's FieldAnalyst with Age and Gender Recognition: This camera purports to detect age and gender just by focusing on you. How does it do this? By going through a database of around 10, 000 faces. The idea is to use it in malls or other public spaces for market research. It was a cool idea, which is why we put it on our short list, but to be honest, after trying the thing out, we found it to be way off on our age (in a good way!).

Sony Rolly: Yes, you may have seen and heard about this robotic moving and dancing speaker system, available only in Japan, but you haven't heard about it from us, so we'll lift our very own quote in the CEATEC Tech-Pert panel press release about this nifty new device:

"Though seemingly useless, the Rolly got our nod for its originality, sense of fun, and smooth operation. It mixes two qualities for which its creator, Sony, is known: audio and robotics, and the idea of a dancing music player could only come out of the creative and fertile minds typically found in a Japanese R&D lab. The robotics are graceful and it actually sounds good, considering the device's small size. The Rolly is the quintessential "only-in-Japan" gadget, but we think with the right marketing idea, and a considerable drop in price, the Rolly could well become the pet rock/Tamagotchi of 2008 in the U.S. Yes, it's whimsical, and never thought we needed a Rolly, but now we're not sure if we can live without one. – Tom Samiljan, Switched.com"

Hitachi's Blu-ray Camcorders (DZ-BD7H and DZ-BD70A): We have our issues with DVD-camcorders – they're clunky and not that versatile -- but their claim to fame is ease-of-use and the ability to create a ready-to-play disc right out of the device (no computer editing necessary). Hitachi's new Blu-ray camcorders – the first ever by any manufacturer -- earned our praise because they offer you the option of shooting right onto Blu-ray discs or onto a built-in hard drive (which offers a bit more versatility if you want to do extensive edits). They also boast an impressive 80 minutes of battery life!

Panasonic and Toshiba's High Definition Recording on DVD Media: Thanks to a new transcoding process that makes video files smaller, Panasonic and Toshiba displayed HD recorders prototypes that are capable of storing up to two hours of HD-quality video on standard DVDs. In other words, you get HD-quality video on a regular DVD recorder (provided, of course, that you have an HDTV!).

Toshiba's SpursEngine High-Performance Stream Processor: This new processor enables all kinds of cool new applications and innovations, including real-time facial makeup and wardrobe rendering (scary!), the ability to handle hundreds of TV and sound sources at the same time, and cool, hand-gesture-based, motion-sensitive video/PC controls.

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• Control Your Computer or Car By Waving Your Hands
• The World's Thinnest TVs
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The annual Japanese consumer electronics show (also known as CEATEC) in Tokyo is usually a good place to see some of the cutting-edge technologies that might make their way to the U.S. a few years from now. It's also a good place to see esoteric, only-in-Japan type stuff that never makes it across the pond. It's a gee-whiz-gadget-lover's paradise, and Switched was lucky enough to be asked to help pick the five most innovative and likely-to-succeed products at the show. We're part of a panel that includes tech writers from Popular Science, CNET and the Envisioneering Group. The four-person panel will present their decisions at the end of the show at a quasi-awards ceremony, as well as participate in a panel at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.

At any rate, we just wanted to give you the heads up, because it's likely you'll be seeing a few posts about innovative, gee-whiz products from Japan over the next couple of days. For even more on the latest gadgets from Japan, check out the CEATEC coverage at Engadget, which also has a couple of writers here at the show.

BTW, the above picture is of an attendant holding a 50GB Blu-ray disc in one hand, and a traditional DVD-RAM disc in the other. This show may have grown in size since the last time we were here, but the booth babes look the same -- a campy cross between swinging-London '60s era hipsters and/or Pizzicato Five, and flight-attendants that might look at home on a Virgin Galactic flight, when and if those ever happen. Yes, we're gadget dorks!

Related Links:

• More Gadget News From Japan: The World's Thinnest TVs
• Pictures of America's First Spaceport