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Japan’s International Rescue System Institute (IRS) unveiled a new rescue robot that can be used to take over the work from humans in high-radiation areas. Not too surprisingly, the institute…

Panasonic’s subsidiary, Panasonic Healthcare, has developed the “Let’s Chat” [JP], a tablet-like device that helps people who can’t speak or use their hands anymore to communicate with others. According to…

Takara Tomy in Japan has started selling Manekko P-Chan [JP], a small parakeet toy that repeats what you say (4 seconds maximum), twice, and just seconds after “hearing” your voice.…

Another small step ahead in solar energy: Mitsubishi Chemical has developed printable solar cells with a conversion rate of 9.2% and now plans to commercialize the cells as early as…

Pioneer announced [JP] the VMS-700-K for the Japanese market today, a wireless speaker specifically designed for elderly people. The idea here is to place the device right next to the…

The Japanese don’t call them androids but actroids or geminoids: robots designed to exactly look like humans. We’ve spent multiple posts over the last years on these robots before covering…

Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Sony is considering pushing back the release of the NGP, aka the PSP2 (we followed up right after the report was published). As a reason for…

Casio in Japan today announced [JP] a new limited edition Casio Exilim camera, which was designed to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Astro Boy. The device is technically based on…

In July last year, Sharp showed the world’s first triple-layer BDXL discs with 100GB capacity. While the discs were great (and enough to store about 720 minutes of terrestrial digital…

Japan’s biggest business daily The Nikkei reported some vague news today about a new tablet Sony is supposedly planning. According to the article (which has now been deleted on the…

In December last year, we reported that a spin-off startup at Keio University in Tokyo has teamed up with a total of 34 Japanese companies and municipalities to develop a…

How can you “add value” to an ordinary scale? Answer: you make it double as a photo frame. That’s at least what the maker of the aptly named “Photo Frame…

Sega Toys Japan announced [JP, PDF] the newest addition to its best-selling Homestar (home planetarium) series today, but this model is unlike the Homestars we have seen so far. It…

Granted, Panasonic’s so-called “Life Innovation Container” isn’t nearly as cool as the futuristic mobile robot house from Japan we’ve shown you back in January. But the victims of the big…

Samsung has been working on transparent displays for a while now, but all we have seen so far were prototypes. Today, however, big S announced that it began mass-producing transparent…

We don’t get to blog too often about robots made in Europe around here, which means the appearance of REETI, a new desktop robot developed by France-based robot venture Robopec,…

A research team at Osaka University has developed a new control interface for touchscreens that flexes the content that’s displayed when you move your finger over the screen. In the…

On Friday, we’ve shown you Twimal, a super-cute USB toy for Twitter users that can read specific tweets out loud (so you don’t have to look at the computer screen…

Casio today announced [JP] a total of twelve new DLP projectors for the Japanese market, all of which can produce 3D images and feature a hybrid laser/LED light source. The…

And yet another Kinect hack: Japan-based web company Kayac has set up some kind of semi-closed “cyberspace booth” [JP] in a department store in Tokyo, in which the “experience” is…

Japan-based Furukawa Kiko has developed a “magical” robot hand [JP] that can scoop off semi-liquids like mayonnaise and ketchup and replace them without destroying their shape. Dubbed SWITL, the hand…

Yamaha Motors announced [JP] they have made a small step in improving one of the weak points in e-bikes today: the batteries. The company’s newly developed 25.2V/8.1Ah lithium-ion battery doubles…

Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo today announced [press release in English] that LG’s 3D-capable Optimus Pad will go on sale in the country as early as this Thursday. That…

Why risk human lives when we have robots that could do the job just as well? That’s what a team of researchers at Kyoto University thought when it sent a…

Japan is crazy about Twitter, and today local toy maker Takara Tomy has announced Twimal (short for “Twitter Animal”) [JP], a super-cute toy “pet” that can reads out tweets loud…

Panasonic Japan today announced the SV-ME870 [JP], a portable, digital 7-inch VIERA TV. There are quite a few of these devices available in Japan, but this one is probably the…

In the fall of last year, Pioneer introduced the HVT (Horizontal-Vertical Transforming) technology [PDF, in English] during CEATEC 2010 in Tokyo. HVT makes it possible to “drastically reduce the thickness…

Researchers at Osaka University’s Oshiro Lab are working on a “true 3D display”. The so-called 360-Degree Observable Fog Display makes it possible to walk around the object being shown and…

One of the best RPGs ever made, Square Enix’ Final Fantasy III, is now available in the App Store [iTunes link, $15.99]. But before you download: this is not the…

A group of researchers at Keio University in Tokyo has developed a mini robot/personal avatar that’s supposed to make it easier to communicate with other people via video (and sound)…