Japan

NTT DoCoMo carves out wooden cell phone

If you don't think plastic is fantastic, here's some good news: Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has created a new prototype cell phone made from cypress wood.

The Touch Wood handset is crafted from surplus wood culled during forest maintenance work.

DoCoMo teamed up with Sharp and Olympus to create the prototype (seen bottom right, with an ergonomic mockup above). More Trees, a reforestation group supported by musician and actor Ryuichi Sakamoto, was also involved.

Olympus contributed "three-dimensional compression molding" that made the wood usable for phones, according to DoCoMo. The molding also made the cypress shiny … Read more

Sixty-foot Gigantor bot towers over Japan

Workers in Japan have built a 60-foot statue of famous cartoon robot Gigantor in the city of Kobe. The statue is an actual-size replica of the hulking robot depicted in numerous manga and anime. It's known as Tetsujin 28 in Japan.

Towering over Kobe's Wakamatsu Park, the statue weighs 50 tons and cost some 135 million yen ($1.5 million) to build. It took about six weeks to erect.

The body parts were made earlier this summer. Here's a neat video showing manufacturing at a factory in Kishiwada City, Osaka.

Gigantor follows the construction of another 60-foot robot statue in Japan. An incredibly detailed, life-size replica of the fictional Gundam robot was built in a park in Tokyo in June, and it could shoot light from its body.

Designed as a permanent tourist attraction, the Gigantor monument was organized under the NPO Kobe Tetsujin Project to honor the work of the late cartoonist Mitsuteru Yokoyama, a Kobe native and the genius behind such manga classics as Sally the Witch and Giant Robo.

Gigantor is also a symbol of the rebirth of Kobe after it was devastated by the 1995 earthquake that killed more than 6,000 people. January 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of the tragedy. … Read more

Transforming robot kicks butt, carries creator

Japanese robot builder Takeshi Maeda is blowing minds with an exciting demo of the latest version of his OmniZero robot.

The ninth generation of OmniZero can transform from bipedal fighting machine into a rolling vehicle as well as a walking seat (See it in action in the video below). The shape-changing robot is 3.4 feet tall and weighs in at 55 pounds.

Maeda, who weighs about 115 pounds, can ride piggyback on OmniZero when its head tilts back. The front wheels serve as handholds. In chair mode, the robot can change direction but doesn't seem able to move … Read more

What a letdown: Sweet new Walkmans not for U.S.

It was a sad day when I reviewed the second-gen Sony S-Series Walkman. We expected a worthy successor to this fantastic MP3 player and instead were met with a mere shadow of the device and its former glory. True, you still get top-notch sound quality, impressive battery life, and even the added bonus of external speakers, but what happened to my podcast support, upgraded headphones, expanded sound enhancement options, interface personalization, SensMe Channels, and Rhapsody DNA?

Well, most of those things got funneled into the "expanded" S-Series, the S640 and S740 lines, which--naturally--Sony has no intention of offering … Read more

Panasonic's Robotic Bed transforms into wheelchair

Panasonic has created a robotic bed that can transform into a wheelchair, allowing the elderly or people with disabilities to get up without assistance.

Users can remain in the bed while it turns into a wheelchair. Half of the mattress rises and half lowers while a motorized unit beneath it automatically slides out from the bed.

While in chair mode, the robot can detect people and obstacles and help users avoid collisions, according to Panasonic.

A controller allows for driving and returning to the bed.

The mattress can also help people turn over in bed to prevent bedsores.

The bed'… Read more

Japanese cargo ship completes smooth docking

Japan's new HTV cargo ship, carrying more than 7,000 pounds of supplies and equipment, was plucked out of open space by the International Space Station's robot arm Thursday to complete a near-flawless automated rendezvous marking a major milestone for the station program.

Arm operator Nicole Stott, working inside the Destiny laboratory module, locked the station's space crane onto the HTV cargo ship at 3:47 p.m. EDT as the two spacecraft moved into orbital darkness 220 miles above Eastern Europe.

"It's a real example of international cooperation with a Japanese vehicle captured by … Read more

Toyota uses roadside sensors to warn driver

TOKYO -- Imagine trying to merge onto a particularly tricky stretch of expressway where visibility is next to zero. You can't see behind you because of buildings or trees, but suddenly an alarm goes off warning that another car is approaching fast from your left. Accident averted.

Toyota Motor Corp. is rolling out an onboard safety system that does just that. It will be offered first in a car for Japan that Toyota didn't identify but said would arrive "soon."

The technology alerts drivers in real time to unseen hazards such as tight curves, merging traffic … Read more

BOL 1062: Three-way 4G

T-Mobile's parent company is considering buying Sprint Nextel, meaning we'd have only three big cell phone companies in the US. But in a weird way that could be good for competition? We're not sure ourselves, actually. Also, a rogue ad hits the New York Times and we discover Pirates only see in 2D. Eye-patch FTW!

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Rogue ad hits New York Times site http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10351460-83.html http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/14/what-to-do-if-you-saw-an-antivirus-pop-up-ad/ http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20090913/home-delivery-the-new-york-times-serves-up-some-malware/… Read more

KDDI chooses 3Tera for cloud infrastructure

KDDI, Japan's No. 2 telecom provider, recently launched "KDDI Cloud Server Service" to offer managed cloud services to customers in Japan.

The new service is notable for at least two reasons: 1. As recently as two years ago, Japanese businesses were not enamored by the cloud. 2. The technology to run the service is provided by cloud computing company 3Tera and was not developed in house.

It's a nice win for 3Tera's approach to cloud services, one that provides a browser-based Visio-like UI that lets you create application sets by dragging in resources that create … Read more

Fitness bot whips Japanese seniors into shape

Japan has developed a fitness robot to help its rapidly aging population stay in shape.

Taizo is a small humanoid bot that can perform a number of calisthenics routines. It's covered with a plush white material and looks like Frosty the Snowman in a pressure suit.

Taizo, a play on "taiso" (gymnastics), has 26 joints, or degrees of freedom, and can do about 30 moves, mostly while sitting down. Its internal structure is fairly simple and resembles many of the robot kits sold in hobby stores in Japan.

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), a state-run research center, and General Robotix, a spinoff company, created Taizo to help lead groups of older Japanese in rehabilitation exercises and general fitness routines.

Taizo's head, hands, and feet are made of fiberglass reinforced plastic. Its body weighs about 14 pounds and stands roughly 2 feet tall. It can recognize simple voice commands and can link to external computers via Bluetooth and wireless LAN. A single battery charge allows it to operate for about two hours. … Read more