Posted 10/31/09 at 09:11:12 AM by Justin Kerr

Okay admit it. Not only is Aliens one of the greatest movies of all time, but it instilled in you a secret lust to engage Alien queens in battle with a giant, futuristic cargo stacking mech. Okay, perhaps we are overstating this just a touch, but we were still totally excited to see Japanese engineers demonstrate a fully functional Dual-Arm Power Amplification Robot, particularly one that gives users superhuman strength, and was quite obviously inspired by the cult sci-fi classic.

The robot, which is being designed with a commercial future in mind, is capable of lifting more than 100kg, but itself weighs slightly over 230kg. Given these specs, obvious safety concerns are raised by wearing a suit that is heavy enough to crush its wearer, however, Chief engineer Go Shirogauchi claims the robot is quite safe. “The most important challenge is not to injure the operator with the amplified power” he said. “For that challenge, a delicate control and a mechanics design which does not put too much force onto a human in the worst situation is required”.

The robot is primarily being designed for the construction industry, but Shirogauchi claims they plan to have plenty of interchangeable parts to make it viable in many more situations. “Our intention is not to develop a small power shovel, but to create a common platform which can be applied to many areas other than the construction sites” said Shirogauchi.

The arms are expected to cost about $357,000 when they eventually come to market, hopefully sometime in 2015.

Read More

Posted 09/14/09 at 08:00:54 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Japanese electronics manufacturers Casio, NEC and Hitachi have decided to merge their mobile phone divisions. The merged entity will be ready to lock horns with local and international competitors by April next year. Casio and Hitachi are already part of a joint venture they constituted in 2004. With NEC joining the existing joint venture, the resulting entity will, immediately after its birth, acquire the bragging rights that belong to the second-largest handset maker in Japan.

The latest entrant will be the largest stakeholder in the new business with a 66 percent stake, while Casio and Hitachi will hold 17.34 percent and 16.66 percent, respectively. The three are not only eyeing the jam-packed Japanese market, but also the global market. Japanese handset makers have not been able to have an impact on the world stage. Though they seem to posses the goods to shatter their global jinx to smithereens, the world has never really warmed up to the relatively more advanced Japanese cellphone technology.

The Japanese have pioneered many advancements in mobile technology, from e-mail to electronic payments. All said, their lack of success is not entirely incomprehensible. The fact is that Japanese handset makers have never tried to tailor their products to international tastes.

Read More

Posted 09/09/09 at 08:04:40 PM by Ryan Whitwam

It doesn’t matter that almost all the text is in Japanese, and you probably don’t speak Japanese. This adorable look at how Google Street View works is easy viewing for all nationalities. Sure, it takes some creative liberties, but that’s why it’s so darn endearing. 

The video opens on a charming little fellow with a camera for a head puttering down the street. He snaps pictures as he goes, and then takes them back to his (also charming) workshop, where they are scanned.  Identifiable information is blurred out, and all is well. Well, there are some additional complaints about unwanted elements in the pics, but the little camera-headed fellow works late into the night to keep you safe.

Read More

Posted 08/17/09 at 02:20:21 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Japanese researchers have made a major breakthrough that could prove to be a watershed in the development of flexible OLEDs. Scientists from the Center for Future Chemistry at Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan have concocted a “liquid-OLED.”

They have detailed their innovation in the latest issue of Applied Physics Letters. The “liquid-OLED” is named as such on account of its use of a liquid semiconductor layer. This latest technology could yield more pliant and reliable roll-up OLEDs compared to other technologies currently undergoing the rigors of testing and fine-tuning in other part of the world.

Read More

Posted 07/27/09 at 10:30:05 AM by Paul Lilly

It appears CBHD (China Blue High-Definition), formerly known as CH-DVD (China High Definition DVD), has a shot at doing something HD-DVD never could: Beat Blu-ray. Or at least that's the case in Japan.

Apparently a Japanese news station ran the numbers and confirmed that the CBHD format holds a 3 percent market share lead over Blu-ray, FormatWarCentral.com reports. The revelation was presented as part of a documentary, which you can view here, though you're on your own in translating the dialogue.

Under its former designation, the CBHD format was first announced in September 2007 as a joint venture between OMNERC and the DVD Forum, the latter of which was responsible for the failed HD-DVD format. CBHD supporters hope the format will succeed where HD-DVD didn't by offering better copy protection features. However, Warner Brothers is so far the only Hollywood studio to support CBHD.

Read More

Posted 06/29/09 at 05:47:51 PM by Pulkit Chandna

The Japanese have peculiar tastes, be it in video games or gadgets. The whimsical idiosyncrasies of a group of Japanese technology enthusiasts with very peculiar tastes have manifest themselves in the form of the Akiduki Pulse box, a device that automatically tweets your heart rate to your buddies. The user needs to press a particular button for a few seconds to send his heart rate to his friends on Twitter. The device, which has been developed by a group named Koress Project, is open source. The group intends to commercialize the device at some point in the future. The Akiduki Pulse box may one day emerge as the world’s first fully automated web-based death announcement device.

Read More

Posted 05/18/09 at 05:29:24 PM by Andy Salisbury

Google recently announced that they have planned to retake all of their photographs for the Japanese version of Street View thanks to their cameras being too high for most resident’s fences.

The new images will be taken from 16 inches lower than before, and will blur out license plates to protect the privacy of those potentially in the camera’s view. Japan Probe argues that the height difference will make little to no difference, because many images that have been deemed inappropriate weren’t behind fences. Examples include a high school girl’s chest being touched, a man who has passed out in his own sick, and a couple entering a “love hotel.”

Given what passes for a game show over there, I’m surprised that this is what people are having issues with.

Read More

Posted 04/22/09 at 07:41:16 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Toshiba had last year chosen its Qosmio range of notebooks to lift the curtain on its SpursEngine chip, which is a co-processor based on the Cell Broadband Engine found in the PS3. SpursEngine-powered Qosmios are capable of some impressive graphical feats like real-time graphics processing and video upscaling (SD to HD).

Toshiba’s new Qosmio laptops, which bear the might of its quad-core SpursEngine chip, will arrive in Japanese stores on Friday with the promise of enhancing internet video. Two previous iterations of the Qosmio used the immense power of the SpursEngine at their disposal to upscale DVD video, but left streaming video untouched.

The SpursEngine co-processor will now be used to beautify video from websites like Youtube, though its corrective effect will only become evident in full screen mode. There is another strange caveat: this feature will only work with Internet Explorer. The new Qosmios include the 18.4-inch G50 ($3,421) and the 15.4-inch FX ($2,119). A U.S release is certainly on the cards but no one has the slightest whiff of exactly when it will occur.

Read More