Rick Martin
Japanese startup Wantedly has today launched a few new profile features for individual users, letting them add things like projects and portfolio pieces to their profile pages, even tagging team members who they have worked with. You can see a preview of one such profile in the image above.
Readers may recall that Wantedly just recently launched an iOS app, making their social recruiting service available on mobile.
On the third anniversary of the 3/11 Japan earthquake, Yahoo Japan has an admirable campaign running today to provide some support for the ongoing recovery efforts in affected regions: Three years have passed since that fateful day and we at Yahoo! Search wanted to show our support, as we know so many others want to, for Tohoku. We wanted to find a way to transform such showings of support into actual help for the revitalization of Tohoku. On March 11th, 2014, for every person who uses Yahoo! Search from the Yahoo! JAPAN homepage to search for “3.11”, Yahoo! Search will donate 10 yen per person to the general donation fund established by the recognized charity The Great East Japan Earthquake Recovery Support Foundation. Yahoo Japan, via @darrell_newson/@fluffymiffy
On the third anniversary of the 3/11 Japan earthquake, Yahoo Japan has an admirable campaign running today to provide some support for the ongoing recovery efforts in affected regions:
Three years have passed since that fateful day and we at Yahoo! Search wanted to show our support, as we know so many others want to, for Tohoku. We wanted to find a way to transform such showings of support into actual help for the revitalization of Tohoku.
On March 11th, 2014, for every person who uses Yahoo! Search from the Yahoo! JAPAN homepage to search for “3.11”, Yahoo! Search will donate 10 yen per person to the general donation fund established by the recognized charity The Great East Japan Earthquake Recovery Support Foundation.
OpenPool, the very clever interactive DIY billiards kit from Japan that uses projection mapping, is currently on display at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Coinciding with the conference, they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to help promote their open source kit. The project has been nominated for the SXSW Interactive Award, and we’re looking forward to hearing about their experience when they get back to Japan. You can check out their video promotion below to see how it works.
OpenPool, the very clever interactive DIY billiards kit from Japan that uses projection mapping, is currently on display at SXSW in Austin, Texas. Coinciding with the conference, they’ve launched a Kickstarter campaign to help promote their open source kit. The project has been nominated for the SXSW Interactive Award, and we’re looking forward to hearing about their experience when they get back to Japan.
You can check out their video promotion below to see how it works.
SlideStory is a movie and slides how creation application from Japan-based nanameue [1]. That developer has previously done some photo application development for the likes of Line and WeChat, as well as the uber-strange Kenstagram photo app. Our readers may recall that the company raised funds from Skyland Ventures last year. According to an interview over on Typemag (in Japanese), the app has seen more than 800,000 downloads since its release back in October, which is a pretty good start for an application in this genre. In addition to its home market of Japan, SlideStory appears to be getting some downloads in Thailand and Taiwan as well. We have previously looked at similar apps like Honda’s RoadMovies or Glue-th Inc’s Mechika Boola which can be used to create similar kinds of short movies. SlideStory’s ability to create movies from still images on your camera roll or from your social network is really great though, and I hope to follow up with a full review once I’ve spent more time with it. If you’d like to try out SlideStory, it’s available as a free download for iOS. An example of one a video slideshow produced with the app can be found…
SlideStory is a movie and slides how creation application from Japan-based nanameue [1]. That developer has previously done some photo application development for the likes of Line and WeChat, as well as the uber-strange Kenstagram photo app. Our readers may recall that the company raised funds from Skyland Ventures last year.
According to an interview over on Typemag (in Japanese), the app has seen more than 800,000 downloads since its release back in October, which is a pretty good start for an application in this genre. In addition to its home market of Japan, SlideStory appears to be getting some downloads in Thailand and Taiwan as well.
We have previously looked at similar apps like Honda’s RoadMovies or Glue-th Inc’s Mechika Boola which can be used to create similar kinds of short movies. SlideStory’s ability to create movies from still images on your camera roll or from your social network is really great though, and I hope to follow up with a full review once I’ve spent more time with it.
If you’d like to try out SlideStory, it’s available as a free download for iOS. An example of one a video slideshow produced with the app can be found below.
Don’t ask me how to pronounce nanameue! ↩
Based on the original article in Japanese Ring is a wearable device that recently raised funds on Kickstarter. This is a project that received much attention when the team released its concept video in October of 2013. As soon as they launched the Kickstarter project, they quickly raised their target amount $250,000, and they are likely to reach much more by the end of their deadline 1. While almost magical gadget has been much hyped, the details surrounding its features and specifications are not very well known. So I took a more careful look at the details they have disclosed, and based on that, I’d like to share a little about how Ring works. Please note that there are some specifications which not clearly written on the webpage and that some other specifications might be subject to later change. According to Ring’s basic description, it has four main features: The first feature allows you to control the connected devices, while the second recognizes your writing in the air as text data. Both involve the function of sending the data to external devices. A third feature involves the device recognizing payment information which you write in the air and then send…
Based on the original article in Japanese
Ring is a wearable device that recently raised funds on Kickstarter. This is a project that received much attention when the team released its concept video in October of 2013. As soon as they launched the Kickstarter project, they quickly raised their target amount $250,000, and they are likely to reach much more by the end of their deadline 1.
While almost magical gadget has been much hyped, the details surrounding its features and specifications are not very well known. So I took a more careful look at the details they have disclosed, and based on that, I’d like to share a little about how Ring works. Please note that there are some specifications which not clearly written on the webpage and that some other specifications might be subject to later change.
According to Ring’s basic description, it has four main features:
The first feature allows you to control the connected devices, while the second recognizes your writing in the air as text data. Both involve the function of sending the data to external devices. A third feature involves the device recognizing payment information which you write in the air and then send to compatible systems.
The last of the four features is for receiving data. This is not explained in detail, but based on the description, it seems like the device sends you notifications for things like new mail or new app information through a flash of an LED light or by using the built-in vibration motor. Similar features have been already implemented to the devices like Sony’s Smartwatch. But I think Ring’s uniqueness lies in that it is controllable by gestures.
The background technology behind this gadget involves six components; battery, motion sensors, LED, touch sensor, bluetooth low energy (BLE) and vibration motor. We can expect data to be transmitted to devices using the BLE protocol, since the list of Ring-compatible devices are all ones that support BLE. As far as I can tell from the illustrations and concept video, Ring controls smartphone apps or electronic devices by pairing with a smartphone via Bluetooth.
Let’s take a look at how Ring can be used for gesture-based writing:
Ring has a touch sensor, which when touched indicates the beginning of the user’s gesture. The end of the gesture is marked when your finger position is held for a while. The characters which the device can recognize are limited to a specific “Ring Font” which requires you to write in a certain way, intended to improve character recognition. The concept is similar to the handwriting recognition system, Graffiti, which was used in Palm OS for PDAs.
But if the user’s actions are not processed quickly, it could potentially be quite stressful to enter text. At that point you might prefer to enter text yourself on your smartphone’s keyboard.
I don’t know whether glyphs like question marks, periods, or commas will be added to Ring Font later or not, but if they are, I wonder Ring will differentiate between similar marks like commas and periods.
Of course, to attract Japanese users Ring should support the Japanese writing components of Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. I’d like to see Ring Font include those as well.
There was no information listed about Ring’s battery life, but the webpage says that a user can make 1000 gestures on one battery charge 2.
It would be pretty amazing if we could control our electronic devices just by moving our finger. But I understand it, a user will need to have a smartphone to use the Ring system. Instead of equipping Ring with all the hardware needed to execute the listed features, it looks like they’ve included a minimum set of components, and instead let your smartphone connect with electronic devices around your home.
We’d like to keep our eyes on not only the development progress of Ring but also the development of supporting devices and development by third-parties.
Ring has not hit the market yet, as it’s still under development. But to fully realize the vision for this kind of device, it is essential to have more support from app developers, third parties, and from users. As one of Ring’s Kickstarter backers, I’m really looking forward to having Ring on my finger in the near future.
As we write this, Ring has raised more than $650,000 on Kickstarter with 25 days still left in the campaign. ↩
Editor’s note: I asked the company for more info on their battery, but I haven’t heard a reply from them in a week. This question abruptly halted our email discussion. –RM ↩
When we last visited with Tokyo-based Kadinche, the creators of Panoplaza, they gave us a glimpse of their 360-degree video recording tool, employing a clever six-camera GoPro cubic mount recorder (pictured below, left). Recently the company has officially announced this video solution, cleverly dubbed ‘Panomovie’, making it an available option to their clients in addition to their panoramic photography offerings. Using their GoPro solution, they can record video from either a static or moving viewpoint (the latter is obviously more fun!), with cameras recording six different views from that position. And then by using their own photo stitching software (you can opt for commercial software as well), they can then combine all six camera views to create a complete 360-degree video view. You can preview some examples of how it looks in the video above. That video can subsequently be viewed using a variety of devices, including PC and smartphones, or even on a head-mounted display like Oculus Rift, able to control the directional view with ease. So what are the possible applications for such a technology? Kadinche lists potential clients as amusement facilities, sightseeing spots, real estates, retails, concerts, and sports. I asked Kadinche CEO Soko Aoki if he…
When we last visited with Tokyo-based Kadinche, the creators of Panoplaza, they gave us a glimpse of their 360-degree video recording tool, employing a clever six-camera GoPro cubic mount recorder (pictured below, left). Recently the company has officially announced this video solution, cleverly dubbed ‘Panomovie’, making it an available option to their clients in addition to their panoramic photography offerings.
Using their GoPro solution, they can record video from either a static or moving viewpoint (the latter is obviously more fun!), with cameras recording six different views from that position. And then by using their own photo stitching software (you can opt for commercial software as well), they can then combine all six camera views to create a complete 360-degree video view. You can preview some examples of how it looks in the video above.
That video can subsequently be viewed using a variety of devices, including PC and smartphones, or even on a head-mounted display like Oculus Rift, able to control the directional view with ease.
So what are the possible applications for such a technology? Kadinche lists potential clients as amusement facilities, sightseeing spots, real estates, retails, concerts, and sports.
I asked Kadinche CEO Soko Aoki if he had any plans to integrate Leap Motion as a possible controller for exploring panoramic photos. He affirms that they have tested Leap Motion as a means of controlling their panoramas, and are searching for clients who might take advantage of such a gesture interface to panoramic contents.
Yuki Kai
