AIST improves 3D projector

18 Jul 2007

3D display --- In 1926, Kenjiro Takayanagi, known as the "father of Japanese television," transmitted the image of a katakana character (?) to a TV receiver built with a cathode ray tube, signaling the birth of the world's first all-electronic television. Last week, in a symbolic gesture over 80 years later, researchers from Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Burton Inc. and Hamamatsu Photonics K.K. displayed the same katakana character using a 3D projector that generates moving images in mid-air.

The 3D projector, which was first unveiled in February 2006 but has seen some recent improvements, uses focused laser beams to create flashpoint "pixels" in mid-air. The pixels are generated as the focused lasers heat the oxygen and nitrogen molecules floating in the air, causing them to spark in a phenomenon known as plasma emission. By rapidly moving these flashpoints in a controlled fashion, the projector creates a three-dimensional image that appears to float in empty space.

The projector's recent upgrades include an improved 3D scanning system that boosts laser accuracy, as well as a system of high-intensity solid-state femtosecond lasers recently developed by Hamamatsu Photonics. The new lasers, which unleash 100-billion-watt pulses (0.1-terawatt peak output) of light every 10-trillionths of a second (100 femtoseconds), improve image smoothness and boost the resolution to 1,000 pixels per second. In addition, image brightness and contrast can be controlled by regulating the number of pulses fired at each point in space.

The researchers say these improvements bring us one step closer to realizing the dream of 3DTV, but considering it took eight decades for Takayanagi's primitive 40-scan-line television to evolve into our present-day HDTV, we might have a while to wait.

[Source: AIST press release]

Hungry (for giant prehistoric beasts)?

16 Jul 2007

Giant prehistoric beasts --

Bands of hungry primeval men hunt gigantic prehistoric creatures in these fanciful Cup Noodle commercials from the early '90s. (Stop-motion animation by Kim Blanchette.)


Sea creatures


Uintatherium


Moa


Saiga antelope

[More here, including a mammoth, pterodactyl and giant warthog.]

Nanotech + aromatherapy = brain-boosting fragrant pencil lead

13 Jul 2007

Ain supplio, fragrant pencil lead ---

Wake up and smell the pencil lead, says Japanese stationery and writing instrument manufacturer Pentel, who has combined the power of nanotechnology with the knowledge of expert aromatherapists to develop a new type of fragrant pencil lead. Featuring a long-lasting aroma designed to enhance mental capacity, the pencil lead -- called "Ain supplio" -- recently won the coveted Stationery of the Year Award (2007).

Unlike previous types of fragrant lead, which use weak aromatic surface coatings that tend to lose their smell quickly, Ain supplio relies on fragrant ingredients trapped in nanocapsules, or tiny air bubbles, which are infused into the lead itself. The microscopic size of the nanocapsules gives them extra strength to hold their fragrance for long periods of time -- about 3 years if kept in the unopened package, 2 years if kept in their plastic case, and more than 3 months out in the open air.

Tentatively priced at 210 yen (under $2) per set, Ain supplio comes in three flavors -- Refresh, Healing and Positive -- each prepared by aromatherapists working with ingredients such as rosemary, mint, lemongrass and green tea. The aromatic blends are specially designed to boost the learning capacity of those in smelling range, says Pentel, who hopes the product will appeal to students. Ain supplio will hit shelves in September, just in time for the fall semester.

[Source: IT Media, Pentel press release]

Mickey the Knight

13 Jul 2007

Mickey the Knight ---

Mickey the Knight, a sculptural work by visionary neo-pop artist Yanobe Kenji, is a mouse-eared, gas-masked, fully-armored warrior who looks like a mutant samurai member of the Mickey Mouse Club.

According to Yanobe's notes, which were on display along with Mickey the Knight at a recent Yokosuka Museum of Art exhibit, he was invited to submit a Disney-themed piece for Disneyland's giant 50th anniversary celebration held in 2005. Known for work that explores issues like how to survive and have fun in post-apocalyptic settings, Yanobe drew inspiration from the legendary Mickey Mouse Gas Mask, an intriguing historical artifact whose background story reflects some of the themes found in Yanobe's work.

Mickey Mouse Gas Mask --- The Mickey Mouse Gas Mask was manufactured in 1942, at a time when segments of the American population, particularly those in Hawaii, feared a potential gas attack by the Japanese. With the permission of Walt Disney himself, 1,000 of the masks were produced for the US Army, who distributed them to civilians in the hope that the friendly, toy-like design would encourage children to carry them around and wear them for longer periods of time should an actual attack ever occur, thus improving their chances for survival. Apparently, this concept inspired Yanobe to create Mickey the Knight.

Unfortunately, however, Disney was not impressed with Yanobe's creation, and the big anniversary celebration passed without an invitation. Now, Mickey the Knight can be seen on occasion hanging out at museums and galleries. (The top photo shows Mickey the Knight at an installation in an old factory in Ibaraki prefecture, which was part of the Toride Art Project 2006.)

Human resource agency hires Wakamaru robot receptionists

12 Jul 2007

Wakamaru ---

When Mitsubishi put its Wakamaru receptionist robot up for hire last month, it was clearly just a matter of time before the droid would actually find work. On July 11, People Staff, a major temporary staffing agency based in Nagoya, announced it has accepted 10 of the robots as dispatch workers and is ready to send them out to work at businesses and institutions in the Tokai area of central Japan.

The 1-meter (3 ft. 3 in.) tall, 30-kilogram (66 lb.) Wakamaru, who moves around on wheels and features a bright yellow shell and kooky smile, was developed in 2003 by Mitusbishi, who wanted to create a servant robot able to carry out a range of household chores. Wakamaru appeared at the World Expo in Aichi in 2005, and has since become one of Japan's most recognizable robots.

In terms of job skills, Wakamaru can recognize faces, carry on simple conversations with a vocabulary of 10,000 words, and perform simple manual tasks. More importantly for its expected job as a receptionist in offices and hospitals, Wakamaru is adept at thanking visitors for waiting and can sing songs as it shows the visitors to their destination within the building.

Wakamaru's paycheck can reach as high as 120,000 yen ($1,000) per day for short-term gigs, but the wage decreases dramatically for longer-term contracts, to as low as 3 million yen ($25,000) for one year, which is on par with a flesh-and-bone human temp worker.

A spokesperson for People Staff said, "As Japan's labor shortage expands, we would like to create an environment where humans and robots can work more closely together."

No word yet on whether People Staff has any plans to change the company name.

[Source: Sankei Web]

Mystery money turning up in gov’t office restrooms across Japan

11 Jul 2007

Mystery money -- Over the past several months, small stacks of envelopes, each containing a 10,000 yen bill (about $85) and a handwritten letter, have been turning up in the restrooms at prefectural offices across Japan. On July 11, officials announced the mystery money has been found in 33 different restrooms in government offices located in 15 prefectures -- Hokkaido, Aomori, Miyagi, Akita, Niigata, Saitama, Chiba, Shizuoka, Tokyo, Osaka, Nara, Hyogo, Oita, Nagasaki and Miyazaki.

In every case where the money turns up, the 10,000 yen bills are each enclosed in separate envelopes with the words "payment" and "one envelope per person" written on them. The envelopes also include a handwritten message asking the finder to use the money to help pay for some sort of study or training.

In Tokyo, a stack of ten envelopes was found in the restroom on the first floor of the Tokyo city office on June 14. Elsewhere in the city, stacks of nine envelopes were found in the men's restrooms at both the Kita and Itabashi ward offices, and a stack of ten was found in a restroom at the Shinjuku ward office.

According to officials in Shizuoka prefecture, where 200,000 yen (about $1,700) was discovered in the restrooms at the city and prefectural offices, each of the 20 accompanying letters written on rice paper featured slight differences in handwriting, indicating a single benefactor wrote each letter by hand.

The first known mystery money appeared in Sendai on April 9, where a stack of six envelopes was found in the first-floor men's restroom of the city office.

All told, more than 2.8 million yen (more than $23,000) has been found in restrooms across Japan.

[Sources: Asahi, Yomiuri, Tokyo Shimbun]

Job-hating marine officer kidnaps himself

11 Jul 2007

Marine office kidnaps himself to avoid work --- On the morning of July 10, police responding to an emergency call in the town of Miura, about 30 miles south of Tokyo, found a bound and gagged man lying apparently unconscious next to a forest road. The victim, a 22-year-old Leading Seaman stationed at the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force base in Yokosuka, told police a man had attacked him, tied his hands, stuffed a towel in his mouth and dumped him alongside the wooded road.

Suspecting the man had been mugged and kidnapped, the police launched an immediate investigation into the incident. However, as the police questioned the victim, their suspicions began to grow when they realized he had suffered no injuries, his clothing appeared tidy, his hands had been tied in front of his body (as opposed to behind his back), and his feet had not been bound. As the questioning became more pointed, the man finally broke down and confessed. "My subordinates at work don't listen to what I say," he said. "I hate going to work, so I staged the whole thing."

Police later learned that the Leading Seaman had arrived at Keikyu Miura Kaigan station on the last train the night before he was found, and that he had walked north from the station for about a mile until he found a wooded area. There, he stuffed a towel in his mouth, tied his hands, and lay down next to the road. Bound and gagged, he perhaps even napped in comfort amongst the trees, knowing he wouldn't have to face his unruly subordinates at work the next day.

The marine officer was later admitted to a hospital for minor dehydration, and police are waiting until he recovers before they resume their questioning. The man may face misdemeanor charges for filing a false police report because he did not immediately confess the identity of his kidnapper.

[Source: Chunichi]

Worker bot sorts packages

10 Jul 2007

Yaskawa robot --- Industrial robot maker Yaskawa Electric has teamed up with megaconglomerate Mitsui & Co., Ltd. and packaging system manufacturer Hokusho Co., Ltd. to develop a parcel sorting system that employs agile robot workers capable of quickly classifying and separating small items such as mail packages and clothing. The system, now being demonstrated at one of Hokusho's factories, employs Yaskawa's Motoman-DIA10, which features a pair of smooth-moving, seven-axis robotic arms mounted on a human-sized torso.

Yaskawa joined forces with Mitsui in 2006 with the aim of developing new types of robots that can play a role outside the manufacturing sector and help support Japan's shrinking and graying population (and workforce). As the first step toward that goal, the companies have combined the Motoman-DIA10 with Hokusho's piece assorting system (PAS) technology to create a robot that works quickly and can be easily moved to and from its work station, making it an ideal backup or replacement for human workers engaged in sorting operations.

In the demo system, the robot picks up a package as it arrives at its station, reads the attached barcode to understand the package's destination, and places it on the appropriate conveyor belt to send it on its way. In the past, robots have been slow to land jobs performing light operations such as this, because humans have a proven track record of working faster. However, this robot is able to sort about 1,000 items per hour -- just like a seasoned human pro.

The companies have yet to put a price tag on their new workers.

[Sources: Asahi, Yaskawa press release]

Frozen baby mammoth headed to Japan

09 Jul 2007

Baby mammoth --- Researchers at Japan's Jikei University will soon be checking the mailbox for a cool package from Siberia -- the recently discovered frozen body of an ancient baby mammoth. The nearly complete body of the female calf, said to be one of the best-preserved specimens of frozen mammoth ever discovered, is estimated to have been less than one year old before it was preserved in ice about 10,000 years ago.

According to the Russian Tass news agency, a reindeer herder stumbled upon the 130 cm (4 ft 3 in) tall, 50 kg (110 lbs) frozen mammoth in May in an area of permafrost in northwestern Siberia, near the Yuribey River on the Yamal Peninsula, which extends into the Kara Sea. The mammoth, whose trunk and eyes remain intact and which still has some fur on its body, was shown to an international panel of experts that convened on July 5 in the town of Salekhard, near the discovery site.

Preparations are now being made to ship the baby mammoth to Jikei University School of Medicine, where researchers will use advanced computed tomography (CT) scanners to obtain three-dimensional images of its internal organs. "This is the first opportunity for anyone to perform an analysis on a complete mammoth body," says Jikei University professor Naoki Suzuki, "and it should provide a more complete picture of its anatomy and how it lived."

[Source: Yomiuri]