THE BRIDGE

Design

Discovering opportunities beyond design: Sacha Greif on ‘Discover Meteor’

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Sacha Greif is a designer and developer born in France, now based in Osaka, Japan. I’ve been interested in his work for some time, as he is also a prolific writer who frequently shares what he’s doing on his blog and on Twitter. Practical side projects of his (like Patternify and Folyo [1]) are valuable assets to the design community. For me, with my rather limited development and design skills, what I like about his output is that he can express the technicalities of development and design as well as he does. It’s all amazingly accessible, for people of all skill levels. Among Sacha’s most recent projects has been a book called Discover Meteor, written with Tom Coleman, devoted to explaining the Meteor web framework. For those not familiar with it, Meteor is a relatively easy-to-use framework built on Node.js. I’m a (perpetually) novice programmer, and even I could get set up with Meteor thanks to a handy tutorial over on the Discover Meteor blog. Incidentally, for anyone who’d like to try Meteor, Sacha and Tom have made the first four chapters of their book available for free online [2], and obviously that’s a great place to get started. For…

Sacha Greif
Sacha Greif during a visit to Tokyo last year

Sacha Greif is a designer and developer born in France, now based in Osaka, Japan. I’ve been interested in his work for some time, as he is also a prolific writer who frequently shares what he’s doing on his blog and on Twitter. Practical side projects of his (like Patternify and Folyo [1]) are valuable assets to the design community. For me, with my rather limited development and design skills, what I like about his output is that he can express the technicalities of development and design as well as he does. It’s all amazingly accessible, for people of all skill levels.

Among Sacha’s most recent projects has been a book called Discover Meteor, written with Tom Coleman, devoted to explaining the Meteor web framework. For those not familiar with it, Meteor is a relatively easy-to-use framework built on Node.js. I’m a (perpetually) novice programmer, and even I could get set up with Meteor thanks to a handy tutorial over on the Discover Meteor blog. Incidentally, for anyone who’d like to try Meteor, Sacha and Tom have made the first four chapters of their book available for free online [2], and obviously that’s a great place to get started. For folks here in Tokyo who want to connect with other Meteor enthusiasts, Sacha is organizing a meetup Thursday night:

Discover Meteor – Tokyo Meetup

When I met with him late last year, Sacha explained to me that the framework and the book are growing side-by-side, right along with the Meteor community:

There is more interest in Meteor, and people are talking about the book, which has sort has become the default book to learn Meteor. And even the guys at Meteor themselves use this as a training material and recommend it to other people.

The book has just recently passed its one year anniversary, and is now being translated into many different languages by the Meteor community. Those translations are being made available for free, which is a great way to help grow the community beyond Meteor’s San Francisco roots [3].

The full edition of the book even comes a couple of screencasts, and in my own learning experience, watching someone go through tasks step by step on the command line in immensely helpful. I like that the Meteor tutorial doesn’t assume much prequisite knowledge on the part of the user, and it provides useful links to further resources to fill the gaps when appropriate.

Sacha noted that while Meteor is a powerful tool, the way that it’s built really helps learners jump in without encountering major problems:

discover-meteor

What’s really cool is that the back and front end are integrated into one environment. It removes a lot of barriers, because, for example if you want to build a Rails app you’ll need to know HTML, CSS, Ruby and Rails, Javascript, and you may need a Javascript framework like Backbone or Angular. With Meteor, you still need HTML or CSS, but it’s much simpler to learn I think.

I understand the book has been selling pretty well, with 313 books sold (including 55 upgrades) during their recent 10-day anniversary sale.

For developers and designers who are leaders in a given field, what Sacha and Tom have done with this book is an interesting example of building a revenue stream while building a community around a growing technology. If you haven’t checked out Meteor or the Discover Meteor book yet, I encourage you to give it a read!


  1. When I mentioned to my brother, a graphic designer, that I’d be speaking with Sacha, he instantly recognized these tools as ones that he has used and loved.  ↩

  2. You can get this in PDF form by signing up for their newsletter.  ↩

  3. Regrettably, no one has stepped up to contribute to a Japanese translation of the book. So if there are any Japanese speaking Meteor enthusiasts out there, it would be great to see some involvement on that front. You can learn more about that here.  ↩

Wind wonderfully visualized: First Tokyo, now the world

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A few weeks ago I was lucky to meet with the incredibly clever Cameron Beccario over beers with some friends here in Tokyo [1]. He had just recently created his Tokyo Wind Map, a visualization of publicly available wind data using the very slick D3 Javascript library. Attentive readers of our site might recall that we also used D3 for our own Japan Internet Map. It’s a really great tool. Anyway, since that evening Cameron has – quite literally – moved on to bigger things, and has now published his latest project, simply called “Earth”. The Tokyo wind map was pretty jaw dropping when I first saw it, but this global view takes it to a new level, showing a more insightful view of current [2] weather conditions across the globe. Cameron, who took on these projects merely as a way to learn Javascript, explains: I had seen the US Wind Map and thought it was so amazing that I could follow its example and build a version for Tokyo, learning Javascript in the process. And once the Tokyo map was complete, the next logical step was the entire planet. I hadn’t seen it done before and thought it would…

earth-wind-map-cameron-Beccario
Live version at earth.nullschool.net

A few weeks ago I was lucky to meet with the incredibly clever Cameron Beccario over beers with some friends here in Tokyo [1]. He had just recently created his Tokyo Wind Map, a visualization of publicly available wind data using the very slick D3 Javascript library. Attentive readers of our site might recall that we also used D3 for our own Japan Internet Map. It’s a really great tool.

Anyway, since that evening Cameron has – quite literally – moved on to bigger things, and has now published his latest project, simply called “Earth”. The Tokyo wind map was pretty jaw dropping when I first saw it, but this global view takes it to a new level, showing a more insightful view of current [2] weather conditions across the globe. Cameron, who took on these projects merely as a way to learn Javascript, explains:

I had seen the US Wind Map and thought it was so amazing that I could follow its example and build a version for Tokyo, learning Javascript in the process. And once the Tokyo map was complete, the next logical step was the entire planet. I hadn’t seen it done before and thought it would be nice to see how the air actually flows around the planet. Clouds tell part of the story, but compare with the amazing images of Jupiter and Saturn. Well, Earth is just like that, if only we can see the wind and oceans.

Creations like Cameron’s are a wonderful example of what can happen when data is made available on the web for public consumption. He adds:

There’s all this data out there hiding in tables, binary files, behind obscure but wide open doors. Like the Tokyo pollutant measurements. But there was no way to visualize it.

Thankfully, he found a way. His interactive world lets explore different areas, zooming in for a closer view if you need, to see how wind behaves all around the globe. If you’d like to explore his code, it’s all openly available over on Github. You can throw some support behind it by liking the project’s Facebook page.

I’m not familiar of many people working with D3 here in Japan, but for anyone who wants to learn more, there is a Japanese intro over on Mike Bostock’s Github page (he developed the project), and there are also some useful tutorials over on dotinstall.com if you’d like to dive deeper.

tokyo-wind-map-cameron-beccario
Cameron’s first effort, a Tokyo Wind Map

  1. David, the author of the recent viral blog post ‘Why Japanese web design is so… different’ was also there, as was Søren Jones, one of the smartest data/scripting geeks I know. I really need to get out more… ↩

  2. Not quite real time, but updated every three hours as the source data updates.  ↩

The storefront of the future? Tokyo department store digitizes its window display

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Many national convenient store chains in Japan have installed digital signage at their storefronts to lure customers inside. The retail industry is typically aggressive, using enormous bright screens to showcase different products, to both encourage more purchases and to communicate their message. Japanese department store Parco has long been the center of the nation’s trendy fashions. And recently it has installed digital signage at its Shibuya storefront. There are six vertical screens that make up its ‘P-Wall’, showcasing the different products available on the Parco website, including 1,000 products by various brands. People can touch different products to see more details, or even check if that product is available in different colors. This P-Wall initiative was completed in collaboration with Tokyo-based TeamLab, and you can get a better idea of how the screens work in the video below. The six adjacent screens replace the traditional shop display windows, letting customers check out a variety of products in one place instead of browsing store after store. Many stores are trying to establish a better connection between their real stores and their online malls, and we’ll have to wait to see if P-Wall proves an effective solution for this problem.

Many national convenient store chains in Japan have installed digital signage at their storefronts to lure customers inside. The retail industry is typically aggressive, using enormous bright screens to showcase different products, to both encourage more purchases and to communicate their message.

Japanese department store Parco has long been the center of the nation’s trendy fashions. And recently it has installed digital signage at its Shibuya storefront. There are six vertical screens that make up its ‘P-Wall’, showcasing the different products available on the Parco website, including 1,000 products by various brands.

People can touch different products to see more details, or even check if that product is available in different colors. This P-Wall initiative was completed in collaboration with Tokyo-based TeamLab, and you can get a better idea of how the screens work in the video below.

The six adjacent screens replace the traditional shop display windows, letting customers check out a variety of products in one place instead of browsing store after store. Many stores are trying to establish a better connection between their real stores and their online malls, and we’ll have to wait to see if P-Wall proves an effective solution for this problem.

teamlab-p-wall

Handie: An affordable, functional prosthetic hand, made in Japan with 3D printing

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See the original article in Japanese Before we go any further, please check out the movie above. What you’re looking at is one of the many prototype devices developed for the recent Gugen hardware contest held in Tokyo on December 7th. Its developers are a team of three (a software engineer, a mechanical engineer, and a designer) who came together for this contest and developed this device. Users can create a functioning prosthetic arm by connecting the device with a smartphone, sensors, and a 3D printer. Affectionately named ‘Handie’, the prosthetic arm won contest. Gugen is an event focused on identifying business-oriented hardware prototypes, and provides reward to top talent. A member of its executive committee, Yasunori Okajima, says the number of entries reached almost 200 this year. Before participants were mostly those who enjoy creating electronics as a hobby. But this time, however, I see many more participants creating things that are business-oriented. ‘Makers’ is more than just a buzzword Chris Anderson is a genius at creating buzzwords. He finds the structure of latest trends, and expresses that trend with one powerful word to facilitate an entire movement. When he published the books The Long tail and Free, even…

See the original article in Japanese

Before we go any further, please check out the movie above. What you’re looking at is one of the many prototype devices developed for the recent Gugen hardware contest held in Tokyo on December 7th. Its developers are a team of three (a software engineer, a mechanical engineer, and a designer) who came together for this contest and developed this device. Users can create a functioning prosthetic arm by connecting the device with a smartphone, sensors, and a 3D printer. Affectionately named ‘Handie’, the prosthetic arm won contest.

Gugen is an event focused on identifying business-oriented hardware prototypes, and provides reward to top talent. A member of its executive committee, Yasunori Okajima, says the number of entries reached almost 200 this year.

Before participants were mostly those who enjoy creating electronics as a hobby. But this time, however, I see many more participants creating things that are business-oriented.

image_9

‘Makers’ is more than just a buzzword

Chris Anderson is a genius at creating buzzwords. He finds the structure of latest trends, and expresses that trend with one powerful word to facilitate an entire movement. When he published the books The Long tail and Free, even though the concepts were not brand new, many businesses then followed those trends. His most recent work, Makers, is no exception. Here in Tokyo, 3D printers appeared in many places all of a sudden, and media too have begun paying attention to this trend. A Makers boom suddenly started, but it soon cooled off.

What we need is not just a temporary trend or buzzword, but more initiatives like Gugen that try to tap into the inherent potential of the concept.

Three components for hardware creation

There are three components typically associated with developing hardware or electronics:

  • Create molding: exterior design.
  • Create software: the fusion of online and built-in software
  • Create electronics: open-source hardware such as Arduino

image

Because we can easily see and touch exteriors, 3D printers quickly became a sort of symbol for Makers. And this process of creating something from scratch is definitely exciting.

Handie’s exterior can be created at a reasonable price thanks to 3D printers. With data and printers, Handie can be created anywhere. However, there are two other important factors involved in building Handie:

  • All the software is smartphone apps, which cuts down the cost.
  • Motors and sensors are not customized parts. By putting general parts together, the team could create this device much faster.

Of course, Handie is not the kind of device anyone can develop. The most amazing part is its mechanical design. While multiple motors are typically needed to move fingers, the team managed to do it with only one motor.

And while not everyone can develop this level of device, as long as the developer has the core idea and the experience, they can create advanced devices like Handie.

image_1

Potential for business

Why is this new way of creating hardware and electronics getting so much attention right now? One of the reasons is that it represent significant potential for business expansion. When it comes to creating something entirely, the important thing to keep in mind is this notion of expansion.

Handie could never have been built without smartphone software. Yet with only smartphone apps Handie cannot be built. This is what I mean when I talk about expansion. As a result of such ideas, the shift from two dimensions to three dimensions has now accelerated.

For those who are interested in what kind of hardware can be developed by individuals, we’d like to list some of the other entries in the Gugen contest 1.

Squama

Squama is a screen that lets users can control transparency. At the contest, the developer mentioned that the panel can make an office more open while it also protecting privacy. In addition, it has an energy-saving effect in heated rooms.

写真 2013-12-07 17 24 21

Universal Earphones

This earphone automatically recognizes if it was put into your left of right ear, and then proceeds to play the right sounds.

写真 2013-12-07 16 01 04

Handie

As mentioned above, it aims to provide reasonably priced prosthetic arms using just a 3D printer and smartphone apps. It’s only for the people who lost a hand or the finger, it could be used as “a third arm” for everyone in the future.

写真 2013-12-07 16 02 13

Telemba

Telemba is a video-chat Robot created by connecting android devices and other electronic parts with a Roomba (robotic vacuum cleaner). It was quite amazing to watch the team members participated in the awards ceremony through Telemba.

写真 2013-12-07 16 06 35

PocoPoco

PocoPoco is an intuitive and sophisticated music interface. Each part was carefully chosen to realize elegant movement of the interface. PocoPoco played a short performance at the event, drawing a significant the audience.

写真 2013-12-07 17 08 59


  1. You can see the whole list of entries on their website.  ↩

Japanese social illustration service Pixiv launches e-commerce platform for creators

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See the original article in Japanese Pixiv, Japan’s popular online social illustration platform, has just announced a new service. It’s called Booth, and it enables anyone – even those new to web design – to create online stores. The concept somewhat similar to Base, often referred as the Japanese Shopify, and Stores.jp. Booth has just opened to registration, with plans to launch officially on December 19th. So what is the difference between Booth and the other store-creating solutions like Base and Stores.jp? Booth’s strength lies in its integration with Pixiv, letting users promote products directly on the site, with searchable tags and notification of new products for Pixiv followers. Online stores will be connected to the existing community of the shop owners, making it easy to attract users. The stores will of course specialize in digital content such as illustrations, pictures, movies, music, and books. It will also be possible to offer the products for free so that shop owners can easily provide samples. Booth is being billed as a “creator friendly service”, which means that creators won’t need to pay any initial costs, monthly fees, or sales fees. Only transaction fees on credit card payments will be charged. So…

Booth

See the original article in Japanese

Pixiv, Japan’s popular online social illustration platform, has just announced a new service. It’s called Booth, and it enables anyone – even those new to web design – to create online stores. The concept somewhat similar to Base, often referred as the Japanese Shopify, and Stores.jp. Booth has just opened to registration, with plans to launch officially on December 19th.

So what is the difference between Booth and the other store-creating solutions like Base and Stores.jp? Booth’s strength lies in its integration with Pixiv, letting users promote products directly on the site, with searchable tags and notification of new products for Pixiv followers. Online stores will be connected to the existing community of the shop owners, making it easy to attract users.

The stores will of course specialize in digital content such as illustrations, pictures, movies, music, and books. It will also be possible to offer the products for free so that shop owners can easily provide samples.

Booth is being billed as a “creator friendly service”, which means that creators won’t need to pay any initial costs, monthly fees, or sales fees. Only transaction fees on credit card payments will be charged. So creators will be paid nearly the full amount of the product price.

Also if the user stores products in Booth’s warehouse, the company will assist the user in storing, packaging, and shipping. By providing these services, Pixiv hopes to help eliminate these problems to let creators focus on making better products.

I often visit the Pixiv site, as well as Tokyo Otaku Mode, a website curating content about Japanese Otaku/geek culture. Otaku Mode is divided into galleries that presents creators’ works and pictures, and online shops to sell Otaku-focussed products. Unlike Tokyo Otaku Mode, Pixiv previously had only a gallery. As a user of both services, I think Booth will add much value for Pixiv, in the same way that it added value for Otaku Mode, bringing more exciting experiences to users.

Tokyo Otaku Mode

This popular Japanese mobile stylus was born from shoe-making technology

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When it comes to tablet pens, there are so many options available for consumers. But recently here in Japan, one tablet stylus called Touch Pen Pro has been getting more and more popular. In fact, to accommodate to the growing demand, the company behind the product began distributing to major electronics stores, as opposed to just selling online. The pen’s maker may come as a surprise to you, however. The company, Akaishi, is a shoe maker that was founded way back in 1946. Yes, you heard me right. A shoe maker. Akaishi has long specialized in making practical shoes based on biomechanics, and they are now sold in overseas markets as well. In the 1990s, the company also began developing reasonably priced health and fitness products, but it was constantly searching new businesses that leverage both its technology and its factory facilities. And so back in December of last year, Akaishi launched its new product, the Touch Pen Pro. The fluffy tip of the pen is made of conductive fiber, which differentiates the pen from regular silicon pens. Because of this special fiber, there is less friction when the pen is stroked on screen, only 20% as much as a…

TouchPenPro-Akaishi-Japan

When it comes to tablet pens, there are so many options available for consumers. But recently here in Japan, one tablet stylus called Touch Pen Pro has been getting more and more popular. In fact, to accommodate to the growing demand, the company behind the product began distributing to major electronics stores, as opposed to just selling online.

The pen’s maker may come as a surprise to you, however. The company, Akaishi, is a shoe maker that was founded way back in 1946.

Yes, you heard me right. A shoe maker.

Akaishi has long specialized in making practical shoes based on biomechanics, and they are now sold in overseas markets as well. In the 1990s, the company also began developing reasonably priced health and fitness products, but it was constantly searching new businesses that leverage both its technology and its factory facilities. And so back in December of last year, Akaishi launched its new product, the Touch Pen Pro.

The fluffy tip of the pen is made of conductive fiber, which differentiates the pen from regular silicon pens. Because of this special fiber, there is less friction when the pen is stroked on screen, only 20% as much as a regular pen. The fiber allows for a smoother writing experience on screens, requiring only about half the strength needed to write with regular pens.

Back in Feburary, we introduced another Japanese manufacturer, Hiyoshi Packing Corporation, who leveraged its existing technologies to make sleek card cases. Its core business, in contrast, is auto parts and electronics processing.

Our readers may also recall the Japanese startup Factelier which is collaborating with Japanese factories to bring interesting products to consumers.

Japan’s technological craftsmanship is too precious to fade and die out. So we really hope to see more creativity and inventions such as the Touch Pen Pro, which help old businesses rebound into modern markets.

Touch Pen Pro is currently available to purchase online over on Amazon or on Rakuten for 1,575 yen (or about $15). Check out the video below to see how Akaishi’s tablet pen works.

Cerevo’s futuristic smart power strip, with mobile integration, now available for pre-order

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based Cerevo, a startup focused on manufacturing internet-enabled gadgets, recently introduced Otto, a smart power strip that lets you control your home appliances even while you’re out. Our readers may recall we mentioned the prototype shown at CES 2013. But we’re happy to tell you that the company has finally begun accepting pre-orders, with shipments coming in January or February for a retail price of 23,800 yen (approximately $232). Cerevo is known for having introduced interesting hardware like the livestream encoder LiveShell, as well as SmartTrigger a remote shutter for your DSLR camera that can be used from your iPhone or Mac. Otto, the new product, has been developed using the company’s own crowdfunding site Cerevo Dash. It has eight power supply sockets and can enclose AC adapters, keeping them hidden from sight. A power supply for every single socket can be controlled over the internet using the mobile app which is provided for free. Two of them can even be controlled by a dimmer, letting you dim or brighten lights with your smartphone. This enclosure was designed by UK-based Japanese product designer Satoshi Yanagisawa, who is famous for having designed portable power generator…

otto

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based Cerevo, a startup focused on manufacturing internet-enabled gadgets, recently introduced Otto, a smart power strip that lets you control your home appliances even while you’re out. Our readers may recall we mentioned the prototype shown at CES 2013. But we’re happy to tell you that the company has finally begun accepting pre-orders, with shipments coming in January or February for a retail price of 23,800 yen (approximately $232).

Cerevo is known for having introduced interesting hardware like the livestream encoder LiveShell, as well as SmartTrigger a remote shutter for your DSLR camera that can be used from your iPhone or Mac.

otto_connect_640

Otto, the new product, has been developed using the company’s own crowdfunding site Cerevo Dash. It has eight power supply sockets and can enclose AC adapters, keeping them hidden from sight. A power supply for every single socket can be controlled over the internet using the mobile app which is provided for free. Two of them can even be controlled by a dimmer, letting you dim or brighten lights with your smartphone.

This enclosure was designed by UK-based Japanese product designer Satoshi Yanagisawa, who is famous for having designed portable power generator Cyclus.

The below demonstration video shows you how the device can control lighting with its pre-programmed ‘bonfire’ dimmer mode.

5 great ideas acknowledged at Yahoo Japan’s ‘Internet Creative Awards’

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Here in Japan, internet giant Yahoo Japan holds its ‘Internet Creative Awards‘. The awards began back in 2006 to discover and support digital creators. Winning products are carefully selected by participating judges, and the final results were just announced from a list of 340 nominees. The awards are divided into general (individual creators or projects) and corporate creators. Let’s take a look at some of the winners from the ‘general’ portion. The grand winner was Dots Dog, a cute app designed for children ages one to three years old. All a child needs to do is to touch the iPhone screen at three points to draw three dots. The dots, wherever they’re placed, will be turned into a face of a dog. The app recognizes the size of the dots, making the dog’s expression unique each time. Kannon is a soon to be released iPhone app that turns everyday sounds into a real-time animation. The app picks up on surrounding noises like the squeak of a chair, breathing sounds, or people chatting. The resulting animation could look like a face, or a mysteriously random letter. The app will be available for download soon for the price of 170 yen. Kigurumi…

Yahoo-internet-creative-award

Here in Japan, internet giant Yahoo Japan holds its ‘Internet Creative Awards‘. The awards began back in 2006 to discover and support digital creators. Winning products are carefully selected by participating judges, and the final results were just announced from a list of 340 nominees.

The awards are divided into general (individual creators or projects) and corporate creators. Let’s take a look at some of the winners from the ‘general’ portion.

The grand winner was Dots Dog, a cute app designed for children ages one to three years old. All a child needs to do is to touch the iPhone screen at three points to draw three dots. The dots, wherever they’re placed, will be turned into a face of a dog. The app recognizes the size of the dots, making the dog’s expression unique each time.

Dots-Dog

Kannon is a soon to be released iPhone app that turns everyday sounds into a real-time animation. The app picks up on surrounding noises like the squeak of a chair, breathing sounds, or people chatting. The resulting animation could look like a face, or a mysteriously random letter. The app will be available for download soon for the price of 170 yen.

Kigurumi Camera is an app (for iPhone and Android) that turns any facial photo into a kigurumi. Kigurumi is a costume people put on when they’re tyring to represent cartoon characters or animals. The app doesn’t do much but it makes a sort of a weird twisted photo of your face putting on your kigurumi. It was awarded for it’s mysteriousness and since people often shared the resulting photos online.

A few friends of a soon-to-be-married couple invented a new kind of ring. It’s called ‘Sao-ring’ (Sao comes from the name of the bride), and it’s sort of a prank because when the ring is placed on the groom’s finger, it sends out his location to his wife. When he takes it off, the signal is turned off. But why would he ever if he loves her truly? This project is fun, but the use of geolocation technology here is intriguing.

Saoring

Arart (AR-art) is an iPhone app that breathes life into things on the screen. When a user holds up an iPhone to an art work, the art expresses itself on your iPhone screen. Check out the video below.

Handy mouse/scanner combo from Japan reads and saves your text for you

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Japan, for all its futuristic technology, is still very much a nation that loves paperwork, especially at the office. People work with paper documents all the time, and for such people, scanning serves an important role for record-keeping purposes. One product that aims to make scanning a little easier is the ‘Mouse-Gata Scanner’ (which roughly translates into ‘Mouse-form scanner’). The product was released back in November of 2012, and has received positive reviews ever since. It even once nabbed the top spot in Kakaku.com’s scanner category. As the name suggests, this mouse scanner can be used as a computer mouse as well as a scanner, switching between the two functions simply by pressing a button. All it takes to scan a document is to turn on the accompanying software on your computer, and roll the mouse on top of the area you wish to scan. The mouse can moved freely, allowing you to scan things like a newspaper article or a single product within a catalog. The scanned data can be adjusted by trimming and fixing contrast, or you can erase unnecessary parts. And if all that wasn’t enough, the mouse scanner also has an OCR feature, so the scan…

Mouse-Scanner-KingJim

Japan, for all its futuristic technology, is still very much a nation that loves paperwork, especially at the office. People work with paper documents all the time, and for such people, scanning serves an important role for record-keeping purposes.

One product that aims to make scanning a little easier is the ‘Mouse-Gata Scanner’ (which roughly translates into ‘Mouse-form scanner’). The product was released back in November of 2012, and has received positive reviews ever since. It even once nabbed the top spot in Kakaku.com’s scanner category.

As the name suggests, this mouse scanner can be used as a computer mouse as well as a scanner, switching between the two functions simply by pressing a button. All it takes to scan a document is to turn on the accompanying software on your computer, and roll the mouse on top of the area you wish to scan. The mouse can moved freely, allowing you to scan things like a newspaper article or a single product within a catalog. The scanned data can be adjusted by trimming and fixing contrast, or you can erase unnecessary parts.

And if all that wasn’t enough, the mouse scanner also has an OCR feature, so the scan can be saved not only as image data (in seven formats including PDF and JPEG) but also as text.

Mouse-Gata-Scanner is only available for Windows for now, and can be purchased over on Amazon for about 5,800 yen (or $57). The product has an average of 4.5 stars with over 60 reveiews submitted.

King Jim is a manufacturer located in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company has released a series of neat products including a rolling cleaner for tablets iColocolo and a digital notebook called Mamemo. The company’s website is available in English.

Japan’s ‘little satellite that could,’ 27cm³, launches into space

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Our readers may remember a feature that we did on Japan’s Weathernews (TSE:4825) back in April. The company has made a major business in the area of weather information, and now has offices in 27 cites across 13 countries. Recently the company has been working to develop a sort of ‘polar routing’ service, to help marine traffic navigate icy Arctic waters. To date, they have relied on data from government satellites, but in order to get their service going they need a dedicated satellite. To that end, Japanese startup Axelspace has been enlisted to help with the project, as a company offering micro-satellites whom Weathernews deemed preferable to outsourcing to the government or a large manufacturer. They’ve produced an ultra-compact satellite that is 27 cubic centimeters, and weighs just 10kg. Dubbed the WNISAT–1, the tiny satellite launched today from Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia, piggybacking on top of a Dnepr–1 rocket [1]. According to the Axelspace blog this evening the launch was successful, and the satellite’s signal was successfully received. It is expected to pass over Japan at 20:40 tonight. The device will make 15 orbits of the earth every day, equipped with optical and infrared cameras, which it will use…

wnisat-1
Image: Weathernews

Our readers may remember a feature that we did on Japan’s Weathernews (TSE:4825) back in April. The company has made a major business in the area of weather information, and now has offices in 27 cites across 13 countries.

Recently the company has been working to develop a sort of ‘polar routing’ service, to help marine traffic navigate icy Arctic waters. To date, they have relied on data from government satellites, but in order to get their service going they need a dedicated satellite.

To that end, Japanese startup Axelspace has been enlisted to help with the project, as a company offering micro-satellites whom Weathernews deemed preferable to outsourcing to the government or a large manufacturer. They’ve produced an ultra-compact satellite that is 27 cubic centimeters, and weighs just 10kg. Dubbed the WNISAT–1, the tiny satellite launched today from Yasny Cosmodrome in Russia, piggybacking on top of a Dnepr–1 rocket [1]. According to the Axelspace blog this evening the launch was successful, and the satellite’s signal was successfully received. It is expected to pass over Japan at 20:40 tonight.

Ground control at WN headquarters
Ground control at WN headquarters

The device will make 15 orbits of the earth every day, equipped with optical and infrared cameras, which it will use to take shots covering 500km² of the Arctic Seas ice. These images will be sent back to Weathernews’ own Global Ice Center where they will be analyzed and put to use as part of their polar routing system. It’s expected that the WNISAT–1 will have a lifespan of one to three years.

As a provider of micro-satellites, Axelspace is an interesting company. They’re capable of producing these tiny satellites at a fraction of the cost, also using just a fraction of the development time necessary with conventional satellites. They design their satellites specifically to their customer’s needs as well, which is another competitive advantage.

Amazingly, this is not the only startup to venture into space recently. Back in October we’ve also seen San Francisco-based startup Elysium Space roll out its space burial service here in Japan, following its initial US-launch in August.

[Written with contributions from Tsutoha Izumisawa]


  1. The launch was originally intended to take place back in September, but was postposed until today.  ↩