A chart on Weather News' site details the pollen threat around Japan, with a picture of the round robot that can help detect it.
(Credit: Weather News)Allergies are probably the most obvious way nature tells you it doesn't want you around. I know this love/hate relationship very well because it's spring and I've been sneezing in fits. What I don't always know, however, is how much nature hates me and just when it'll show it.
Fortunately, there are robots to help you with just that--if you live in Japan, that is.
This pollen bot is blue, which means the pollen level is on the lower side.
(Credit: Weather News)According to NTDT TV, Weather News, a Japanese weather information company, has produced 500 globe-shaped robots that change color depending on the amount of allergy-causing pollen in the air. These fourth-generation pollen-detecting bots are smaller than previous iterations, according to the company.
The robots can detect different levels of pollen and put them on a scale from 1 to 5 via different colors. The robots actually look more like big fluorescent lights. Actually, I'm not why sure they're called robots; they don't even look cute.
Nonetheless, the robots have been installed across Japan. Apart from telling the owner and people around about the pollen threat levels, the robots also collect data on temperature, humidity, and atmospheric pressure and transmit it to Weather News, which then combines and releases it to the public via the Internet.
This helps allergy sufferers decide when they should stay inside and when and it's safe to go out. Pollen watchers can also sign up for a service that sends pollen conditions to their cell phone every morning.
NTDT TV notes that Japan, and especially Tokyo, is a place where allergies are a big problem because of the ubiquity of cedar trees. These trees can be found everywhere in the country, and on nice days, pollen can even be seen with the naked eye like a cloud hovering above the forest.
I hope someday we can find these robots in the U.S. In the meantime, I guess I will continue to have to take pills while loving nature.
CNET's Takayuki Sakurai contributed to this report.
(Credit:
Giz Fever)
We're not sure how wise it would be to entrust a $14.99 gadget with one's health, but that's the goal of the "Heart Rate Sanitarian Watch" from Giz Fever. To use the "Heart Frequency Check," according to the product description, one need only press a finger to one of the wristwatch's sensors; the same is true of the indelicately named "Fat Check" function. There's also an alarm to keep you from falling asleep on the treadmill.
(Credit:
Akihabara News)
We're seriously beginning to question the sanity of the people at Japan's SolidAlliance. (And that says a lot, coming from us.) It's one thing to make devices using fake gold, rubber duckies and UFO detectors. But a crystal ball for a mouse?
The "Choikawadeco Mouse," which Akihabara News translates to mean "a little bit cute," is one of several new bling-infected mice just released--and, in our opinion, the most over the top. On the other hand, if you're into doing DDR on your mouse pad, this disco-ball wannabe could be just the accessory you've been looking for. And as we've noted before, "SolidAlliance" sounds more like a '70s band than a computer company anyway.
Feathered hair and Gran Torinos are coming to iTunes.
A 1976 Gran Torino, just like Starsky's. Dig it.
(Credit: www.starskytorino.com)Apple has cut a deal with Sony Pictures Television to sell episodes of classic TV shows like Starsky and Hutch and Charlie's Angels on the iTunes store. The shows will be available for the standard $1.99 alongside other Sony shows that haven't quite reached classic status just yet, including Til' Death and Rules of Engagement.
Neither of the modern film remakes of those two 1970s classics are available yet on the iTunes Store, depriving customers of making side-by-side comparisions of Cameron Diaz and Farrah Fawcett. While we won't go there, we would like to state for the record that Snoop Dogg was born to play Huggy Bear.
(Credit:
Red Ferret)
Gadgets that light up to musical rhythms are everywhere, but they're generally stationary. That's where the "Robotic Laser Ball" has them beat. This disco bot actually hits the dance floor on its own and "gyrates violently and flashes lights in time to your music," according to Red Ferret, for 50 seconds at a time. But keep an eye on it--the ball measures only about 4 inches in diameter, so it could get stepped on.
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