NEC has introduced its “camera engine” chips to the world. These chips will allow manufacturers to design camera phone modules that support 12 megapixel still photos and full 1080p HD video. The chip, CE143, also has built-in support for image-stabilization and has some hi-tech circuitry that NEC claims can perform face recognition 25 times faster than the usual software-based methods. Chip samples are expected to be available in March 2009, and will be into full production of 1 million chips a month from April onwards. NEC will also be showing off this chip at MWC 2009.

NEC Electronics has introduced a new application-specific standard product (ASSP) which will allow users to upscale images from QVGA resolutions (320 x 240 pixels) to WVGA (800 x 480 pixels) while reducing the blurring effect that is associated with such actions. Image data in 640 x 480 VGA format can also be boosted to 1920 x 1080 high-definition, which will be a boon to many users.

Japanese company NEC has announced the development of software for mobiles that can automatically recognize the spoken word and certain phrases with a relatively high speed and accuracy.

The new software independently provides automatic interpretation from Japanese to English and vice versa. Thus eliminating the need for network connections or outside servers. Additionally, the software only takes moments to recognize a word or phrase before the interpretation is suitably displayed.

NEC has just paraded a fair number of concept cellphones to the masses in Japan, and they all look very interesting! The entire range comes in a variety of kooky and weird colors, not to mention various shapes and sizes as well. Even the material used for each handset is different. No idea which one will make the cut before reaching the consumers, but it sure is an exciting future judging by what's on display! Check out the additional concept cellphones in the photo gallery by clicking on the image above.