(iTers News)- Mr. Minoru Usui, President of the Seiko Epson Corp. kicked off a keynote session of IFA 2012, the world’s largest consumer electronics trade, outlining his vision for growth in the technology sector.

During the keynote Mr. Usui said that technology manufacturers were experiencing unprecedented change in their hype-competitive environment.

Cautioning against short-term solutions, he advocated a return to core values as the answer not only to financial success, but finding innovative and differentiated solutions to society’s needs.

Moverio head-mounted display is one prime example of how Epson will weather out economic and financial storm.

In addition to exhibiting new compact, high precision and energy saving printer and projector Ranges, which is 40% smaller than last year’s model, Mr Usui discussed Epson’s new wearable products, focused on entertainment, sports, medicine and healthcare.

Mr Usui said, “The maturation of printer, PC and smart phone consumer markets, increasingly means there are higher levels of cost competition, driving innovation in engineering.

Epson has identified wearable PC technology as an area of future growth which it is uniquely capable to address.  Combined with our R&D in this field, competition in our core markets is also driving rapid innovation in our proprietary technologies that we can leverage for these new products.”

 GPS-enabled wearable watch

When Mr Usui took the helm of in 2008, he chose to emphasize Epson’s core values of Takumi (Craftsmanship) and Monozukuri (the art and science of manufacturing), instructing his engineers to leverage Epson’s unique and proprietary technologies to new ends.

These choices have translated into a special engineering school to teach all Epson’s engineers the necessity to build-in mass manufacturing requirements into their innovative designs. And also, Epson’s continued ownership and oversight of all of its global manufacturing sites.

Mr Usui credited these early decisions with the development of this year’s product offering, saying, “We are confident that nobody else could make these products. Epson’s investment in its core engineering, manufacturing values and core technology has helped us achieve a historic high of up to 35% market share in the EU 5 overall and at times market leading, and at times market leading positions in  the UK, Germany and Italy for consumer inkjet printers this year. It has also helped Epson to maintain its number 1 position in global projector, large format printer and retail printer sales. Wearable PC products that interact with the cloud will come next.”

Highlighting Epson’s products on display at IFA2012 is Moverio BT-100, a head-mounted display (HMD) that offers wearers a chance to enjoy big-screen entertainment on the go.

Weighing only 240 grams, this compact device is the world's first product of its kind and is packed full of Epson technologies.

Although Epson’s first generation of see-through multimedia glasses has been designed for enterprise and entertainment, it has important potential future applications in healthcare, tourism, training and engineering.

It offers the ability to watch a variety of content through transparent lenses, facilitating access to live information or entertainment while engaged in another task.

The technology that has enabled the realization of this innovative concept derived from advancements in Epson’s projection technology. The Moverio is now on sale in Europe, and Epson is already working on an update.

Videos and Photos by JH BAE