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maru

Go a few rounds with this kid-sized boxing robot

In Japan's hobby robot circles, Naoki Maru is a respected name. He has won the Robo-One fighting tournament more times than I can count, and now he has a new version of his legendary pugilist King Kizer.

Maru and his son recently showed off a kid-sized edition of the robot with a new master-slave control system. Inspired by the film "Real Steel," Maru's Real King Kizer wowed fans at an Osaka robot festival that wrapped up earlier this week.

Using a Kinect-style Xtion Pro Live sensor, the 3-foot, 2-inch Kizer reproduces the movements of Maru's son, who controlled the machine while Maru explained how it works. … Read more

Internet cat star Maru to grace the printed page

Some people like reading fiction. Some people like reading biographies of historical figures. The new biography book, "I am Maru," should cover both bases.

The book, which originally came out in Japan in 2009, is finally arriving in the U.S. this month. As with most cool Japanese things, it took awhile.

In case you've actually been working and don't know about Maru, I'll give you a primer. Maru is a pudgy Japanese cat who likes to jump into boxes. I know that doesn't sound like much, but you have to see him in YouTube action to understand the appeal. Maru regularly racks up 500,000 to 2 million hits per video.… Read more