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Japan’s StudyPact qualifies for Seedstars World finals with learning goals achievement platform

SeedStars World

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.30

See the original story in Japanese.

SeedStars World is an initiative touring 33 cities worldwide to discover high profile startups. In Japan, a local preliminary competition event took place on 25 July at a co-working space in Harajuku, Tokyo.

A number of startups from Japan and the rest of the world gave pitches to qualify for the final global competition next February in Geneva, Switzerland. Here is a rundown of the three teams selected.

1st Place: StudyPact

StudyPact is a service that lets users set a study goal and monetary stakes as a sort of bet with themselves. They graduated from the 8th batch of an accelerator program hosted by Open Network Lab. To realize more effective learning platforms, the startups plans to tie up with other educational platforms and services like Duolingo, Anki, Memrise, Coursera and Edx.

2nd Place: Casy

Casy offers crowdsourced housekeeping services. They were recently launched by Beenos, the incubation arm of Japanese internet company Netprice.com, and also announced that they have raised an undisclosed sum of investment from Beenos last month.

3rd place: AppTrader

AppTrader is an auction house for apps. It allows users to buy and sell the property of apps listed on AppStore and GooglePlay. Listing and bid submission are free. When a deal is closed, the platform allows a user to move the ownership of a user base as well as development resources.

The event website has more information on the many startups that have been selected in other participating cities. After Tokyo, the next local event will take place on August 1st (Friday) in Seoul, Korea.

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Japanese team to pitch connected stuffed toy at Imagine Cup world finals

Cuddly Connect

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.29

See the original story in Japanese. The Imagine Cup is an annual global competition organized by Microsoft, with the aim of nurturing students to be competitive in the international arena. Our readers may recall that the Project N team was attending the finals in St. Petersberg, Russia from Japan last year. This year’s finalist team from Japan is Cuddly Connect from National Institute of Technology, Toba College. Prior to the world finals taking place later this week, the Cuddly Connect team received a send-off party, which included distinguished guests such as Yasuyuki Higuchi, CEO and President of Microsoft Japan, and Susumu Furukawa, former Chairman of Microsoft Japan and now a Graduate School of Media Design Studies professor at Keio University. Cuddly Connect is a remote communication system using a stuffed toy as an interactive interface. For many elderly people in Japan it can be difficult to spend time with grandchildren who may live far, and a working couple may have little time to spend with their children as well. The team developed Cuddly Connect to address such issues. Grandparents or parents can use a Kinect gesture sensor or a tablet PC to operate a stuffed toy of a grandchild or…

See the original story in Japanese.

The Imagine Cup is an annual global competition organized by Microsoft, with the aim of nurturing students to be competitive in the international arena. Our readers may recall that the Project N team was attending the finals in St. Petersberg, Russia from Japan last year.

This year’s finalist team from Japan is Cuddly Connect from National Institute of Technology, Toba College. Prior to the world finals taking place later this week, the Cuddly Connect team received a send-off party, which included distinguished guests such as Yasuyuki Higuchi, CEO and President of Microsoft Japan, and Susumu Furukawa, former Chairman of Microsoft Japan and now a Graduate School of Media Design Studies professor at Keio University.

Cuddly Connect is a remote communication system using a stuffed toy as an interactive interface. For many elderly people in Japan it can be difficult to spend time with grandchildren who may live far, and a working couple may have little time to spend with their children as well. The team developed Cuddly Connect to address such issues.

Grandparents or parents can use a Kinect gesture sensor or a tablet PC to operate a stuffed toy of a grandchild or child. It is in fact a biped walking robot equipped with a web camera, as well as a speaker and a microphone, all controlled via a .NET MicroFramework board in the toy. Cuddly Connect is part and parcel of the IoT (Internet of Things) industry that is receiving global attention. As such, whether the furry toy will make it to the top at the world finals will be of much interest.

The finals will start at 8:30am on August 1, Friday (Pacific Standard Time), or 1:30am on August 2, Saturday (Japan Standard Time). It will be livestreamed here if you’d like to tune in.

cuddly-connect-team-before-cake — The Cuddly Connect team from National Institute of Technology, Toba College.
From the left: Kikuya Miyamura, Palin Choviwatana, and Kenta Hamaguchi

news

Japanese hardware startup Rinn introduces automatic pet feeder Petly

Petly
Rinn

Junya Mori 2014.07.28

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based startup Rinn has started selling Petly, an automatic pet feeder. The first 500 production lot of the feeder was availed today over its online store for 31,860 yen including consumption tax (about $310). The product is built not to topple even if the pet tampers with it. It can load up to one kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of pet food, with a feeding portion being set in five-gram increments for a maximum of 50 grams per feeding. The feeding time is specified by the hour. While the startup is a one-person outfit, for product development it is partnered with popular Japanese creators and established electronics manufacturers. Company owner Masahiro Ryohara outlined his business strategy: Petly was carefully designed not only to match room interiors but also to make it easy to operate even for those not mechanically-oriented. The first production lot contained 500 products, with another 500 to be provided by the next lot. Upon marking the third production lot, we’ll commence sales worldwide. Similar products like Remoca (Japan) and Single Pet (Korea) can be found on the market already, but obviously Yanahara sees its design and difficult-to-topple features attracting fashionable pet owners…

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based startup Rinn has started selling Petly, an automatic pet feeder. The first 500 production lot of the feeder was availed today over its online store for 31,860 yen including consumption tax (about $310).

The product is built not to topple even if the pet tampers with it. It can load up to one kilogram (about 2.2 pounds) of pet food, with a feeding portion being set in five-gram increments for a maximum of 50 grams per feeding. The feeding time is specified by the hour.

While the startup is a one-person outfit, for product development it is partnered with popular Japanese creators and established electronics manufacturers. Company owner Masahiro Ryohara outlined his business strategy:

Petly was carefully designed not only to match room interiors but also to make it easy to operate even for those not mechanically-oriented. The first production lot contained 500 products, with another 500 to be provided by the next lot. Upon marking the third production lot, we’ll commence sales worldwide.

Similar products like Remoca (Japan) and Single Pet (Korea) can be found on the market already, but obviously Yanahara sees its design and difficult-to-topple features attracting fashionable pet owners widely.

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Japanese quiz app BrainWars ranks in the app store top charts

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.28

This is the abridged version of this and that articles. Tokyo-based Translimit, the startup behind Japanese social quiz app BrainWars, announced today that it has surpassed 400,000 downloads. This record was reached less than eleven weeks after the iOS app was unveiled on May 14th. Coinciding with this milestone, the company announced that the app has recently reached third place in the top grossing rank in the US App Store, with 95% of their users located outside Japan. BrainWars pits players against one another in three sets of mental exercise games (15 seconds each) to see which player performs best. The app is currently available in Japanese, English and Spanish. They told us that they will add Chinese and Korean in the next version being released shortly, with an Android version to be introduced in mid-August. Meanwhile, Translimit also announced that it has started a promotion campaign with Tokyo-based lunch box delivery startup Bento.jp, , where Translimit gives you a complimentary lunch delivery from Bento.jp if you can win a quiz competition against Translimit’s official account. Even if you lose the game, you get a 10% discount coupon for the lunch delivery service. The campaign will run from today until…

This is the abridged version of this and that articles.

Tokyo-based Translimit, the startup behind Japanese social quiz app BrainWars, announced today that it has surpassed 400,000 downloads. This record was reached less than eleven weeks after the iOS app was unveiled on May 14th. Coinciding with this milestone, the company announced that the app has recently reached third place in the top grossing rank in the US App Store, with 95% of their users located outside Japan.

BrainWars pits players against one another in three sets of mental exercise games (15 seconds each) to see which player performs best. The app is currently available in Japanese, English and Spanish. They told us that they will add Chinese and Korean in the next version being released shortly, with an Android version to be introduced in mid-August.

Meanwhile, Translimit also announced that it has started a promotion campaign with Tokyo-based lunch box delivery startup Bento.jp, , where Translimit gives you a complimentary lunch delivery from Bento.jp if you can win a quiz competition against Translimit’s official account. Even if you lose the game, you get a 10% discount coupon for the lunch delivery service. The campaign will run from today until July 30th (Wednesday).

news

Photo sharing app Snapeee raises $4M series C funding from Global Brain and others

Junya Mori 2014.07.28

See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Mind Palette, the startup behind photosharing app Snapeee, announced today it has fundraises 400 million yen (about $4 million) from Japanese investment firm Global Brain, publishing company Kodansha, and Energy and Environment Investment. It’s been a while since we featured Mind Palette last time. Our readers may recall that the company held a fashion event in Taiwan with inviting popular Japanese models like Tina Tamashiro last year. Snapeee has acquired over 8 million users in Asia. Through the investment and tie-up with Kodansha which is well known for publishing popular fashion magazines like ViVi, Snapeee wants to strengthen delivering higher quality of content to consumers in the region. We also understand that Mind Palette will be focused on promoting the Snapeee service in Asian countires, leveraging Global Brain’s solid network with local companies in the region as well. The company unveiled that they plan to add an e-commerce payments feature to the app in the future. Through their intensifying efforts to acquire new users, they aims to be a No.1 of fashion and cosmetics trend media in the region.

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Mind Palette, the startup behind photosharing app Snapeee, announced today it has fundraises 400 million yen (about $4 million) from Japanese investment firm Global Brain, publishing company Kodansha, and Energy and Environment Investment.

It’s been a while since we featured Mind Palette last time. Our readers may recall that the company held a fashion event in Taiwan with inviting popular Japanese models like Tina Tamashiro last year.

Snapeee has acquired over 8 million users in Asia. Through the investment and tie-up with Kodansha which is well known for publishing popular fashion magazines like ViVi, Snapeee wants to strengthen delivering higher quality of content to consumers in the region.

We also understand that Mind Palette will be focused on promoting the Snapeee service in Asian countires, leveraging Global Brain’s solid network with local companies in the region as well. The company unveiled that they plan to add an e-commerce payments feature to the app in the future. Through their intensifying efforts to acquire new users, they aims to be a No.1 of fashion and cosmetics trend media in the region.

news

Japan’s Fove unveils eye-tracking HMD, to avail prototype in 2015

Fove

Masaru Ikeda 2014.07.26

Tokyo-based startup Fove announced earlier this week the development of a consumer-oriented head-mounted display (HMD) under the same name. They have completed their first proof-of-concept development and are readying a developers kit release for next year. Earlier this month, the company was also accepted into Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in London where they will investigate possible future cooperation with Microsoft Xbox due to its global market potential. They aim to unveil their prototype and release preliminary details of their software development kit (SDK) during the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Pitch day in December. Fove, their product, will allow users to control a 360-degree virtual world with their eyes using a leading-edge display, eye tracking, orientation sensing and head position tracking [1]. The company wants to provide an SDK to gaming companies and encourage its adoption so that it will work with their gaming titles, while working with the rehabilitation industry to help autistic patients or the physically challenged communicate with others. Founded in May by Yuka Kojima (CEO) who had been directing popular gaming titles at Sony Computer Entertainment and Gree together with Australian image-processing engineer Lachlainn Wilson (CTO), Fove recently raised seed money from Tokyo University Industry-Academia Cooperation Intellectual Backyard and…

Earlier this month, the company was also accepted into Microsoft Ventures Accelerator in London where they will investigate possible future cooperation with Microsoft Xbox due to its global market potential. They aim to unveil their prototype and release preliminary details of their software development kit (SDK) during the Microsoft Ventures Accelerator Pitch day in December.

Fove, their product, will allow users to control a 360-degree virtual world with their eyes using a leading-edge display, eye tracking, orientation sensing and head position tracking [1]. The company wants to provide an SDK to gaming companies and encourage its adoption so that it will work with their gaming titles, while working with the rehabilitation industry to help autistic patients or the physically challenged communicate with others.

yuka-kojima-lachlan-wilson — L to R: Fove CEO Yuka Kojima, CTO Lachlainn Wilson

Founded in May by Yuka Kojima (CEO) who had been directing popular gaming titles at Sony Computer Entertainment and Gree together with Australian image-processing engineer Lachlainn Wilson (CTO), Fove recently raised seed money from Tokyo University Industry-Academia Cooperation Intellectual Backyard and plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign in early 2015.

Via TechCrunch Japan

Orientation sensing is made possible by an integration of a high refresh rate gyro, accelerometer, and magnetometer sensors. Head position tracking utilizes an external unit. ↩