Japanese automotive giant Honda is generally considered to be an exceptional company because of its principles and lean manufacturing. From motorcycles to cars to robots — the series of innovations that Honda has produced over the years is pretty astounding.
To showcase its past achievements, the company has released a magical two minute video product history. It’s called ‘Hands.’ The video appropriately starts with the line, “Let’s see what a curiosity can do”.
The Honda Supercub motorcycle (featured early in the video) was released back in 1958, and has sold a total of over 6o million by 2008. Honda’s Civic started selling back in 1972 and was the first car ever in the world to be accredited under the USA’s Clean Air Act (Muskie Act).
And there there is Asimo, Honda’s humanoid robot which debuted in the year 2000. The latest model was released in November of 2011, lighter by 6 kilograms and with an improved walking speed of 9 kilometers per hour.
To see more of what Honda engineers have brought to the world, check out the video below.
We previously featured the very clever StickerMe app, developed by the folks at Tokyo-based Motion Portrait. In the past the company has been best known for its fun facial modification apps like Zombie Booth or Sumo Booth. But interestingly their technological expertise in facial recognition has put them in the unique position of being able to make a great sticker creation app. Their app lets users take a picture of someone’s face and easily transform it into a customized sticker that can then be sent via Line, Kakao, or even on more traditional platforms like Facebook or email. Motion Portrait’s advantage is that the resultant stickers can even include changes to your face, like adding a smile to an unsmiling mouth, for example. Asia Loves Stickers So far the app has done extremely well in its first two months, picking up 1.8 million downloads during that span, mostly from around the Asia region. The countries that account for the most downloads are Japan, Thailand, and China, but it is also popular in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Of course that is all just on iOS so far, so there’s lots of potential for growth. To date, the platform…
We previously featured the very clever StickerMe app, developed by the folks at Tokyo-based Motion Portrait. In the past the company has been best known for its fun facial modification apps like Zombie Booth or Sumo Booth. But interestingly their technological expertise in facial recognition has put them in the unique position of being able to make a great sticker creation app.
Their app lets users take a picture of someone’s face and easily transform it into a customized sticker that can then be sent via Line, Kakao, or even on more traditional platforms like Facebook or email. Motion Portrait’s advantage is that the resultant stickers can even include changes to your face, like adding a smile to an unsmiling mouth, for example.
Asia Loves Stickers
So far the app has done extremely well in its first two months, picking up 1.8 million downloads during that span, mostly from around the Asia region. The countries that account for the most downloads are Japan, Thailand, and China, but it is also popular in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Of course that is all just on iOS so far, so there’s lots of potential for growth. To date, the platform that most favors StickerMe is Line with about 45% of total shares taking place on that platform. China’s WeChat is not far behind with 33%.
The app’s producer, Ryuhei Sadoshima, explained to us that that because most of the Asian countries interested in StickerMe are dominated by Android, they have even higher expectations for their upcoming Google Play release, set for later this month. Motion Portrait is targeting 10 million total downloads this year, with the hope of about 8 million downloads on Google Play.
New stamps are on the way for StickerMe, and additional designs will be more frequent in the future. There are even plans for localized stamps for different regions, which is smart especially in places like China. A new dual/group mode is on the way too, where you can add faces of multiple friends to a sticker template.
In terms of monetization, I understand that so far in-app purchases have not performed so well – but the company is looking to do sponsored stickers in collaboration with certain companies. Motion Portrait has done lots of B2B business in Japan in the past, and they are planning to expand into sponsored stickers in the coming months.
It’s interesting to see a service like this one take advantage of the popularity of mobile chat apps on this way. And it will be really interesting to see what happens with StickerMe over the next year.
If you’d like to check out StickerMe for iOS, you can get it for free on the App Store. Or you can see our video demo of the app below.
Mobile content company Furyu may be a one of those rare companies that is better known among younger girls than by business people or industry insiders. Because aside from its mobile content and media business, the company also develops ‘purikura’ machines, or photo booths. Japanese women of all generations have experienced the fun of these photo booths at one time or another. Recently such booths in Japan are a one-stop solution for cuteness. There are photoshop-like features that enhance your skin, enlarge your eyes, and more. The photos can be decorated using stamps and frames, and the newer machines comes with photo collage features as well. Furyu leverages its mobile content business in these photo booths, providing cute character stamps and decorations. One example is its CameLion character which is available at specific photo booths called ‘Girl’s Photographer‘. The CameLion character is learning to be a professional photographer, and works sort of like a guide for those using the photo booth machine. Furyu just released a puzzle game app called ‘CameLion’s Game and Book’ on both iOS and Android. Furyu was founded back in year 2007 and has operated a famous mobile emoji portal called Muteki Deco Ranking (‘Muteki’…
Mobile content company Furyu may be a one of those rare companies that is better known among younger girls than by business people or industry insiders. Because aside from its mobile content and media business, the company also develops ‘purikura’ machines, or photo booths. Japanese women of all generations have experienced the fun of these photo booths at one time or another.
Recently such booths in Japan are a one-stop solution for cuteness. There are photoshop-like features that enhance your skin, enlarge your eyes, and more. The photos can be decorated using stamps and frames, and the newer machines comes with photo collage features as well. Furyu leverages its mobile content business in these photo booths, providing cute character stamps and decorations.
One example is its CameLion character which is available at specific photo booths called ‘Girl’s Photographer‘. The CameLion character is learning to be a professional photographer, and works sort of like a guide for those using the photo booth machine. Furyu just released a puzzle game app called ‘CameLion’s Game and Book’ on both iOS and Android.
Furyu was founded back in year 2007 and has operated a famous mobile emoji portal called Muteki Deco Ranking (‘Muteki’ means ‘invincible’). Due to the widespread shift from featured phones to smartphones in Japan, the company has optimized its portal for Android. There are over 60,000 decorative stamps that can be used when texting. Muteki Deco Ranking is available for a monthly fee of 294 yen (or about $3).
When it comes to the mobile culture in Japan, micro-payments are here to stay. It’s important to remember that it’s not only mobile gamers opening their wallets. Young girls do not hesitate to pay 300 yen every month as long as their appetite for ‘kawaii’ is fulfilled.
Tokyo-based distributed computing company Skeed announced [pdf] yesterday that the company’s founder and chief innovation officer Dr. Isamu Kaneko has passed away due to heart attack on Saturday. He was 42 years old. Dr. Kaneko has been working as an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, where he invented P2P file-sharing software Winny in 2003. In 2004, there were many file leak incidents at Japanese companies which may have been caused by people using the software. He was previously arrested under the suspicion of abetting copyright disputes despite the fact that he just invented the software. In 2011, the Japanese supreme court finally judged that he was not guilty. He recently co-founded Skeed, which focuses on developing P2P-based content delivery technology. His colleague recently pitched at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech conference that took place in Luxembourg last month. Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues. Rest in peace.
Tokyo-based distributed computing company Skeed announced [pdf] yesterday that the company’s founder and chief innovation officer Dr. Isamu Kaneko has passed away due to heart attack on Saturday. He was 42 years old.
Dr. Kaneko has been working as an assistant professor at the University of Tokyo, where he invented P2P file-sharing software Winny in 2003. In 2004, there were many file leak incidents at Japanese companies which may have been caused by people using the software. He was previously arrested under the suspicion of abetting copyright disputes despite the fact that he just invented the software. In 2011, the Japanese supreme court finally judged that he was not guilty.
He recently co-founded Skeed, which focuses on developing P2P-based content delivery technology. His colleague recently pitched at ICT Spring 2013, an annual tech conference that took place in Luxembourg last month.
Our thoughts are with his family and colleagues. Rest in peace.
Last week we told you a little about TeamLab’s social instrument technology being implemented during Nippon Television Network’s 60th anniversary special. That event took place this past weekend, and the idea was to turn the scheduled musical performance from boy-band Arashi into a nation-wide interactive rhythm game where fans could use their mobile phones, computers, or even their TV remote controls to keep up with the beat visualized on screen. It appears that in terms of participation the game was a success. The network claims that 1.3 million viewers took part in the game – which is more than 1% of the entire Japanese population. (Of course, given how fabricated Japanese pop is these days, I don’t think it’s beyond belief that this number might be fabricated too!) Admittedly, the game play was ridiculously simple, but it was certainly a fun step in making live TV broadcasts more interactive. I wonder if we might see something like this appear in a Superbowl halftime show in the future? TeamLab has been responsible for some amazing digital feats in the past, and we encourage you to check out their website to learn more about past exhibitions and projects. Update July 10: We…
Last week we told you a little about TeamLab’s social instrument technology being implemented during Nippon Television Network’s 60th anniversary special. That event took place this past weekend, and the idea was to turn the scheduled musical performance from boy-band Arashi into a nation-wide interactive rhythm game where fans could use their mobile phones, computers, or even their TV remote controls to keep up with the beat visualized on screen.
It appears that in terms of participation the game was a success. The network claims that 1.3 million viewers took part in the game – which is more than 1% of the entire Japanese population. (Of course, given how fabricated Japanese pop is these days, I don’t think it’s beyond belief that this number might be fabricated too!)
Admittedly, the game play was ridiculously simple, but it was certainly a fun step in making live TV broadcasts more interactive. I wonder if we might see something like this appear in a Superbowl halftime show in the future?
TeamLab has been responsible for some amazing digital feats in the past, and we encourage you to check out their website to learn more about past exhibitions and projects.
Update July 10: We followed up with the folks at TeamLab to find out their reactions to the performance. While I was a little skeptical about the numbers Nippon Television Network was claiming, TeamLab says they’re accurate, and points us to further stats from the live event over at ntv.co.jp/musicday/result. We’ve translated it below.
So what’s the next step for this interactive TV technology? A TeamLab rep says they’d love to further evolve it, and they’ve gotten lots of new ideas as a result of this particular experience. As for future events, TeamLab tells me their door is always open to new clients and interesting new projects!
If you like strange and wonderful gadgets from Japan, chances are you have probably already seen some of Thanko’s products. The USB necktie fan and the ridiculous smartphone self-shot extension stick are just a couple of the unusual devices that you can buy on Thanko’s website. But now the company has launched a new website aimed at bringing these items to fans the world over. RareMonoShop.jp went live this week, and if you reside outside Japan you can now order a wide array of useless junk awesome stuff from their website. While most of the items are pretty off-the-wall, I admit some of them actually look useful – I wouldn’t mind picking up a ‘lying-on-your-back desk’ for example. In its announcement, Thanko explains a little more about its expansion: Till now, we were operating within the domestic market due to distribution-related issues. But after working out the details of an overseas payment system based on “PayPal” and product delivery using EMS and international mail, we have now opened the new service for the global market. The new shop will offer a 10% discount on purchases over $50 dollars for the rest of July (coupon code SP10), so if there’s anything…
If you like strange and wonderful gadgets from Japan, chances are you have probably already seen some of Thanko’s products. The USB necktie fan and the ridiculous smartphone self-shot extension stick are just a couple of the unusual devices that you can buy on Thanko’s website.
But now the company has launched a new website aimed at bringing these items to fans the world over. RareMonoShop.jp went live this week, and if you reside outside Japan you can now order a wide array of useless junk awesome stuff from their website. While most of the items are pretty off-the-wall, I admit some of them actually look useful – I wouldn’t mind picking up a ‘lying-on-your-back desk’ for example.
In its announcement, Thanko explains a little more about its expansion:
Till now, we were operating within the domestic market due to distribution-related issues. But after working out the details of an overseas payment system based on “PayPal” and product delivery using EMS and international mail, we have now opened the new service for the global market.
The new shop will offer a 10% discount on purchases over $50 dollars for the rest of July (coupon code SP10), so if there’s anything on the site that you’d like to buy, now is the time to get it.
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Rick Martin
Masaru Ikeda
Tokyo-based distributed computing company 
