A recent report from The Mainichi claims Japan’s National Police Agency (roughly equivalent to the FBI in the United States) urges ISPs to block internet connections for users found abusing Tor (The Onion Router) clients. Tor’s purpose is to create secure, anonymous connections to internet sites by splitting up the data stream and routing it […]
You know how everything is Japan is way cooler (see: giant robot)? The folks over at Salad, or Particle At Rest, have developed a new amenity designed to reduce a common health risk associated with riding trains: boredom. Lush landscapes of rolling hills and grand blue skies won’t feel so drab thanks to an interactive […]
Capcom has announced that it’s opening a Resident Evil themed restaurant, called Biohazard Cafe & Grill S.T.A.R.S. in Japan next month. The part most like Resident Evil? The cafe opens on Friday the 13th in a crowded department store (Shibuya Parco Part-1). The part that’s not like Resident Evil? The, uh, singing and dancing entertainment […]
Japanese inventors have a way of blowing my mind. This time researchers at Keio University’s Anzai-Imai Laboratory (LMAI) have come up with robotic “Pygmy” rings that look like blinking eyes and a mouth so you can make faces with your hand. Graduate student Masayasu Ogata put on his best suit and sweater vest to demonstrate […]
Let’s get this out of the way early: robots are creepy. Robotics, as a field, is creepy. An entire branch of science dedicated to building increasingly autonomous constructs that are smarter, faster, and stronger than the very creators that have forced them into servitude? Sounds like a great idea! Clearly, humanity’s only chance of survival […]
Websites everywhere are voicing issues over a new electronic gun designed by Kazutaka Kurihara of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology and Koji Tsukada of Ochanomizu University in Japan. The SpeechJammer records the speech of targeted individuals and blasts their own voice back at them with a .2 second delay. This results […]
Sony won’t drop the price of the PlayStation Vita handheld gaming system when it hits the Japanese market on December 17, prior to a world-wide rollout, as revealed by Sony Computer Entertainment Japan president Hiroshi Kawano in a press event prior to the Tokyo Games Show. The system won’t change its price of 24,980 yen […]
There’s an old saying that goes “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Well, for this case, “hell” is holding a severed hand every time you try to make a phone call, and the “good intentions” are all the reasons this severed hand replica should comfort you instead of completely creeping you […]
Last week we talked about a Singapore research team for making a robot that is supposed to “love” its user like a person does. Today, let’s look at PARO, a marvelous robot from Japan designed to look and act like a baby harp seal and give the user a simulation of interaction with a pet.
File this one under “Only in Japan”: ebook vending machines.
