According to the Nikkei (subscription required), Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd is pushing its new unicycle-riding robot at the CEATEC Japan 2008 exhibition in Makuhari Messe in Chiba just east of Tokyo.
This robot is actually meant to represent a kindergarten girl. As well as riding forward and backward, the girlie-bot can balance even when stationary.
Besides the trippy photos of Murata’s robots bicycling on Mars with a fawn, check out their creepy TV commercials of other versions of their cycling robots here. Click to view view.
Q: How many Japanese astronauts does it take to change a light? A: Only one, but you’ll have to wait, “until after 2010.”
Number of burned-out lamps on Japanese space lab nears half Mainichi Japan - September 15, 2008
Almost half of the 21 fluorescent lamps aboard Japan’s experimentation module Kibo on the International Space Station (ISS) have burned out, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said…
….JAXA is developing a lighting system using light-emitting diodes that will not burn out, but it cannot get it to the Kibo module until after 2010…more…
Ok, ok, to be fair, Japan whines that they were American lamps.
Yesterday Sony showed off its new clunky, wireless stereo headphone, the “DR-BT160AS” that uses Bluetooth to wirelessly transmits music from an iPod or cellphone.
Butt-ugly, ain’t it?
Project Aiko is a do it yourself Japanese girl, coming from a Canadian inventor, Le Trung.
He says his inspiration for Aikko was from, “watching Robot anime, since I was a kid…After watching Chobits and DearS, I have made up my mind that I will make a full human android…All it takes is inspiration…”
In addition to robotic movement, Aiko can “feel pain” and is “bilingual” in English and Japanese.
According to the inventor, Project Aiko’s future abilities will include:
“This is my dream, don’t know it will come true, unless I try. One step at a time.
* Facial Expression for Aiko
* Make me tea and coffee
* Feed me sushi
* Make simple breakfast egg and bacon.
* I lie down on Aiko lap, and have her Q-tip my ear.
* Ability to massage shoulders and neck…..…..”
My favorite ex-bartender from Tokyo is doing commercials for the ZeptoPad, a handwriting tool for iPhone from Japan.
The coolest feature of ZeptoPad is “Shake & Share”. When you meet other users of ZeptoPad, you can send a doodle or worksheet to another iPhone directly. Press “Shake & Share” from the menu then shake with another iPhone.
The “mindmapping” for doodling reminds me of sorely missed fun features of the Apple Newton.
Now that you have convinced your company to buy digital makeup for your videoconferencing, why no get war-paint built into your digital camera?
Casio to Release Digital Cameras w/ ‘Makeup Function’ NIKKEI — Tech-On! — 2008 Aug. 25
….The makeup function makes blotches and dullness less obtrusive by lightening the skin color of faces in the image. In addition, the function “makes the skin tone look softer and smoother, while covering annoying little wrinkles,” Casio said. With this function, “the skin looks clearer, younger and more natural in the pictures,” according to the company. The intensity of the image processing can be selected from 12 levels…more…
Japan Demands Probe Into Cause of Nano Flameouts MacNewsWorld - ECT News Network 08/19/08 3:42 PM PT…Several incidents of iPod Nanos bursting into flames have created consumer jitters in gadget-happy Japan. Apple is downplaying the problem, pointing out that no major injuries or damage have been reported. The problem is due to defective batteries, the company said, and only a tiny percentage of the devices have caught on fire…more…
This story has been floating around Japan since last March: 03-12-2008 / AFP: Japan investigates after iPod nano overheats, sparks.
Normally Japan’s lackadaisical regulators take three to four years to look into such a problem, but in this case the evil foreign iPod nano has captured the majority of the market a new sales of MP3 players in Japan (causing Sony a great loss of face). My drinking buddy Greji recently quipped at this news that, “Japan must have a rival product to launch”, and another friend, Charles, chimed in that, “the irony is the defective batteries were made in Japan.”
iPhone Affects KDDI’s Net Subscription Growth Fri, Aug 8 2008 4:42 PM - Nikkei News - Tech-On!
The number of new mobile phone subscriptions in Japan declined 21% year-on-year to 391,500 in July 2008…
…However, SoftBank Mobile, on the other hand, posted a favorable net growth (new subscriptions minus cancellations with MNP) of 52,000 subscriptions.”We believe our large net growth was an iPhone effect,” SoftBank Mobile’s PR Department said. …more…
I see strange coincidences on the headline services all the time. Today [August 6th] for example, in the rather iPhone-hostile climate of Japan (see MSN Japan: You can probably find an iPhone there), I spotted the following back-to-back bad news for Japan’s exclusive iPhone provider, Softbank.
Kyodo News Headlines
Aug. 05 18:26 Softbank Mobile to cut minimum monthly fee on iPhone to 2,990 yen ——-and on the same page—
Softbank reports 22.9% fall in group net profit for April-June
Click to view view.
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Q: How many Japanese astronauts does it take to change a light?
My favorite ex-bartender from Tokyo is doing commercials for the 
Now that you have convinced your company to buy digital makeup for your videoconferencing, why no get war-paint built into your digital camera?
