japan

What's that about not playing with your food? But seeing as the Noodle Waterslide's from Japanese toymaker Bandai, it does wear the label of "toy." Still, this not only brings back memories of another noodle device, the USB-powered noodle strainer, it's actually a replica of the flowing somen specialty called nagashi somen, which I so wanted to try out while visiting Japan. Too bad this summer delight is found mainly in the Hyogo prefecture.

Here, thin somen is put in water flowing along a long bamboo gutter where you catch the noodles with your chopsticks, … Read more

In case you were concerned that Linux didn't have enough of a presence in pop culture, you can now read English translations of Ubunchu, a Japanese Manga comic series about three students in a sys admin club who are getting into Ubuntu.

I await the episode where Mark Shuttleworth flies his open-source spaceship to Japan to meet the students.

Via BoingBoing

Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom

This has shades of Cabbage Patch and Chucky going for it. LittleIsland's Wedding Robot, mainly supposed to be used in place of a welcome board at weddings, just gives me the spooks since the choice of a bridal costume calls to mind the jilted and tragic Miss Haversham in Charles Dickens' "Great Expectations."

Nor do you need a scorned bride to spill secrets. This custom-made bot (198,000 yen, $2,500) will apparently respond to voices and, according to the site literature, freely share secrets of the groom to liven up the party. And don't think … Read more

Noodles are serious business in Japan, but that doesn't mean that the whole family can't enjoy Bandai's new somen-making toy that is basically a waterslide for "nagashi somen," thin somen noodles that are served in a stream of water. The noodles come out of a little house at the top of the slide and end up in a strainer at the bottom.

Electronic gadgets may be high-tech, but kitchen gadgets make things delicious.

Bandai Press Release Via TokyoMango

The "Kabutom MX-03" can be remote-controlled or piloted from the cockpit (visible on the left side), and is capable of carrying passengers inside its shell. It was designed and built by a man in Ibaraki, Japan, over the last 11 years.

You can also check out the design blog featuring the assembly.

(Via JapanProbe)

Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom

The blog you're about to read is a page-turner. No, really, it is. It's about the Book Time, a hands-free machine out of Japan that automatically turns pages for you. At first glance, this might seem like yet another gadget for the lazy. But it actually has found a home in old-age facilities and public libraries, proving useful for people who have difficulty lifting or maneuvering.

As you can surmise from the video below, the contraption from Nishizawa Electronic Measuring Instruments holds books and magazines in place and turns their pages with windshield-wiper-type arms when the reader presses … Read more

This is about the closest thing to a Superman suit we've seen. Put it on, say its creators, and the motorized Hybrid Assistive Limb can "expand and improve physical capability" up to tenfold in activities such as walking, standing, and climbing stairs.

Through a sensor attached to the skin, "HAL" captures faint biosignals on the skin's surface that result from messages sent from the brain to muscles when a person attempts to move. A computer analyzes how much power the wearer intends to generate, then calculates the amount of torque needed to put limbs into action.

Especially noteworthy here is that the suit responds to intended motion, rather than actual motion.

"This is what we call a 'voluntary control system' that provides movement interpreting the wearer's intention from the biosignals in advance of the actual movement," explains Japan's Cyberdyne, which will soon begin manufacturing the cybernetic suits for about $4,200 apiece, possibly making it the first such wearable device aimed at civilians.

The company was formed by Sankai Yoshiyuki, a professor at the University of Tsukuba who is heading up research on HAL, which he says has the advantages of both robot and cyborg. Yoshiyuki says he was inspired by reading Isaac Asimov's "I Robot" as a child. … Read more

You're so funny, Japan. When I said someone should come up with a mouse that addresses the worldwide hyperhidrosis epidemic, I was joking. I didn't mean you should actually make one with a built-in fan.

Aside from the weird fan inside that keeps your hand cool, this Japan-only mouse, sold by the folks at eSupply for approximately $21, also comes with a remote to type in messages that blink to life underneath the vents while you're not using it. Because that's exactly what Japan needs: more blinking lights.

The mouse is pretty small, so it can … Read more

If a child ever had skin as ashen as this kid, it would end up in the emergency room. Fortunately, this is not a real tyke, but a "Child Robot With Biomimetic Body" (CB2 for short) that's meant to mimic its living counterparts and teach lessons about child development.

The kid-bot, which comes to us from a team at Japan's Osaka University, is equipped with 51 air-powered motors and 197 tactile sensors under the soft, light gray silicone skin covering its body.

CB2 measures about 4 feet, 3 inches tall and weighs 73 pounds, which size-wise would put it in the third or fourth grade. However, it was designed to function as a 1- to 2-year-old.

Since the eerie-looking bot first terrified the blogosphere in 2007, it has resurfaced as a more advanced creature.

Its creators report that CB2 is slowly developing social skills by recording human's facial expressions via eye cameras, matching them with physical sensations, and then clustering them into basic categories (sad, happy, etc.) on its circuit boards.… Read more