(Credit:
Oriental)
If you've ever dreamed of sticking all that paperwork on your desk where the sun don't shine, a Japanese machine can turn it all into toilet paper for you.
Appropriately named White Goat, this device designed for the office can take regular letter-size paper or shreds, including that sales report you cursed until you were blue in the face, and transform it into nearly pristine rolls of white tissue.
White Goat was developed by Oriental Co., a small shredder maker based in Kiryu City, north of Tokyo, which says it's the first product of its kind in the world.
As seen in this vid from an ecological-products trade show in Japan last year, White Goat is very simple to use. All the user has to do is supply the machine with electricity, add paper and water, and remove the rolls of toilet paper when they're done. The pulping and rolling processes are automated.
It takes the machine 30 minutes to make one roll, and each roll is made up of about 40 sheets of paper. Oriental, which has applied for a patent on the tech, says White Goat can save about 60 trees annually.
It apparently aims to start selling the Goat this summer for about $100,600. The hefty price tag means it would take years to recoup the cost of toilet paper, but really--what price is too high for the pleasure of wiping your butt with your boss' memos?
(Via ZDNet)
(Credit:
Air Water Safety Service)
The Japanese are getting teary-eyed over a smoke alarm for deaf people that emits a strong odor of wasabi, according to a recent Nikkei Net article.
Instead of an ear-piercing wail, the device unleashes the chemical compound allyl isothiocyanate, which gives horseradish, mustard, and wasabi their bite. A red LED on the alarm also starts flashing when smoke is detected.
In tests on sleeping people with normal or no hearing, the device woke nearly all subjects up within two and a half minutes after the stench hit their nostrils. Further tests determined the ideal intensity of airborne wasabi to wake people up but not hurt their eyes in the process.
The alarm is about 8 inches long by 3 inches wide and works on a room that's roughly 50 square feet. It was launched in 2009 following a two-year development by Kobe-based fire extinguisher company Air Water Safety Service and Seems, a bioventure in Tokyo.
The companies haven't managed to sell too many units of the alarm, which costs around $560. A redesign may bring the price down to $225.
But interest in the smelly siren is growing, according to Nikkei. One hotel in Nagoya is offering it to hearing-impaired guests. The firms are also targeting noisy environments like karaoke parlors where crooners might drown out an alarm.
No word yet on whether they'll try selling to sushi restaurants.
(Credit:
Thanko)
Break out that old cardigan and turn it into an intelligence-gathering machine with Thanko's latest spycam.
The Tokyo gadget maker gets sneaky with its Button-style Videocamera 2. From the outside, it looks like an innocuous button, but it's secretly recording sound, images, and video of whatever's in front of you.
The device is just under 3 inches long and 1 inch thick, weighing 20 grams (less than an ounce). The lithium ion battery can power the button for about 50 minutes on a full charge, which takes two hours.
It's not discrete enough to conceal under a dress shirt, so forget recording your boss if you're in shirtsleeves. But a bulky blazer or sweater with buttons will easily conceal the cam.
It can snap 1,280x1,024-pixel images and record video at up to 30 fps, with the closest in-focus point at about 20 inches away. The intelligence is stored on a microSD card of up to 16GB. You can also download via USB cable. That's an improvement on an earlier Thanko button-cam, which could only store up to 4GB.
Unfortunately, it's not exactly spy-grade. One obvious drawback is that you have to activate it by pushing a record button on its back side. That might be hard to do without attracting attention. Maybe feign a chest/boob scratch?
Also, it has LEDs on the back side that light up when the power's on and the device is recording. Those might blow your cover in a dark environment.
Still, it only costs about $55 in Japan, and comes with six interchangeable buttons in black, white, and pearl. Not bad for consumer spy tech. (Mister Rogers cardigan not included.)
(Credit:
Thanko)
(Credit:
Japan Science and Technology Agency)
Think Silly Putty, and you'll probably have a very good idea what the brains at Japan's Tokyo University have created. The new material, called "elastic water," retains its Flubber-like consistency by mixing a few grams of clay and organic matter to H20, essentially binding the whole into a jelly-like putty.
The aqua substance isn't headed for toy retail outlets, though we won't be surprised if it does spin off in that direction. For now, its intention is more visionary and intended to facilitate quick tissue attachment.
The Japanese scientists--who detail their findings in the latest issue of the scientific journal Nature--are also looking to increase the density of the substance for use as an ecological plastic material.
We say it'll be even more brilliant if they find a way to convert their creation back into potable liquid at a snap, so elastic water can be easily ferried to disaster zones where water supplies have been disrupted.
(Source: Crave Asia via Akihabara News)
(Credit:
MSNBC)
In anticipation of the upcoming World Cup, BP Castrol Japan has built a machine that kicks a football (or soccer ball, if you're American) at over 125mph. According to the MSNBC video, in comparison, Ronaldo (no mention if they mean the Portuguese or Brazilian superstar) kicks at about 80mph. According to an article on Guardian, a 114mph shot was recorded by a David Hirst from English club Sheffield Wednesday in 1996--still less powerful than what the machine is capable of.
This contraption is a promotional item and will be showcased during the tournament in South Africa. Trust the Japanese to make something like this. Now, all they have to do is make 22 life-size Gundams complete with these BP Castrol legs and you'll get the most epic football match known to man.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
(Source: Crave Asia via Gizmodo)
Javier Movellan of UC San Diego's Machine Perception Laboratory poses with robo-baby Diego, who doesn't look too happy about it.
(Credit: Kokoro)The pics may beggar belief, but apparently another robot baby is in the works.
Just when you'd almost forgotten Osaka University's infamous and creepy Child-robot with Biomimetic Body, or CB2, researchers in the U.S. are preparing to unleash an almost equally terrifying robo-babe: Diego.
These images from a newsletter (PDF) published by Japanese android maker Kokoro (creator of fembot Actroid) show UC San Diego professor Javier Movellan and others with the cyber-tot.
(Credit:
Kokoro)
Though it looks like someone has photoshopped a doll's head into the pics, apparently Movellan really is working on a humanoid based on a 1-year-old baby. Kokoro seems to have supplied robotic know-how to the project, and Movellan has visited the firm's plant in Tokyo.
According to the Kokoro article, which includes an interview with Movellan, little Diego is just over 4 feet tall and weighs 66 pounds. It's about 1.5 times the size of a human baby.
Diego was created to study how human infants learn, grow, and interact with the world. It cannot speak, but it can gesture and perform facial expressions.
It has about 60 moving parts, about 20 of which are in its face, allowing for a wide spectrum of expression--greater than that of Actroid. It can also can get up from a chair and grasp objects such as plastic bottles.
Baby Diego also sports high-resolution eye cameras, ear sensors that can detect movement, and a speaker in its mouth. Pressure sensors can detect the load on its joints.
Female researchers are handling the planning of Diego, the article notes, adding that the way it hugs people is very lifelike.
No word yet on who will change its diapers if it ever gets any. Human baby clothes (and most certainly hats) don't fit Diego.
(Via BotJunkie)
(Credit:
NY Daily News)
In middle school, I had to dissect an earthworm, a snail, a frog, and a fetal pig. I did not like doing this. It's not that I was some animal-rights activist, I just found it to be thoroughly disgusting. I decided then in the eighth grade that under no circumstances was I going to be a doctor.
Instead, I became an Internet blogger who writes stories about this new transparent goldfish being developed in Japan. The idea is that taking dead things apart to see how they work is gross. The solution is to mess with nature to the point that you can see how an animal works while it's still alive. That's also gross, but at least you don't feel like you have to sterilize your hands after your study so you can eat lunch.
What's great is that Mie University, the school that's developed the goldfish, fully expects to offer the breed--called ryukin--for sale to the public. It expects the fish to get up to five pounds and to live for up to 20 years. I'm imagining a pond of these could be awesome in a "gross I can see its guts" kind of way. I want one.
We at Crave love robots, especially wacky ones built for little or no practical reason. As 2009 closed, we took a quick look back at a few of these tributes to the spirit of innovation, dedication, and sheer silliness. Not surprisingly, most are from Japan. To which we say, Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto. And here's hoping 2010 brings as many weird robots as the year gone by.
Researchers at Japan's Chiba University are developing a hummingbird-style flying robot that could be used to find people trapped in collapsed buildings, search for criminals, or even explore other planets.
Engineering professor Hiroshi Liu said the micro air vehicle, or MAV, is equipped with a mini motor that allows it to flap its wings up to 30 times per second--roughly in the same range as a hummingbird.
(Credit:
Chiba University)
The remote-controlled ornithopter is nearly 4 inches long and weighs about 0.09 ounces. Its rechargeable battery allows for six minutes of flying time, according to the Yomiuri Shimbun newspaper.
It has four polyethylene wings and apparently can be more stable in figure-eight flight than a helicopter, though Liu has yet to make it hover in mid-air.
In earthquake-prone Japan, finding victims in destroyed buildings could be one application of the ornithopter. Liu said it could also be used to track criminals or explore Mars from the air.
Other MAVs in development already have indoor navigation, outdoor navigation, and features that mimic nature. Liu's robot, though, is one of the smallest and most lightweight in its class. He plans to equip it with a tiny camera in the next few months.
It would then be in competition with the DelFly Micro, a similar-sized ornithopter from Delft University of Technology that already carries a camera. The Dutch machine is slightly heavier at 0.1 ounces and can only fly for three minutes. Check out a video of it here.
The Chiba University project cost has already topped $2 million. Liu has drawn inspiration from nature in the design and optimization of MAV wings, running biomechanical simulation models on a supercomputer to find the best wing shape.
(Via Physorg and Agence France-Presse)
(Credit:
Solid Alliance)
The latest version of the Crazy Earphones are a follow-up to offbeat buds released earlier this year that seem to be sprouting bananas, bolts and sushi.
The new batch goes on sale in January for about $22 apiece. Each comes with small or medium-sized silicon ear caps, as well as a cell phone jack.
Solid Alliance boasts they are "even sillier" than the first Crazy Earphones.
(Via Crunch Gear)
