IBM Scientists Use DNA Scaffolding To Build Tiny Circuit Boards –Nanotechnology advancement could lead to smaller, faster, more energy efficient computer chips– IBM Press room San Jose, CA – 17 Aug 2009—
…could be a major breakthrough in enabling the semiconductor industry to pack more power and speed into tiny computer chips, while making them more energy efficient and less expensive to manufacture.
IBM researchers… have made an advancement in combining lithographic patterning with self assembly — a method to arrange DNA origami structures on surfaces compatible with today’s semiconductor manufacturing equipment….more…
“Shaking hip” has to be the lamest USB novelty product of the year from Japan. It doesn’t do anything.
See the official site of the manufacturer of “Shaking hip,” banpresto, for more info.
embiggen –The temperature in my miserable “mansion” {aka } has gone over 100F (37.78C here in the tropical heat of Tokyo. Frankly, I cannot imagine anywhere in Japan that would need an electric neck warmer (a scarf would be lighter and more functional), but if you need one, now Sanyo has one.
Oh Buddha, I sound like a broken record (WOTS a record?) about the never-ending procession of “new” Japanese robots that don’t do anything. However, NEDO, Japan’s quasi-governmental thinktank for robots is now admitting that a Stalinesque 5-Year Plan is needed for “practical” applications of robots with goals for a fake Roomba the size of a small refrigerator and a faux-Segway that’s much slower.
Japan Promotes Practical Application of Home-use Aug. 5, 2009 –Tech-On Nikkei
NEDO, an independent administrative institution in Japan, announced Aug 3, 2009, the outlines of the “Home-use Robot Practical Application Project,” which will be carried out for five years from fiscal 2009.
The goals of this project are to promote the commercialization of home-use robots, whose market is smaller than that for industrial robots, and to develop safety technologies and standards, which have been major issues…more…
Cyberdyne’s cyborg employees are out strutting their stuff on the streets in Tokyo wearing the latest version of the robotics company’s mecha suit, the “HAL” (Hybrid Assistive Limb). Cyberdyne is now starting mass production the robot suit, which can sense the user’s intended motion and amplify their strength from 50 to 70%. According to its inventor, Professor Yoshiyuki Sankai of Tsukuba University, the suit will, “assist disorder persons (sic) or aged people.”
The 3Yen has reported on these powered exoskeletons several times before, but none of those devices had such infamous rogue robot names as Cyberdyne’s HAL.
(That is, Cyberdyne, was the company the created the Terminators, and HAL was the villain of 2001: A Space Odyssey).
Nissan unveiled the prototype their so-called “first” mass-volume electric car, the “Leaf,” during an opening ceremony at the company’s new global headquarters in Yokohama on August 2, 2009. I write “co-called” because Nissan’s first electric car was produced from 1947 to 1950.
According to a recent press release from Nissan , the post-World War II shortages in oil (and foreign monetary reserves) caused the Japanese government to encourage production of EVs (electric vehicles). One result was the “Tama Electric Car” was created by Tokyo Electric Cars Company–one of the ancestors of Prince Motor Co., Ltd., which later merged with Nissan.
Developed by military aviation engineers who lost their jobs at the end of the war, the Tama Electric Car used lead-acid batteries and generated 3.3kW power and a top speed of 35 km/h (22 mph). With a cruising range of 65 km (40 miles), they were used mainly as taxis…The car was sold until 1950, when Japan’s post-war recovery was well underway and oil supplies had stabilized
Knowing the general price of Japanese goods of the time, the Tama must have cost only $1,000 or less (even my first new Toyota only cost $1,945 in 1972). I would love to buy Tama today for the same price and put in more powerful NiCad batteries, ha, ha.
Anyway, for more information, read the entire press release.
One of Japan’s pervasive social problems is their culture of ijime/bullying. Check out this Toyota girl pushing around her robot “coworker” and how Mr. Roboto remains balanced even after pushed by the bully and is able to run away at 7 km/h (4.4 MPH, which is a 13 minute, 40 second mile).
The video above, “….demonstrates the running capabilities of the new humanoid robot. The robot takes a step every 340ms and has no contact with the ground for 100ms of that…more info at smart-machines.blogspot.com...
I wish the Japanese would work on more practical robots like this four-legged robot mule, which also gets bullied a lot.
Introducing Japan’s newest Y.A.U.R. bot (Yet Another Useless Robot), the “An9-PR.” Wo0oT!
July 30, 2009 — Nikkei Electronics…. Sohgo Security Services Co Ltd….will release an autonomous robot that can be used for digital signage….features a 19-inch touch panel LCD monitor on the front, two 12-inch LCD monitors on the back and a ring-shaped electric bulletin board on the top… to be used in shopping centers, public facilities, etc. For example, it is possible to show a facility guide and advertisements, and visitors can run a search for shop information by using the touch panel….more…
Today the Tokyo heat was hell, but I gotta giggle at the lengths that the Japanese go to to stay cool.
Click to view in full-size technological glory.
Hmmm, let’s see. The air-conditioner head unit at the top of the photo blows out cool air into the room and the compressor on the left exhausts the heat into the room.
Japan Factiod No. 2,235: In the Great Hanshin (Kobe) Earthquake of 1995, 19% of people were killed by their crappy air-conditioners.
Japanese air conditioner photos via BoingBoing
.. a slide-show of photographs by Huschang Pourian, a designer living in Tokyo. Pourian is exhibiting his photographs of air conditioners ….. elements like tubes and wires destroying this order, going through walls, spreading chaos and confusion. Connected to these were white boxes with fans inside. I suddenly fell in love (visually) with these air conditioners and started chasing them….
But air conditioners are not just beautiful. Beside the fact that they make our lives much more comfortable….more…
Besides the fact that Japanese love of a visually “dynamic” living environment, “air-con” (air conditioners) are not included in rental properties in Japan. Central heating and cooling has been invented in Japan, so renters are on their own to find a solution to Japanese tropical heat. Dangling an air-con out the window is the standard-substandard solution here, meh.
The reason why I say, ‘don’t knock it ’till you have tried it’ is that these power assist bikes are kind of amazing. Parts of Tokyo are very hilly but the when I have peddled uphill in a power-assist bike the hills just vanish. The power assist is also invaluable to keep up with and surpass Tokyo’s heavy traffic. I have regularly maintained a 47 kpm (30 mph) speed without breaking into a sweat in Tokyo’s tropical heat (great for going to summer business meetings not being covered in sweat).
Last March, the 3Yen reported on the eariler version of the lithium battery electric bicycle in Japanese govern’t office to have a solar bicycles for official use. Now, Sanyo is offering an upscale $6,000+ USD upgrade to their Eneloop line. This electric hybrid bicycle, the “CY-SPK227 eneloop” is a sports-type featuring a super-lightweight carbon composite bicycle frame that absorbs vibration Sanyo will start selling it (only in Japan) in October for 627,900 yen ($6,600 USD).
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} has gone over 100F (37.78C here in the tropical heat of Tokyo. Frankly, I cannot imagine anywhere in Japan that would need an electric neck warmer (a scarf would be lighter and more functional), but if you need one, now Sanyo has one.
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