SCI-TECH

Japanese Robot Art – It’s Good, Man! Illustration, product packaging, statues & sculpture, and even some transhumanist pin-ups; for decades Japan’s been pounding out the robot art like nobody’s business. Last week’s robotics piece examined the artistic legacy influence of giant Japanese robots on the upcoming film Pacific Rim, but this week it’s just cool [...]

Microsoft has unveiled the Xbox One, which the company is hoping will be the system in the center of all home entertainment for people everywhere. It was unveiled in Redmond with a full press release distributed by the company. Here in Japan, we also received a Japanese version of the official company press release, and [...]

I-O DATA is releasing a 9 mm thin USB3.0 compliant portable HDD called “Kakuusu 9″ in late June. It has a compact body (75 x 110 x 9mm, 125g) with a stylish aluminum casing, making it a fitting accompaniment to an Ultrabook, MacBook Air, etc. Capacity is 500GB. It’s run with USB bus power, so [...]

From Takara Tomy comes the must have accessory for summer fun – The Dancing Face-Stand for iPhone – it is an iPhone stand that looks like a robot. It will dance with the music you play from your iPhone. Download the dedicated app “Face sing” to your iPhone and you will be able to display [...]

This marketing analysis tool, under development by Fujitsu, uses technology to sense people’s movement. By analyzing how customers behave in response to merchandise, entirely new kinds of marketing information will be obtainable. “This exhibit is designed with retail stores in mind. The system determines how people choose products, whether they were interested in a product [...]

Today, May 21, Sharp introduced 2 models of 4K compliant LCD TVs: AQUOS UD1 – 70 inch and AQUOS UD1 – 60 inch. The 70 inch will be released on June 15, the 60 inch will be released on August 10. We attended their product presentation announcement (new LCD TV model press conference) held in [...]

If you are like a lot of guys, not only might your computer or touch panel need some cleaning, but your stuff may not be smelling as fresh as it could. Now, there may be something for you. Elecom is releasing a touch panel cleaner with fragrance in late May. There are 2 kinds: - [...]

Yes, everything is small in Japan but this is extreme! Thanko released an extremely small functional camera that looks like a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera. Despite it’s super small size (38x33x28m, 17g), it is capable of taking photos and movies. Photos and movies can be saved on a microSD card. Battery charge is done via [...]

Sony has developed an A4 sized equivalent 13.3″ digital paper notepad. The display is the first in the world to use E Ink Mobius, a new flexible electronic paper display technology developed by E Ink in collaboration with Sony. Technology developed by Sony for forming high precision thin film transistors on plastic instead of glass [...]

Fourteen years from now, when Japan’s magnetically levitated, approx. 300MPH/482KPH Chuō Shinkansen comes online, it’ll be among the world’s coolest people movers – maybe even top of the list. And the world’s most fantastic train should have equally fantastic train stations, yeah? Maybe not. While the existence of this train is old news, released just [...]