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Japanese AI abandons its Tokyo University dreams
A team of scientists from the National Institute of Informatics in Japan have given up on making their AI smart enough to get into the University of Tokyo. The Todai Project -- Tokyo University's local nickname is "Todai" -- began in 2011, so we're sure at least some of them were disappointed by the decision. But, hey, this means robots aren't as smart as humans yet, and we don't have to fear an uprising in the near future. The researchers were hoping that the AI would score much higher than the 511 out of 950 it got last year when it took a standardized entrance exam in the country. Unfortunately, its overall results were pretty much the same for 2016.
This TV stinks. No, really!
Once upon 1981, John Waters tried to engage his cult-ish fans with a scratch-and-sniff "Odorama" card to complement the film Polyester. This TV is not that -- in fact, it's a decidedly higher-tech approach to true Smell-O-Vision. Devised by a team of Japanese researchers at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology and demoed in prototype form at IEEE's Virtual Reality conference, the set uses four corner-mounted fans to break the fourth wall and create an immersive olfactory experience. By merging and adjusting vapors fed through these four airflows, the team can somewhat realistically trick viewers into believing the scent is coming from localized areas of the screen. We can just hear parents of the future now: "Stop sitting so close to the screen, Johnny. You're gonna pass out from the fumes." Ah, the future...
Professors develop food-magnifying glasses, no need to super size
Big eyes, small stomach. We've all been there at some point, when we load our plate up with more than our tummies can handle. Now, a team of Professors at Tokyo University has created special glasses that magnify the food on your plate, to create the illusion of larger portions, and trick your brain into creating a sensation of fullness. Now this might just sound like "magnifying glasses" but to give it credit, it's a little smarter than that. The diet-specs house a camera that only expands your nosh (up to fifty percent,) and not your hands. The proof of concept has been backed up by a small group test of 12 people. The subjects consumed 9.3 percent less cookies when magnified, and ate 15 percent more when the treats were set to appear smaller. Certainly these are the wackiest glasses we've seen in, oh, over a week.
Twinkle augmented reality interface promises to make your world a platformer
Augmented reality demonstrations may be pretty common these days, but this so-called "Twinkle" interface developed by some researchers Tokyo University and Keio University takes a different enough approach to still turn a few heads. That's done thanks to the combination of a pico projector and a camera, the former of which projects a character onto any surface, while the latter is used along with some image processing software to identify objects the character can interact with. That's further backed up by an accelerometer that detects movements the camera can't, and the researchers say that the system can not only recognize specific objects like the ones on the board pictured above, but everyday objects as well -- letting you put your LittleBigPlanet skills to use on your desk, for instance. Head on past the break to check it out in action.
Tokyo University's Grape-DR supercomputer is a tangled green powerhouse
We live in an ecologically minded era, where Ford spends more time talking up the new Mustang's mpg rating than its 0 - 60 times. Appropriate, then, that supercomputers are now being rated not on ultimate speed but on speed relative to power consumption. Top of the Green500 supercomputer list is the Grape-DR, a Japanese cluster at the University of Tokyo powered by a combination of 128 Intel Core i7-920 processors and four bespoke accelerator chips. That combination enables the system to manage 815.43 megaflops per watt, a good bit higher than the 773.38 rating an IBM-based machine in Germany managed. That's quite a bit lower than the team hopes to achieve, indicating they can boost that rating by 50 percent by the end of the year. Hopefully by then they invest in some cable management. Two of our staff network engineers passed out after just glancing at the picture above. The third... well, he didn't fare so well.
Tokyo University's touchless pointing system could wipe out smudgy screens
Touchscreens are wondrous things, but nobody likes smudges, and attempts to magically prevent oil from sticking haven't always found success. The proper solution might not be in fancy screen coatings but rather in removing the touchability together. Tokyo University has developed a system that uses a high-res camera to identify where a finger is in 3D space, so moving around and even air-clicking is detected. Multitouch seems to be right out at this point, and while the video after the break shows some rather deft looking typing on a dinky virtual keyboard, we're not entirely convinced that this is the most enjoyable or ergonomic way to interact with a cellphone. That said, if it makes the compulsive anti-smudge pantleg swipe motion a thing of the past, we'd give it a shot.
Book scanning gets a 1,000 fps turbo mode
No matter how fly or flashy modern scanners become, there's no getting away from their page-by-page assembly line style of operation. Or so we thought. The Ishikawa Komuro Lab at Tokyo University has demonstrated a prototype scanner capable of recording the contents of pages as they turn. Using a laser range projector to estimate page geometry, the camera adjusts for light and movement distortion as necessary and retains faithful copies of the original. At present it's more a proof of concept for the underlying vision processing unit than a commercial venture, but all it needs is one major manufacturer to pick it up and the paperless revolution can finally get started in earnest. [Via Plastic Pals]
Nissan's Forest AC blows wild scents through your ride, keeps you alert
And here you were thinking Mercedes-Benz's Attention Assist system was the thing in driver alertness aides. In a rather odd, nearly jocose press release, Nissan has revived our faith in corporate R&D with the glorious introduction of the Forest AC. In short, this new air conditioning system "systematically controls cabin temperature, ventilation, aroma and humidity to create an optimal interior environment." Still bewildered? It means that the system can tap into an array of sensors in order to find out exactly what environment is best for your current state of mind, and if it needs to, it'll blast your nostrils with gusts of fresh forest in order to increase alertness while keeping stress levels down. The zaniest part of all, however, isn't the idea of using various aromas to keep one's attention; it's the fact that this system is actually scheduled for installation on a vehicle (the Fuga) that'll ship this fiscal year in Japan.
Researchers create robo-moth, dream of a cyborg cricket-filled future
Researchers have long turned to insects for a little inspiration when creating robots, but things have entered a terrifying new dimension this week, with two separate groups each finding new ways to meld bug and machine. The further along of the pair is a group of scientists from Tokyo University's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology, who have not only used a live silkmoth to control a toy car, but severed the head of a moth and wired it into the vehicle pictured above (look closely). By directing stimuli to the moth's still-functioning antennae, the researchers were able to record the motor commands issued by the brain's nerve cells and, in turn, control the vehicle -- which, in addition to totally freaking people out, allows them to study and record data on how neurons respond to stimulus. Slightly less far along on the road to bug armageddon is Pentagon contractor OpCoast, which is working on some full on "cyborg crickets" that behave like the real thing but have the added benefit of being able to form a mobile communications network in an emergency situation. That network, the company says, could eventually consist of hundreds or thousands of the crickets which, like real crickets, would communicate with each other through wing beats, and even be able to vary their "call tone" when they detect the presence of chemical or biological agents, or potentially even the scent of a person trapped in rubble.Read - AFP, "Japanese scientists aim to create robot-insects"Read - PhysOrg, "Cyborg Crickets Could Form Mobile Communications Network, Save Human Lives"[Via reddit]
New robotic exoskeleton aims to help farmers combat age, mutant plants
Well, it looks like there's been yet another development in the exoskeleton arms race between the US and Japan, with this latest entrant from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology promising to help farmers and gardeners deal better with old age and increasingly unwieldy crops. This one weighs in at a somewhat hefty 55 pounds but, like most such exoskeletons, it's able to offload most of its own weight thanks to the use of eight motors and 16 sensors, which also, of course, help to give its wearer some super-strength. Better still, the researchers say the suit could be available in as soon as three years, and cost somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000.[Via Engadget German]
Gesture-controlled robot is at your service
Tokyo University engineer Tsuyoshi Horo has developed a novel system for controlling robots (or in this case, a moving stool) using a simple set of hand and body gestures. The researcher is utilizing a circular array of cameras to track and detect body movement within a controlled environment, and then translate those movements to actions for an automaton. The cameras are used to create a real-time, 3D, volumetric model of objects or people in the space, which is then converted into a psychedelic stack of virtual cubes which are read and processed as data. Viewed movement allows a user to control something like the direction of a bot simply by pointing which way they'd like it to go. Sure, that's all well and good, but we're more interested in getting ourselves Tron-ed into a highly complex Rubik's cube -- where do we sign up? Watch the videos after the break to see the system (and the blocks) in action.[Via technabob]
Wearable farming robot suit takes the load off
Hard to believe we're seeing yet another wearable robot suit emerge from Japan, eh? All sarcasm aside, there actually is a newcomer to the curiously growing market courtesy of Shigeki Toyama and colleagues from the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology. The aptly dubbed farming robot suit is a strap-on contraption that makes lifting objects much easier than nature intended, reportedly reducing the wear and tear (read: force) placed on one's joints, knees and back by around 50-percent. Additionally, the suit will be programmable depending on the type of work being done, but we've no idea if any third-party attachments (you know, rubber band launchers, integrated HMDs, etc.) are in the works. On the real, you'll be looking at around ¥500,000 ($4,559) to ¥1,000,000 ($9,117) to ease your load, but that could dip as low as ¥200,000 ($1,823) per suit if mass production becomes viable.[Via The Register]
