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Japanese iPad app helps kids get creative with cardboard boxes

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time making things from old cardboard boxes. Impenetrable headquarters for my toy figures, with complex slides and zip-lines strung about — this was pretty commonplace [1]. But in today smartphone age, I can’t help but wonder if this sort of creative playtime is as common as before. Thankfully, one Japanese company is making an effort to encourage such activity, and they are – somewhat ironically – using mobile devices to do so. Tokyo-based publisher Regia Inc. has created an iPad app called Cartoon Box, with intent to distribute their instructional booklets on creating fun things with discarded cardboard boxes. The app itself is nothing special, but I’m glad to see that the company is getting its content out there on mobile, given that kids take to such devices so readily. While the iPad application itself is free to download, some of the instructional booklets are paid. One of the available booklets can be downloaded for free, including instructions on how to make a wagon, and (incredibly) a tyrannosaurus. Cartoon Box was recently featured on the popular weekend television show King’s Brunch. Typically that show gives a huge boost to apps…

cartoon-box

When I was a kid, I spent a lot of time making things from old cardboard boxes. Impenetrable headquarters for my toy figures, with complex slides and zip-lines strung about — this was pretty commonplace [1]. But in today smartphone age, I can’t help but wonder if this sort of creative playtime is as common as before. Thankfully, one Japanese company is making an effort to encourage such activity, and they are – somewhat ironically – using mobile devices to do so.

Tokyo-based publisher Regia Inc. has created an iPad app called Cartoon Box, with intent to distribute their instructional booklets on creating fun things with discarded cardboard boxes. The app itself is nothing special, but I’m glad to see that the company is getting its content out there on mobile, given that kids take to such devices so readily.

While the iPad application itself is free to download, some of the instructional booklets are paid. One of the available booklets can be downloaded for free, including instructions on how to make a wagon, and (incredibly) a tyrannosaurus.

Cartoon Box was recently featured on the popular weekend television show King’s Brunch. Typically that show gives a huge boost to apps here in Japan, and I expect that this was the case here as well [2].

If you’d like to try the iPad app, you can get it over on the App Store. Instructions are in both English and Japanese.

cartoon-box-1 cartoon-box-1

cartoon-box-1 cartoon-box-1

  1. My biggest cardboard box creation was an Optimus Prime Halloween costume that could actually transform into a truck.  ↩

  2. I’ve reached out to Regia to find out how they’re progressing, and will update if I hear anything.  ↩

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Shadow Love: The Japanese iPhone game made entirely with shadow puppets [Video]

Rick Martin Rick Martin
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Here’s a really fun iPhone game from Japan that is created entirely with shadow puppet characters. It’s called Shadow Love, and it’s a side-scrolling platformer where you take on the role of a cute shadow bunny rabbit, just like the type you probably tried to make when you were a kid. Your task is to navigate to the end of each round, evading other shadow puppet enemies like snails, crabs, porcupines, and even alligators. Even the backgrounds, buttons, and inter-titles are made in this shadow art style, and it gives the game a really nice look, especially with the colored backgrounds. Shadow Love, which was developed by Japanese game publisher Strawberry Gohan, has been around for almost a year now. But for some reason it hasn’t really gotten much attention, even in its home market of Japan. That’s a shame too, because the gameplay is really smooth, with very easy-to-handle controls. There are two versions of Shadow Love available: one for $0.99 (for iPhone or iPad, with retina support), which has 30 stages to play through; and there’s also a free version called Shadow Love Free Plus, with five levels to play. If you’d like like to learn more, check…

Here’s a really fun iPhone game from Japan that is created entirely with shadow puppet characters. It’s called Shadow Love, and it’s a side-scrolling platformer where you take on the role of a cute shadow bunny rabbit, just like the type you probably tried to make when you were a kid.

Your task is to navigate to the end of each round, evading other shadow puppet enemies like snails, crabs, porcupines, and even alligators. Even the backgrounds, buttons, and inter-titles are made in this shadow art style, and it gives the game a really nice look, especially with the colored backgrounds.

Shadow Love, which was developed by Japanese game publisher Strawberry Gohan, has been around for almost a year now. But for some reason it hasn’t really gotten much attention, even in its home market of Japan. That’s a shame too, because the gameplay is really smooth, with very easy-to-handle controls.

There are two versions of Shadow Love available: one for $0.99 (for iPhone or iPad, with retina support), which has 30 stages to play through; and there’s also a free version called Shadow Love Free Plus, with five levels to play.

If you’d like like to learn more, check out our demo in the video above.

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shadow-love

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Cutting edge: How Japan’s “sushi tech” increases efficiency and profits

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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Japanese cuisine, especially Sushi, has attracted many health conscious eaters around the world. Sushi is obviously very popular here in Japan, but the cuisine is also way ahead of its food industry competitors in terms of technology. A sushi franchise called Mawashi Sushi Katsu has installed iPads in all of its seven restaurants for the purpose of taking orders. On the sushi counter, there’s an iPad for every two seats, and once orders are placed the sushi is delivered to the customer on the usual conveyor belt. The iPad is also used in the kitchen to educate employees and to improve service and productivity. Another kaiten zushi (roughly translated as “circulating sushi”) restaurant, Uobei in Shibuya, provides sushi for 105 yen per portion. The reduced cost comes as a result of installing touch panel devices, which support Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean. You can see the order process in action in the video below. The sushi chain Kurazushi, with 285 stores in Japan (as of October 2011), is probably the most innovative of all sushi franchises. The Kurazushi smartphone app allows users to search for nearby restaurants, make reservations, and get coupons. Sushi orders are made using a touch panel…

sushi-ipad
Sushi iPad! (photo by ITpro)

Japanese cuisine, especially Sushi, has attracted many health conscious eaters around the world. Sushi is obviously very popular here in Japan, but the cuisine is also way ahead of its food industry competitors in terms of technology.

A sushi franchise called Mawashi Sushi Katsu has installed iPads in all of its seven restaurants for the purpose of taking orders. On the sushi counter, there’s an iPad for every two seats, and once orders are placed the sushi is delivered to the customer on the usual conveyor belt. The iPad is also used in the kitchen to educate employees and to improve service and productivity.

Another kaiten zushi (roughly translated as “circulating sushi”) restaurant, Uobei in Shibuya, provides sushi for 105 yen per portion. The reduced cost comes as a result of installing touch panel devices, which support Japanese, English, Chinese, and Korean. You can see the order process in action in the video below.

The sushi chain Kurazushi, with 285 stores in Japan (as of October 2011), is probably the most innovative of all sushi franchises. The Kurazushi smartphone app allows users to search for nearby restaurants, make reservations, and get coupons. Sushi orders are made using a touch panel device (just like other sushi chains) and the empty sushi plates are collected in a tableside bay. Plates are then automatically counted to calculate the bill, thus accelerating the paying process. There are also QR codes embedded on the sushi plates, which helps to keep track of how long the sushi has been circulating on conveyor belts.

After putting five plates into the tableside bay, customers can enjoy gacha. This is sort of a vending machine — and also the origin of gacha in social games — that gives out toys to kids. But it means that families are more likely to order by a multiple of five for their kids.

The video below shows a common device seen at sushi chains. It reads the IC tag embedded in plates to calculate bills. It’s pretty amazing, to be honest.

The very first conveyor-belt sushi appeared more than 55 years ago in Osaka. Since then much innovation has taken place, bringing a satisfying profit to sushi chains. Kurazushi alone had over 5 billion yen in profit as of year 2010, and if sushi tech keeps improving, I’m sure they’ll make even more in the future!

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Tokyo’s iPad-powered bars remember your favorite drinks

Masaru Ikeda Masaru Ikeda
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A new bar just opened yesterday in Tokyo’s busy Shibuya district, bringing with it a new digital solution that could disrupt the bar industry. It’s called LogBar, and was founded by entrepreneurial programmers Takuro Yoshida and Takayuki Yamazaki. When you step inside the bar, you receive an iPad upon which you should sign in with a username and password. Every order of beverages, alcohol, and appetizers is to be made on the iPad. You can also interact with bartenders and other customers on the app, which have been specifically designed for the bar. The app allows you to check what the other customers have ordered and to throw them a ‘like’ as well. The two founders are not satisfied with developing digital-centric solutions, but wanted to explore digital solution opportunities by connecting online to offline. By accumulating your orders on the app, your drink preference will be stored on the system, so you might see a suggested drink that suits your tastes at a participating bar in the network, even if it’s your first time there. Their bars are located at two locations in Shibuya, but are open only on Monday evenings. Traditionally, the best bars are the ones where…

logbar_entranceA new bar just opened yesterday in Tokyo’s busy Shibuya district, bringing with it a new digital solution that could disrupt the bar industry. It’s called LogBar, and was founded by entrepreneurial programmers Takuro Yoshida and Takayuki Yamazaki.

When you step inside the bar, you receive an iPad upon which you should sign in with a username and password. Every order of beverages, alcohol, and appetizers is to be made on the iPad. You can also interact with bartenders and other customers on the app, which have been specifically designed for the bar. The app allows you to check what the other customers have ordered and to throw them a ‘like’ as well.

logbarapp_screenshotThe two founders are not satisfied with developing digital-centric solutions, but wanted to explore digital solution opportunities by connecting online to offline. By accumulating your orders on the app, your drink preference will be stored on the system, so you might see a suggested drink that suits your tastes at a participating bar in the network, even if it’s your first time there. Their bars are located at two locations in Shibuya, but are open only on Monday evenings.

Traditionally, the best bars are the ones where bartenders remember customers’ preferences, and customers might often frequent establishments where they enjoy chatting with the bar staff. This is why many consider the bar industry to be one of the most difficult sectors in which to develop a franchise business. But with this new technology, you might find that a bar you’ve never been inside before could know your name and favorite drink in advance!

logbar_ipad_and_cocktail

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Is your iPhone dirty? Japan has a miniature zamboni robot that’ll clean it!

Yukari Mitsuhashi Yukari Mitsuhashi
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In a recent survey, 88% of smartphone users responded that they are often bothered by finger prints and other marks on their screens. And since not everyone has a piece of microfiber readily on hand, this is clearly a first world problem that absolutely must be solved. And fittingly, we have an equally first world solution. Use Automee-S, a tiny robotic cleaner that was just announced by TOMY Company, Ltd. Home cleaning robots like the Roomba are pretty popular in Japan. And TOMY applied the same concept to smartphones and tablets. In fact, it was way back in 1985 when they built their first cleaning robot named the SO-G (which means “cleaning” in Japanese) which uses brooms to clean. The company describes the Automee as an invention that combines practicality and playfulness. When you turn it on, it is propelled by three wheels on the bottom, and cleaning paper wipes off all fingerprints and oil on the screen. This toy is smart enough to detect the edge of whatever device it is cleaning and turns itself around to avoid from falling off. In this way, the Automee covers the entire surface, making sure everything is nice and clean. If you’d…

automee-s-2
A zamboni for your iPad or iPhone!

In a recent survey, 88% of smartphone users responded that they are often bothered by finger prints and other marks on their screens. And since not everyone has a piece of microfiber readily on hand, this is clearly a first world problem that absolutely must be solved. And fittingly, we have an equally first world solution.

Use Automee-S, a tiny robotic cleaner that was just announced by TOMY Company, Ltd. Home cleaning robots like the Roomba are pretty popular in Japan. And TOMY applied the same concept to smartphones and tablets. In fact, it was way back in 1985 when they built their first cleaning robot named the SO-G (which means “cleaning” in Japanese) which uses brooms to clean.

automee-s-1

The company describes the Automee as an invention that combines practicality and playfulness. When you turn it on, it is propelled by three wheels on the bottom, and cleaning paper wipes off all fingerprints and oil on the screen. This toy is smart enough to detect the edge of whatever device it is cleaning and turns itself around to avoid from falling off. In this way, the Automee covers the entire surface, making sure everything is nice and clean. If you’d like to see it in action, there’s a video over on the company’s website.

The approximate cleaning time is four minutes for smartphones (12cm x 6cm) and eight minutes for tablets (24cm x 19cm). Automee itself is about 7 cm in width and weighs 82g. It comes in four color variations: orange, blue, pink, and white. The two circles in front of the robot intended to mimic eyes, giving it a pet-like feel. The company is even planning to release other kinds in the future such as trains, cars, and animals.

Automee-S will be sold in a range of retail stores all over Japan, as well as online. It costs 1,575 yen (or about $17) and goes on sale on March 28 [1].

automee-s-3

  1. For those who read the headline and wondered what a ‘zamboni’ is, here you go.  ↩

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