Archive for the 'Science and Technology' Category
Apple’s Fuji Apples
Ever thought of taking your electronic addiction/fetish to the next level? If you ever considered, you might just want to try what these people did in Japan (apparently).
They grew their own apples and stuck stickers of Apple logos and icons on them before their ripen. Once the apples have fully grown, Wah-la! You have yourself a mix of nutrition and technology!
Sadly, the apples aren’t for sale, so you will have to be in the hard work to grow your own apples. I’m not the gardening kind of guy, but I sure would have loved to taste these ‘apples’! Apple should take note and possible start their own niche market in the food industry too.
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Source:
Nobon via WAN
Picture courtesy of Nobon
Robotic Chef To Cook Okonomiyaki
Yaskawa Electric have made an industrial robot that can cook up Okonomiyaki! It’s name is Motoman SDA10, it has two arms, 15 joints and may will soon work beside (replace?) humans in the workplace and the kitchen. Motoman takes up orders through its voice recognition technology and cooks up your requested okonomiyaki from scratch, all by himself! Which is pretty impressive, seeing how far robotic technology has come!
Motoman can also assemble complicated items like a camera as seen in the video below.
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Source:
Yaskawa via Pink Tentacle
Pictures courtesy of AFP
Total Solar Eclipse Viewed From China
Picture courtesy of REUTERS/David Gray via boston.com
As the long awaited 2008 Beijing Olympic Games comes into realisation in one day’s time for the Chinese and the rest of the world; let us enjoy this moment that could be marked as the true dawn of the so-called ‘Chinese Century‘ by our future generations with a magnificent photo of the total solar eclipse in August 1st of 2008 as viewed from China.
The photo is shot by David Gray and takes place at the Jiayuguan Fort on the Great Wall of China in the town of Jiayuguan, Gansu Province, China. (Sadly, the eclipse couldn’t be seen from where I was.)
Eclipse and controversy aside, I do hope China have a dazzling Olympic and maybe, just maybe, people should start seeing China from a ‘new light’.
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Loading …Shouting vase relieves stress
Another whimsical item from Japan, the ‘Shouting Vase (Sakebi no Tsufu)’ will help you release and relief stress. How? Well, the manufacturer of this special vase says all you have to do is let out all that bottled up anger and stress, and shout, yell and even scream into the vase.
The vase is made of thermoplastic plus the inner structure will turn all that shouting into a mere whisper. For those that need some stress-relieving, sadly, the vase is currently only available in Japan for USD$48.
Source:
CrunchGear via Gizmodo
Picture courtesy of Gizmodo
Nintendo Wii Remote To Control Military Robots
It seems the Wii remote is not just for playing video games anymore as iRobot (robot building company) is using it to control their military robots called Packbots!
That doesn’t mean the Wii remote still can’t be used for fun and games! Take a read at what these Packbots can do!
These Packbots disposes of bombs, sniffs out explosives and checks for landmines for US soldiers. It is 70 centimetres long, and moves on wheels or tracks. Some even have machine guns attached, although these are yet to be used in battle. - New Scientist
Of course the mere thought of using the Wii remote to control these military robots can sound like a joke. However, soldiers have found that using joypads to control the packbots requires too much concentration and leads to them missing some key information sent to their monitors by the robots. This is where the Wii remote comes in. After testing out the Wii remote to control the robots, many have found it to be easier and have a more ‘instinctive’ feel when controlling.
I guess Nintendo done themselves proud by building a very user friendly remote.
Here’s a two part video showing off the Packbot in a test run and then a CNN report on the Packbot in military action!
Who said using the Wii remote isn’t serious business?
Source:
NewScientist via Gamespot
Picture courtesy of defenselink
ApriPoko, The Universal Remote Robot
ApriPoko is a talking robot that not only acts as a remote for your television, but also for your other household appliances. Toshiba is still currently working on the prototype and I believe it’ll have a huge demand in the ‘lazy men/women market’.
This portable little robot weighs in at just 2.3kg with the dimension of 21 x 27cm. It works by sensing Infra-red rays and asking the owner questions to distinguish which Infra-red ray is for what appliance. Once it has registered those infra-red rays into its memory you can just kick back and ask it to do all sort of actions, from changing channels to turning on the air-con!
ApriPoko follows the ‘Kawaii principle‘, a Japanese marketing rule that states all gadgets have to be cute to sell. Just Look at it! It’s puppy dog eyes, and its sleek and simple design makes it just too adorable!
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Source:
Asahi via Pink tentacle
Picture courtesy of AkihabaraNews
Weight Loss Sunglasses
These Japanese-made weight loss sunglasses is said to help tame your appetite and weight!
So how does it work? As you can see from the picture above, the sunglasses are tinted blue, thus making everything you see blue, including your food! And as research has shown that blue is the least appetising colour of the rainbow, it will make you’re food look dull and boring so that you are less inclined to eat it. Plus, these glasses look pretty stylish too.
For about 1,890 Japanese Yen (around 20 USD), you can test out these glasses for yourself at Yumetai.
Just be careful, I’m not sure about you guys, but if I start seeing everything tinted in blue I’ll probably suffer from some sort of depression pretty soon…
Source:
Book of Joe via Gizmodo
Picture courtesy of Yumetai and Food Vancouver