Residents of the coastal town of Susami in Wakayama prefecture love the sea and the post office so much that the town once installed a mailbox on the ocean floor for scuba divers. Now, further evidence of this powerful sea/mail love comes in the form of “Surumail” — edible postcards made from squid.
Produced by […]
On November 27, Sohgo Security Services (ALSOK) unveiled a new security system that relies on teamwork between robots and human security guards. The system, called Reborg-Q, will be put into action at AquaCity shopping mall in Odaiba (Tokyo) in mid-December.
The Reborg-Q security robot, which is an upgraded version of ALSOK’s Guardrobo D1, weighs […]
A dual-mode vehicle (DMV) that looks like a minibus and runs both on conventional railway tracks and paved roads was tested on the Gakunan railway in Fuji city (Shizuoka prefecture) on the night of November 24. The 28-passenger test vehicle was developed by the Hokkaido Railway Company (JR Hokkaido) in a project that began in […]
They’re big. They’re bad. They’re dekotora (”decoration trucks”). Explore some of the internet’s best dekotora photo collections here: Link 1, Link 2 (third button down, on the left), Link 3, Link 4, Link 5, Link 6, Link 7. And for a small dose of dekotora history, check out this intro to one of the Torakku […]
Hitachi has successfully tested a brain-machine interface that allows users to turn power switches on and off with their mind. Relying on optical topography, a neuroimaging technique that uses near-infrared light to map blood concentration in the brain, the system can recognize the changes in brain blood flow associated with mental activity and translate those […]
Lingerie manufacturer Triumph International Japan has unveiled a new type of brassiere that can be converted into a shopping bag. Called the “No! Shopping Bag Bra” (NO! reji-bukuro bra), the environmentally-friendly lingerie is designed to promote the reduction of plastic bag consumption, a key objective of the revised Containers and Packaging Recycling Law hammered out […]
On November 6, GS Yuasa and the University of Tokyo unveiled a system that ascertains the “mood” of a room by monitoring a variety of factors — including the feelings and behavior of the people in the room — and relays the mood data to remote terminals where it is expressed as colored LED light.
The […]
On November 6, Oki Electric announced the development of iris recognition technology for camera-equipped mobile phones. Unlike Oki’s previous iris recognition technology that relies on infrared cameras for the iris scan, the new technology uses ordinary cellphone cameras.
With plans to make the technology commercially available in March 2007, Oki hopes to boost the security […]
Fantastic video slideshow of mannequin scarecrows haunting Japan…
[Via: Fucked Gaijin]
A spacewear fashion show featuring clothing designed for travel in weightless conditions was held at the University of Tokyo’s Hongo campus on November 2.
The show was held by Rocketplane Kistler — a US company that plans to begin offering space tours in two years — and a group of Japanese fashion designers, as part […]
