Gareth Edwards
Articles by Gareth Edwards
For the TV freak who wants it all: The TeraTANK-LE
You'd have to be seriously—scratch that, morbidly—interested in TV to even consider one of these, but Japanese firm Infocity has announced a huge black box modestly called the TeraTANK-LE (Light Edition) that will simultaneously record six channels and store nine days' worth of programming for selective viewing and storage via a PC. Unfortunately, though it seems to have a decent range of search tools to pick out stuff from whatever it sucks in via its six inbuilt TV tuners, the recording process itself is anything but selective: it simply grabs everything on whatever channels you pick, and after nine days the old stuff is subject to a rolling erase. At Y840,000 ($7,600), this is definitely not for the faint of heart or light of wallet.
Sony's 5.1ch wireless home theatre audio
Sony has come out with three new "optical wireless" home theatre audio kits, the breath-exhausting "5.1ch DVD/Super Audio CD Digital Wireless Theatre System" range. The system used allows the transfer of uncompressed audio via infra-red, meaning that though you need power cables for the speakers you can eliminate audio cables running all over the place. Brace yourself for the prices, though; the top-range DAV-LF1, pictured, is set to go for an estimated Y300,000 ($2,700), though if you can forego the need for the "lipsync system" to match up the gap between video and audio the cheaper DAV-SR1W is a snap at less than a third of that price.
Japan's schools adopt Lego Mindstorms
Given Japan's general robocentricity the question should perhaps be "why did it take them so long?", but Lego Japan has apparently teamed up with a company called Eiwa System Management to offer a system called Warp5500 that uses Lego Mindstorms technology to provide a Ministry of Education-approved curriculum for junior high school students that teaches them how to build robots. Given that our exposure to computers, let alone robots, in school amounted to programming BASIC on a BBC B, we're wondering if we weren't born too early. The learning curve for teachers can't be getting any easier, though. [Via Ascii24 (Japanese)]
Robot tuna watcher
Forgive us the visual pun; since they haven't built this yet, a robot tuna was the closest we could get. Anyway. Japan is planning to replace the observers who currently accompany fishing boats hunting tuna and bonito with a robot mounted at the centre of the boat that will take video of the catches and allow confirmation back on dry land that nothing irregular has gone on, in the interests of maintaining fishing stocks. While this strikes us as something that you could do fairly well with a video camera and a motion detector, there are no bounds to Japan's ability to develop ways to make the lives of its government employees easier. One of the key challenges, they state dryly, is to develop a unit that will withstand salt and rocking about.
Testing DoCoMo's microscopic premini phone
Nikkei BP has up a review (in Japanese, but with photos) of DoCoMo's premini, aka the Sony Ericsson SO213, which with a footprint significantly smaller than a standard business card is very possibly the world's smallest cellphone. Surprisingly, the physical interface doesn't suffer from the pint-sized form factor as much as you'd expect, and if you have small hands it's possible to punch in mail messages at pretty much the same speed as a normal cellphone. The upshot, they say, is that you're likely to find it hard to go back to your bigger cellphone once you get used to this one. If you're outside Japan, unfortunately, all you can do is make up your own cutout version of it and pretend to talk into that. Or we may have just hit on an idea for the ultimate Bluetooth mod—turn a premini into a remote handset with number display. Go on, we know you can do it.
Kyocera's sunflower solar power peripherals
Give a Japanese marketing man a product first thing and come lunchtime he'll be itching to make a limited edition out of it. So it goes with Kyocera's latest, a less clumpy, more homey set of peripherals to help you integrate solar power into your house. Heavily influenced by the Microsoft ClipArt school of design, the connector and transformer shed numerous pounds and inches versus their predecessors and come decorated with sunflowers. Limited to 100 units each; best of luck shifting them, guys.
Japan's record industry says you can't have your CDs ripped
Japanese ISP Livedoor came out a while back with a pretty slender idea for a service: you'd send them your CDs and they'd rip them into mp3s and send them back on CD-Rs. Whatever, we thought, and moved on. Then began the intimations that all wasn't well; after some downtime for "system maintenance" the service reappeared with a check box for you to confirm that you'd obtained the permission of the copyright holder to copy their work, plus links to the RIAA-like organizations who handle licensing and collect royalties. It transpires that while presumably the Man is still gracious enough to allow you to rip your own CDs, you can't use a commercial service to do it for you without getting the OK of whoever owns the recording. Sounds like a fairly tight-sphinctered law to us, but anyway. In mid-July, Livedoor pulled the plug on the service. Why? "No comment", they say, but we assume the industry leaned on them because they weren't going to trust people to really ask for permission before they clicked the checkbox. Those big nasties.
Nagoya shuts down subway cellphone usage
When we first saw an article saying that the city of Nagoya was shutting down cellphone base stations on its subway platforms we assumed that paranoia about phone-activated terrorist bombs had spread to Japan too. However, it turns out that the paranoia is about pacemakers being interfered with by cellphones, which the Ministry of Health reckons is a problem if the two get within 22 cm of one another. Given how crowded Japan's trains get (the old chestnut is that half the carriage breathes in while the other half breathes out), that's liable to happen pretty often, though admittedly we've yet to hear of someone keeling over after being zapped by a cellphone.
Video of the Chroino robot in action
We wrote a while back about Chroino, a robot developed by Kyoto University's RoboGarage whose claim to fame is that it manages to walk upright far better than the bent-kneed hobble of your average bipedal robot. At the time we couldn't dig up any videos of it, but a kind reader points us to some at RoboGarage's English site, which also showcases some of their other creations. [Thanks, Calvin!]
RFID tags hacked for publicity
Forbes reports on a German security consultant who's worked out how to hack the RFID tags on products using a PDA with a tag reader and change the price information that'll be read at the cash register. This sounds like another example of publicity-seeking under the guise of pointing out a legitimate security issue; as is pointed out later in the article, the only encryption available for RFID so far is 8-bit, which is precisely why it's not being used to tag products in shops at the moment (that, and the fact that the cost per tag is still too high). Another flaw in the hack is that the approach involves replacing the information in one product tag with the data from a cheaper one, so unless the checkout's automated someone is going to notice when that whole fillet of beef tries to claim that it's a carton of milk. [Via the ITU Strategy and Policy Unit Newslog]
Apple Japan's affiliate program
Apple Japan seems to be turning up the heat on the promotional front recently; following its iPod trade-in campaign it's now launching an Apple Store affiliate program for websites that it looks like is open to anyone, provided the site passes muster (and is aimed at Japanese-speaking Japan residents, obviously). They're paying out 1% of the purchase price for referrals (2% during the launch promotion), so you're looking at perhaps $140 if you're lucky enough to get some high roller pick up a G5 and a 30-inch display through your site. One conspiracy theory doing the rounds is that Apple's trying to boost website and own-store sales to fortify itself against a possible attempt by Sony to squeeze the iPod out of Japanese retail stores, a tactic (so it's alleged) Sony employed against Palm to push the Clie.
This year's ROBO-ONE, endorsed by...Aerosmith?
Japan's ROBO-ONE tournament, a yearly fixture in which a multitude of amateur robot developers gather together their creations and have them beat one another up, gained an unwitting and unusual supporter this year: Aerosmith's Steven Tyler. He apparently saw a relative of the robot above on display in Tokyo and was so taken with it that he ended up autographing its sibling. (More photos and video of the proceedings at PC Watch at the link below.)
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…
Japan's supremacy in the electronics world was at one point so great that even Western companies started branding their stuff with Japanese-sounding names. Some Asian firms were less subtle—hence, the PolyStation, Panosoanic TVs, and Misushita kettles in this gallery (site's in Japanese, but there's enough English to navigate). Misushita in Japanese means "I made a mistake", incidentally, and we'd have to agree. [Via del.icio.us]
The very delicate TouchONE
Korean company Virtual Lab System has a more elegant alternative to the on-off switch on your PC. The TouchONE ("Don't push, just touch!") is a silver pendant-looking device containing a touch sensor that sits on the flat surface of your choice and glows blue when touched. More than that, it also turns your PC on and off. The only snag, according to the folks at Akiba PC Hotline, is that the sensor is way too responsive, meaning that you can end up turning on your PC simply by trying to pick it up and move it. Fortunately, turning it off again requires you to hold a finger against the sensor for a few seconds, reducing the risk of unconsummated frag sessions. In any case, caveat emptor, as the Romans were fond of saying about their peripherals. [Via Akiba PC Hotline, which also has a video of the TouchONE in use]
Japanese cellphone users only want batteries to last 2-3 days
You'd expect Japanese people to have more faith in their technology, but apparently not. A survey of nearly 6,500 people on cellphone battery life showed that most recharge their phone every day, since despite the extravagant standby times that makers quote, heavy usage of games, TV, video file playback, videophones and so forth eats up the juice in short order. Strange, then, that when asked how long they'd like their battery to last the top responses were "2 days" and "3 days", both with 27%, with "one week" coming way down at 11%, below "one day" (20%). Why not "forever"? Do these people like charging their phones?
Japan Airlines and DoCoMo plot to abolish the plane ticket
Among the uses touted for Japan cellphone colossus NTT DoCoMo's FeliCa smartcard phones is ticketless check-in and boarding at airports. It seems that Japan Airlines has gotten giddy at the possibilities this offers and has decided to scrap tickets altogether; not only will you shortly be able to swipe 'n' bleep your way through the entire process for domestic flights with a FeliCa cellphone, if you're in JAL's mileage scheme you can get a new card with an IC tag embedded, so either way the days of the paper ticket are numbered…though not quite. They'll still be handing out boarding cards at the check-in counter "to prevent trouble on board", by which we assume they mean fights over who gets the seats near the exit with the extra legroom.
Hello Kitty flashlight mod for Doom 3
Our brothers over at Joystiq reported recently on someone who was very quick off the mark coding a mod for Doom 3 that sticks a flashlight onto the end of your gun. No sooner did this hit the ground than some enterprising souls hacked it to produce Hello Kitty, Batman and Thundercats versions. [Via BoingBoing]
Seiko Epson's minuscule gyro sensor
Seiko Epson has come up with a 5 x 3.2 x 1.3 mm gyro sensor for use in anti-shake systems for digital cameras and cameraphones. They're cranking up mass production in December, so it shouldn't be too long before cameraphones get yet another step closer to digicams. We kind of hope they consider using the sensor for something fun like controlling games as well, though.
Turn your cellphone into a car navi
Japan aftermarket car-parts maestro Autobacs Seven (no, we don't know what bacs are and why there are seven of them) is launching a handsfree kit, the DriveStation Car Navi Stand, that provides a dashboard mount for your cellphone, hooked up to a GPS receiver and a cigar lighter adaptor. A Java app for the phone to display the maps completes the setup. Only works with a few Vodafone Japan phones at the moment, though compatibility with more is on the way. Costs Y27,800 (about $250), which obviously is loads cheaper than buying a dedicated unit. Just try not to hit anything while you're squinting at your 2-inch screen, though, OK?
Sharp's illuminating solar skylight
Sharp's Lumiwall is one of those products that mildly screws up one's attempts to write a headline about it, because it does three things at once: it's a transparent solar panel that also includes a high-brightness LCD light. The idea is, obviously, to stick one (or as many as you can bear, structurally and financially) into your roof for use as a skylight during the day, then switch it on to light your home at night. The Lumiwall (OK, you don't have to put it in the ceiling) goes on sale in Japan on November 1 and is "open priced", which in this context means "however far you open your wallet you don't have enough cash to buy one".