NEC Corp has started selling a low priced version of its virtual fish tank. The Japanese computing company has been selling the Sakana Hakkei fish tank on the market in Japan for the past three years, priced at just over $7,000. Installed in hotel lobbies, and hospitals, the virtual tank has a 32 inch high definition television screen that displays images of tropical fish and goldfish reproduced in a real water tank. Having sold 5,000 units in the past three years. NEC has launched the Sakana Hakkei Junior which has a 24 inch screen and is priced at $3,500. The new tank has graphical software held on laser disks, which is then compressed by the MPEG2 format and transferred to smart cards. Virtual tank owners can then install different images. A smart card containing image data for a five minute display is priced at $275. NEC will target the new smaller tanks at restaurants and shops and plans to sell 150,000 systems, and 450,000 software units in the next two years.
