Oki Electric Provides FaceSensingEngine™ to Pantech’s Mobile Phones

Detects face location and automatically adjusts camera direction.

Tokyo, Japan, August 24 2006 -- Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) today announced that it has provided Pantech Co., Ltd., a major mobile phone company in South Korea, with FaceSensingEnginge™ (FSE), Oki’s face image processing middleware (*1) to be used in their mobile phones. FSE is embedded into Pantech’s SKY brand mobile phone, “SKY IM-R100,” that was launched in August 1, 2006.

“Our SKY brand mobile phones are known for their abundant functions using the camera, and we have been looking for an image processing technology that utilizes the camera as a human interface as well as for entertainment,” said E.J.Lee, General Manager, Product Planning, at Pantech. “Oki’s FSE was a perfect solution as it enables us to offer various solutions using the camera. What is amazing about FSE is that it can be embedded into a phone with limited CPU and memory but still provide high-speed image processing.”

SKY IM-R100 is Pantech’s first mobile phone to be equipped with Oki’s FSE. When taking a picture, the FSE automatically controls the camera direction based on the facial feature tracking function, and always adjusts the face to the middle of the screen. In addition, FSE can synthesize images in real-time synchronized to facial movements, and can save the result as a photo using the image synthesis function.

The FSE achieves one of the fastest processing times in the industry for face detection, facial feature detection and tracking functions. It detects facial features in 115msec, a ARM9 200MHz-level processing performance, and tracks facial feature tracking in 35msec. Thus, it best suits applications that require quick response. The FSE includes a processing algorithm that is not easily affected by brightness, thus enabling users to use it in various situations whether indoors or outdoors. Oki’s FSE provides facial recognition by extracting the amount of personal characteristics of the face image and comparing and verifying them to previously registered data.

“We are excited to provide our FSE’ to Pantechs SKY brand mobile phones, a sophisticated and popular mobile phone,” said Teruo Iijima, General Manager of Business Incubation Division at Oki Electric. “By combining libraries, such as Oki’s FaceCommunicator®- E2 (*2) , with FSE, Oki can provide a variety of solutions. Based on the track record with Pantech, we will continue to provide our FSE-based solutions to mobile phone market as well as the entertainment and other embedded systems markets.”
[Glossary]

*1 Middleware:
A software that is operated on OS and provides more detailed solutions than OS for application software.
*2 FaceCommunicator-E2:
A middleware designed for embedded equipment for real-time communication using Oki Electric’s 3D character face animation. For more information please go to: http://www.oki.com/jp/FSC/vc/en/FC_E2/index.html

About Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.

Founded in 1881, Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. is Japan’s first telecommunications manufacturer, with its headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. With the corporate vision, “Oki, Network Solutions for a Global Society,” Oki provides top-quality products, technologies and solutions to its customers through its info-telecom system business, semiconductor business and printer business. All three businesses function as a collective force to create exciting new products and technologies that satisfy a spectrum of customer needs in various markets. Visit Oki’s global web site at http://www.oki.com/.
About Pantech Co., Ltd.

Pantech, through its affiliates - Pantech Co., Ltd., Pantech&Curitel Communications, Inc. and Pantech C&I Co. - is the number two mobile phone company in South Korea and is the seventh largest handset [s1] manufacturer in the world. Pantech has been responsible for a number of breakthrough innovations in the mobile technology sector, including the introduction in 2004 of the world’s first fingerprint recognition camera phone, as well as award winning camcorder, MP3 and DMB phones. In 2005, Pantech affiliate Pantech&Curitel Communications, Inc. acquired SK Teletech Co., the handset manufacturing arm of SK Telecom, the number one mobile network operator in South Korea. The SKY brand, originally marketed by SK Teletech as the most popular premium handset brand in South Korea, has since become part of the Pantech brand portfolio. Pantech markets its products under the Curitel and SKY brands in the domestic Korean market and under the Pantech brand overseas. Pantech collectively has approximately 5,000 emplos and 22 regional sales offices worldwide. For more information on Pantech, please visit www.pantech.com or www.curitel.com/english
Notes:

* FaceSensingEngine is a trademark of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd.
* FaceCommunicator is a registered trademark of Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. in Japan.
* Part of FSE was developed by the consignment from Information-technology Promotion Agency, Japan (IPA)
* Names of companies and products are trademarks or registered trademarks of the respective companies and organizations.

Information in the press releases is current on the date of the press announcement, but is subject to change without prior notice.

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