Check this about Sharp Labs from EE Times:
Camas, Wash. – Sharp Laboratories of America aims to turn your TV into a Web-surfing, news-gathering, sports-summarizing, on-demand movie viewing, e-mail center. As the beachhead for U.S. imports from Japan’s $20 billion Sharp Corp., Sharp Labs also has designs on your cell phone, video recorder, document-imaging system and more.
“We are charged primarily with researching technologies that Sharp Corp. can develop into products for the U.S. market,” said Sharp Labs’ founder and director, Jon Clemens. “For instance, Sharp had the first camera-enabled mobile phone, and by 2005 we will be producing only LCTVs [liquid-crystal-display televisions], no more CRTs.”
Interesting place, if I say so myself.