In principle, any advance in any field of technology is welcome, but I have my doubts about this new service developed by a Japanese company called DSS. It’s basically aimed at establishing a “big brother”-like control system [JP, PDF] within factories.
If you’ve ever come to Japan, and especially to Tokyo, you will have noticed this country’s love for digital signage systems. They’re practically everywhere and some of them are quite cool. Now Tokyo-based Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) has announced plans to set up a digital signage system [JP] that consists of a total of twelve 42-inch LCDs.
After losing the format war against Sony, Toshiba is yet to produce Blu-ray hardware, but at least they keep on rolling out DVD hardware in their VARDIA series. The company yesterday announced two new HDD/DVD recorders for the Japanese market [JP].
First, let me say the movie “Robo-geisha” is for real (see the imdb entry). Second, I rarely use the word “weird” when I blog about Japanese stuff, but the trailer for this film is weird (and thankfully in English). And third, the trailer is NSFW and definitely not suitable for children.
Sega Toys Japan yesterday unveiled the Uchiagehanabi, a device that brings fireworks indoors. And it’s not only the visuals but also the corresponding sounds (shots, explosions etc.) you get in your very home. The device uses the wall or a ceiling as a backdrop for projecting fireworks patterns.
Sega Toys says that some of the images are as wide as 1.5m, and users can even create remixes of their favorite patterns to get personalized fireworks displays. It’s also possible to “draw” patterns by yourself and let the Uchiagehanabi project them onto your living room wall.
Thanko, specialists of all things USB, brought us many good things in the past. Camera-wise, the Tokyo-based company rolled out a water-proof mini camera, a USB necktie with a built-in camera, not one but two video watches and (just recently) an HDV camera.
But these fantastic devices had one flaw: They were small, but not small enough. Reason enough for Thanko to announce the video camera button today [JP]. Needless to say the camera comes with a USB port (this is a Thanko product), 4GB of internal memory and the ability to shoot video in VGA at 15fps.
Sony seems to be less happy with the PS3 sales numbers than one could think. Or why else would they cooperate with the Taiwanese government to make local developers create more games for their console?
Yesterday Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs has closed a cooperation deal with Sony that centers on the areas of human resources and financing. The aim of the project is to increase a bigger user and developer base in Taiwan that could then help create PS3 games suitable for the much bigger game market in mainland China.
Brad Pitt has been shooting TV commercials for Japan’s third biggest cell phone carrier SoftBank for a few years now, and more often than not, he plays a total moron. In this new spot, currently in heavy rotation on Japanese TV, he tries everything to please sumo champion Musashimaru.
As far as I can tell, the Fiat 500 gained popularity all around the world after Fiat started producing the mini car in 1957 (it quickly attained cult status and is still around today). Now a Japanese man called Kogoro Kurata decided to transform his 1950s model into a retro bulldozer for some reason [JP].
A Japanese company called Marshal (yes, one “l”) announced [JP] the MAL 1925 today, a netbook stand that doubles as a DVD super multi drive, has room for a second HDD and comes with an extra USB 2.0 port. Century’s stand, which I blogged in April, is pretty similar but lacks the slot for an alternative 2.5-inch SATA HDD or SSD.
Sanyo Japan today announced the strange, vase-like “eneloop lamp” [press release in English] that can be used both as a regular interior light or as a flashlight (when you pick it up and hold it like one). As a third option, the device also serves as a “healing lamp” once you switch from white to blue lighting.
The eneloop lamp can be charged wirelessly by putting it on its charging stand. Sanyo says two eneloop AA batteries are enough to power the futuristic device for 6 hours in flashlight mode, up to 45 hours in white light mode and up to 16 hours in blue light mode.
It seems Japanese papercraft art isn’t limited to Origami or Pellermodels but also has something in store for us gadget fans. Case in point: The Paper Speaker [JP], announced yesterday by Tokyo-based Princeton for use with your PC (or any device sporting a USB port).
It’s always good to know some big companies don’t forget to come up with technological innovations that aren’t aimed at a large or wealthy group of consumers. In this case, Toyota has announced the development of a system that makes it possible for drivers to control wheelchairs with their thoughts alone. And it supposedly works excellent.
This may sound ridiculous first time you hear it, but Japan is thinking about solar power from panels located in space to mother earth, or to be more exact, the nation of Nippon itself. According to the Nikkei (one of Japan’s biggest newspapers), the government plans to ask local technology companies to participate in the endeavor as early as next month.
JVC Japan announced the XV-BP1 today [JP], a new Blu-ray player that comes with two interesting features and a fair price. The player supports DivX/MPEG-4/MKV/AVCHD files and sports a USB port at the front so you can plug in a USB stick with your DivX-movies (you know, the ones you downloaded legally earlier) into the device and directly start watching.
Even though I live in Japan, I admit I don’t know anything about Origami and other techniques to build objects out of paper. Today is also the first time I heard of the Pellermodel concept, the art of creating “true 3D paper objects”.
Now Bandai is planning to sell “Pellermodel” (brand name) kits, which make it possible for users to build a small, humanoid-like 3D object with one’s own face on it (or that of anyone you like). All that users need to do is to upload a face picture, access Bandai’s dedicated Pellermodel website [JP], print and attach the picture on the model’s head. Your “3D” figure can then be pressed out in seconds.
Formerly known as iSwing, Toyota’s single-seat personal mobility cars gained worldwide attention back in 2005 when TIME magazine called it one of the ”coolest inventions” of that year. But now Toyota has decided to update the vehicle (by reworking the 4-wheel car into a 3-wheel “chair”), give it a new name (i-Real) and let the Central Japan International Airport near Nagoya test a total of four units on a daily basis.
It surely didn’t escape anyone’s attention Twitter is on track to becoming a mass phenomenon globally. The service is also growing nicely in Japan where it has been embraced by the geek community in particular (Japanese is the only alternative language Twitter is available in until today).
And today a small group of those Japanese geeks, members of the so-called Koress Project, have announced the development of the Akiduki Pulse box, a device that automatically posts your heart rate to Twitter [JP].
Augmented reality (AR), the mixing of real-world data with computer-generated information, is currently a hot topic in the web world and is poised to play an even bigger role in the very near future. And cell phones in particular seem to be especially suitable as AR vehicles, meaning the devices will make it possible to impose graphical layers over real-world images while on the go.
Videos and more over at MobileCrunch.
Tokyo-based USB gadget specialist Thanko has been quite active in the last few days, having launched two PC mice in a row. One of these devices is silly, the other isn’t: You can now get a mouse with a built-in mini fish tank [JP] of sorts (Liquid Mouse) and one which hardly makes any noise [JP] (Silent Mouse EX).
Fujitsu Laboratories, the company’s R&D subsidiary, has announced the development [press release in English] of a transistor for the power supply units of servers that can help reduce electricity consumption of computer hardware and home electronics significantly.
I just came back from the official pre-launch event for the iPhone 3GS in Japan, organized by telecommunications giant SoftBank (the exclusive carrier in Nippon). The iPhone is often said to be rather unpopular in this country (which isn’t true), but even though the event began at 10 in the night, it was totally packed.
I blogged about Sega Toys’ Pekoppa, the plant that listens and reacts to everything a person says, exactly 12 months ago. And the toy seems to have become a hit since then, as Sega Toys today announced the Hanappa, a Pekoppa 2 of sorts [JP, PDF].
Tokyo-based electronics company Lancerlink has announced the iJector [JP] today, an LCOS projector that you can use with your iPod or iPhone. Shaped like a dock, the device makes it possible to watch video stored on your iPod on the go via its built-on stereo speakers (3W×2ch).
