Want to know how you really look? USB gadget maker Thanko is planning to release a USB-powered microscope called the "Nandemo Microscope," which ships with four separate attachments, each specifically designed to provide close-up views of different parts of the anatomy. In addition to the standard attachment, the three other attachments allow users to perform oral exams, check inside ears and get close-ups of skin and hair.
With a 1.3 megapixel CMOS sensor, 640 x 480 (VGA) resolution, adustable LED lighting and software for viewing and saving video and still images, you're only a USB connection away from hooking your computer screen up with a very intimate picture of yourself. Whether or not you would actually want to look at it is another question.
The Nandemo Microscope, which is compatible with Windows 2000 Professional/XP/Vista, goes on sale in mid-July at a price of 12,800 yen (slightly more than $100).
[Source: Nandemo Microscope page via IT Media]
On several occasions, audiences outside Japan have had a chance to witness Ega-chan's shock tactics. In 1996, he was arrested by Turkish authorities for public indecency after getting naked, inserting a foreign object into his nether regions and doing a handstand as part of a guerrilla performance (for TV Tokyo) staged in front of a crowd of spectators at an oil wrestling tournament. In a less shocking but also entertaining incident, he was arrested in North Korea in 2003 for placing a Korean-language version of a "Nan de darou?" sticker (a gift from some Korean comedians he met at party) on his bus driver's chest. "Nan de darou?" -- which translates into English as "Why is it so?" -- was a Japanese phrase popularized in the early 2000s by an