SURFING IN THE RAIN

Internet Umbrella Lets Users Browse in Any Weather



Gray, rainy days may be about to get more colorful thanks to a new umbrella invented by Japanese researchers. The Internet Umbrella, conceived by a team at Keio University, acts as a photo browser by displaying images from the Internet as the user walks along. The handle of the umbrella contains a projector that displays images on the underside of the umbrella.

Student Inventors
The Internet umbrella, named Pileus (meaning the head of a mushroom) was created by two young graduate students. Second-year doctoral student Matsumoto Takashi, 27, and first-year master’s student Hashimoto Sho, 22, of Keio University’s Graduate School of Media and Governance were motivated by a desire to make walking on rainy days more enjoyable. Both belong to a research lab led by Professor Okude Naohito that is renowned for its interaction design research based on the concept of ubiquitous computing.

Prompted to start this project by the everyday act of using an umbrella, Matsumoto and Hashimoto combined numerous technologies to make the Internet umbrella a reality. The handle of their creation contains a camera, a motion sensor, GPS, and a digital compass. The device is controlled by rotating the grip.


Pileus has been presented or displayed in several countries, including the United States, France, and Austria, and won the Innovation Prize at Laval Virtual 2007, Europe’s biggest virtual reality convention.



Future Vision
The Internet Umbrella has two main functions. One is browsing the online photo-sharing site Flickr. Not only can the umbrella display photos from the site; using the camera in the handle it can also take pictures and upload them to the Internet via a wireless connection. Pileus users can thus view each other’s photo streams. The umbrella can also display movies from the video-sharing site YouTube.

The other key function of the device is to help users find their way around by displaying 3D maps using Google Earth. The umbrella “knows” the user’s location (thanks to GPS) and direction (thanks to the digital compass), so it can show a bird’s-eye map of the surrounding area, enabling the user to navigate streets with ease. Both functions are easily controlled by rotating the grip of the umbrella. The team is currently working on enabling photos taken with the umbrella to be displayed on the map, along with their location.



Predicting continued growth in the quantities of tagged photos and consumer-generated media on the Internet, the developers imagine a time when Pileus users will be able to view social information generated by other users anywhere in real time. On their website they stated, “This product aims to enhance people’s everyday lives by synchronizing information on the Internet and in real places.”




http://web-japan.org/trends/science/sci071003.html

WORLD'S SMALLEST HUMANOID ROBOT

A new humanoid robot, certified as the world's smallest, will be released this autumn by Japanese toy manufacturer Tomy Company. On October 25, 2007, the Omnibot 17µ i-SOBOT is scheduled to hit the market—as well as the 2008 edition of Guinness World Records, which will list the product as "the smallest humanoid robot in production." Robotics fans look forward to i-SOBOT as a fun toy to add to their collections, but also as a leap forward in miniaturization of the advanced parts that go into these high-tech tools.

Surprising Size and Price
i-SOBOT stands just 16.5 centimeters tall, and weighs only around 350 grams. While the robot fits in the palm of your hand, it remains a fully outfitted bipedal machine, with 17 moving joints. Used throughout the body are tiny, custom servomotors developed by Tomy. The robot's onboard gyro-sensor allows it to maintain its balance automatically as it goes smoothly through its programmed motions. i-SOBOT comes with an infrared remote-control unit, but users can also use voice commands to control it.

Tomy's i-SOBOT architecture, the control system developed to operate this new robot, makes use of 19 integrated circuit chips that work in tandem to enable the toy's complex actions.



i-SOBOT will be sold for ¥29,800 before tax ($248 at ¥120 to the dollar) in fully assembled form, complete with rechargeable batteries and its remote control, which features twin joysticks, programmable buttons, and an LCD screen. According to the manufacturer, this price is quite affordable for a robot of this complexity. In addition to its release in Japan, the robot will make its way to markets in the United States and elsewhere in Asia. In 2008 Tomy intends to extend sales to Europe as well. To reach its global sales target of 300,000 units, the company is localizing i-SOBOT's software in English and Chinese in addition to Japanese.

Four Modes for Action
An attractive feature of this versatile robot is its four separate modes for controlling the action. In Remote Control Mode, the user manages the robot's movements directly with the command buttons and joysticks on the wireless remote. In Programming Mode, the user has the option to easily choose commands from a list of available actions—182 in all— or to use the controller to create original actions, or use a combination of the two to program complex sequences that can be up to 240 steps long, with 80 steps stored in each of the robot's three memory slots. Special Action Mode, meanwhile, includes 18 more complex preprogrammed actions, such as "hula dance" and "air drumming." And Voice Control Mode lets the user give the robot one of 10 commands, to which the i-SOBOT can respond with a range of actions.

This robot is entertaining to the ear as well as the eye. As it goes through its actions it plays sounds from its library of nearly 100 sound effects and songs. The speaker can be turned off, too, when silent action is preferable. The toy is humanoid in form, but the designers have included playful actions in its repertoire that have it imitate the adorable movements of animals.

Tomy has taken steps to make i-SOBOT eco-friendly. The toy manufacturer is shipping the robot with three rechargeable AAA batteries from Sanyo Electric Co., whose Eneloop nickel metal hydride batteries let users keep the robot running for months without sending dead batteries to landfills. Tomy is also collaborating in Sanyo's Energy Evolution Project by making i-SOBOT part of the programs carried out at Japanese elementary schools. The companies hope to boost children's awareness of environmental issues by powering the fun robot with rechargeable cells.

http://web-japan.org/trends/science/sci070831.html

Palette Digital Artist

Among the new gadgets that emerged out of the Next-Gen PC design competition is the Palette-Digital Artist. This is a palette that makes it possible to paint digitally on a touchscreen without using the mouse or a painting program.

Palette is a hardware system design concept that designated for digital artist, painter, design visualizer and people with passion in visual arts. The system were designed based on the background of basic painting behavior and its physiology activities.

Palette is designed to have connectivity with other devices such main PC system, Main monitor or other wireless peripherals. connectivity between them are wireless and the user interface screen surface of the palette is using photo-optic visual sensor with color recognition as its main advantage.

B-membrane Laptop/Desktop Hybrid

“B-membrane” design by Korean designer Won-Seok Lee. Some highlights of this Kubrick inspired mother ship computer include a membrane keyboard that appears when needed, integrated optical drive and when not used as a computer, the projector can beam ambient light effects on any surface.

Amazing technology from Japan . .. . . but can you guess what it is?!

You’ve just looked into the future… yep that’s right!
You’ve just seen something that will replace your PC in the near future.
Here is how it works:

In the revolution of miniature computers, scientists have made great developments with bluetooth technology…
This is the forthcoming computers you can carry within your pockets.

This “pen sort of instrument” produces both the monitor as well as the keyboard on any flat surfaces from where you can carry out functions you would normally do on your desktop computer.

Can anyone say, “Good-bye laptops!”


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EU smart-home concept shown off

How everything in your house could be controlled by one device

"Smart-home" technology that allows people to control household appliances via their mobile phone or other gadgets is being shown off in Germany.

To see the video click here

The EU-funded i2home project is aimed at giving greater independence and freedom to older and disabled people.

It uses so-called "middleware" to allow heating, air conditioning, lighting, and other gadgets to be controlled by a user's chosen interface.

It is the result of research between EU industry, universities and user groups.

"The users of the technology have been the driving force in the project - all technical solutions are based on a thorough investigation of the users' needs and desires," said project coordinator, Jan Alexandersson.

Kitchen concept

The researchers worked with various groups in order to match the technology to their needs, including Alzheimer's patients, blind and partially-sighted people and young people with cognitive impairments.

The research has now officially come to an end. But the project team, and some of the users, are still evaluating the work and demonstrating how the technology can be used in the German town of Saarbrücken.

There, the technology has been installed in a mocked-up kitchen.


"Finally, something that works," said Ginger Classen, a blind, German accessibility expert.

"If this technology is adopted by many manufacturers, I could finally go appliance shopping like sighted people in a normal store, having the choice to buy cool and stylish products."

This platform requires all appliances in the home to be networked together.

The middleware sits between the home appliances and a controlling device, such as a mobile phone, and allows them to communicate. i2home has also created a variety of interfaces for control devices.

So far the group has tested touch screens, mobile phones running the Windows Mobile and Android platforms, speech input and output devices and an ordinary domestic TV set with a simplified remote control to run the UCH.

The researches say that i2home demonstrates that technology - that has traditionally been regarded as too complex for many mainstream users - can be made usable and enjoyable for older and disabled people.

In addition, because the middleware has been built to open standards, it means that anyone can use the underlying code to build their own user interface for a device to control networked appliances.

By the start of 2010, there were more already than 100 organisations and companies in Europe using or working with i2home technology, according to Mr Alexandersson.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8495479.stm

Digital Planet

ROBOTIC PATIENT

Japan leads the world in the field of robotics. There has been a massive investment by the government in automation for everything from healthcare, to home security.

At the Nippon Dental University Hospital in Tokyo, Prof Naotake Shibui even uses a robot called Simroid to train his students.

Armed with a dentists’ drill and a face mask, Gareth starts his dental training.

GIANT GUNDAM

Nothing embodies the Japanese love of robots more than the statue that’s about to open in Oidaba, a reclaimed island in southern Tokyo.

It’s a giant statue of the famous anime robot Gundam. The 18m tall, 35 tonne figure has been built to mark the 30th anniversary of the TV series.

Gareth talks to ethnographer Patrick Galbraith, from the University of Tokyo, and author of The Otaku Encyclopaedia, about why Gundam is so popular.

AKIHABARA: ELECTRIC TOWN

Gareth takes a tour of Akihabara, or Electric Town, with technology consultant Steve Nagata.

Akihabara is the centre of ‘otaku’ or ‘geek’ culture in Tokyo. Here you can buy anything from spy cameras, to underground computer games.

INTELLIGENT TOILET

Toilets in Japan are undoubtedly the most sophisticated in the world. None more so than the Intelligent Toilet Mark II, produced by Daiwa House.

This water closet not only measures your weight, body temperature and blood sugar, but it also plots a weekly graph of your health stats.

Gareth visits the little boys’ room, for a demonstration of the best in toilet technology.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003jjnr