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How to transform your iPhone into Nunchucks. (Yes, nunchucks!)

Rick Martin 2013.05.15

Part of the beauty of Japanese mobile culture is the wide variety of accessories that you can add to your phone. And in recent years, that means lots of fun iPhone cases (see the bubble wrap or Domu-kun cases that we recently featured, for example). But Japanese manufacturer Nitto has come up with what might be the mother of all iPhone cases with its ‘Trick Cover’. The case is comprised of two hinged portions, one of which holds your iPhone, and the other makes up a flippable cover. But as you can see in the ever-so awesome video above, the magic happens when you hold one part, and swing the other part about – just a you would a pair of nunchucks [1]. Interestingly, you can hold a transit card like Pasmo or Suica in the cover portion, or even order a custom design to be printed on the exterior. The hinged case structure also allows you to prop up your iPhone at various angles for easy viewing. But you’ll most likely be far too busy fighting bad guys with your mobile nunchucks for anything as trivial as that! Trick Cover is available in black or white, and costs 3200…

Part of the beauty of Japanese mobile culture is the wide variety of accessories that you can add to your phone. And in recent years, that means lots of fun iPhone cases (see the bubble wrap or Domu-kun cases that we recently featured, for example).

But Japanese manufacturer Nitto has come up with what might be the mother of all iPhone cases with its ‘Trick Cover’. The case is comprised of two hinged portions, one of which holds your iPhone, and the other makes up a flippable cover. But as you can see in the ever-so awesome video above, the magic happens when you hold one part, and swing the other part about – just a you would a pair of nunchucks [1].

Interestingly, you can hold a transit card like Pasmo or Suica in the cover portion, or even order a custom design to be printed on the exterior.

The hinged case structure also allows you to prop up your iPhone at various angles for easy viewing. But you’ll most likely be far too busy fighting bad guys with your mobile nunchucks for anything as trivial as that! Trick Cover is available in black or white, and costs 3200 yen (or about $31). — [Via BCN Ranking]

Nunchaku, nunchuks, whatever… ↩

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Japanese solar-powered digital camera seeks photographers who care

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.05.07

Japanese toy camera manufacturer Superheadz has released the world’s first solar-panel enabled digital camera called SUN&CLOUD. In fact, the camera can be charged in three ways. You can place the device in direct sunlight for 12 hrs to get a full-charge, or turning the built-in hand crank (one minute gets you four to eight photos). Or if you’d like to do it the easy way, simply connecting to a computer via USB. What’s great about this is that on a sunny day the camera will automatically stay powered no matter how many photos you take. Even if the weather isn’t great, turning the hand crank won’t be too much trouble either. This environmentally friendly camera weighs 190 greams and has a 3 megapixel sensor. You can also enjoy taking short videos, and play with 15 color modes. The specs for SUN&CLOUD aren’t exactly cutting edge, so why should you be interested? The idea of self-sufficient camera came up over four years ago, and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake pushed the idea into a reality. Omori and Nakamura from Superheadz elaborated in a recent interview with Greenz.jp: SUN&CLOUD needs to be taken care of. Everyday when you arrive at the office, you…

Japanese toy camera manufacturer Superheadz has released the world’s first solar-panel enabled digital camera called SUN&CLOUD. In fact, the camera can be charged in three ways. You can place the device in direct sunlight for 12 hrs to get a full-charge, or turning the built-in hand crank (one minute gets you four to eight photos). Or if you’d like to do it the easy way, simply connecting to a computer via USB.

What’s great about this is that on a sunny day the camera will automatically stay powered no matter how many photos you take. Even if the weather isn’t great, turning the hand crank won’t be too much trouble either.

This environmentally friendly camera weighs 190 greams and has a 3 megapixel sensor. You can also enjoy taking short videos, and play with 15 color modes. The specs for SUN&CLOUD aren’t exactly cutting edge, so why should you be interested?

The idea of self-sufficient camera came up over four years ago, and the 2011 Tohoku earthquake pushed the idea into a reality. Omori and Nakamura from Superheadz elaborated in a recent interview with Greenz.jp:

SUN&CLOUD needs to be taken care of. Everyday when you arrive at the office, you want to place it in the sunlight. These little efforts are what makes people feel affection towards things.

The world of photography is now polarized into high-end professional cameras and built-in cameras on mobile phones. But it’s not fun really to have nothing else outside of this hierarchy. That is exactly why we developed SUN&CLOUD. It has a message to tell. We want our users to enjoy and wonder why we made such a camera.

SUN&CLOUD comes in both black and white and is available for 18,900 yen (or about $190). You can learn more over on the HeadsShop website. Check out the video below.

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Robot dog from Japan plays dead if your socks stink

Masaru Ikeda 2013.05.06

Crazy Labo and Next Technology, LLC., two startups from Japan’s western city of Fukuoka, have jointly invented a couple of scent detection robots. One is the human-looking Kaori-chan, and the other – Shuntaro – is made to resemble a dog. The lady robot is designed to measure the whether or not your breath smells ok, in the interests of promoting oral hygiene. When you breathe on her, she will respond with one of four different behaviors. If your breathe is ok, you will hear a chime that tells you are okay. If it’s not great, she rings another chime to indicate as much. But if your breath has some serious problems, she will be screaming. And if it really stinks completely, she will look like she’s out of order. As for Shuntaro the dog, he measures how much your socks smell. And similarly, there are four ways that he will react. If he finds your socks smell nice, he will come a little closer to you. If the smell is not so great, he will look at you and bark several times. If you smell really bad, he will snarl. And if you smell especially awful (ru-roh!), he will play dead….

Breath scent detection robot "Kaori-chan"(Photo: RKB Radio blog) — Breath scent detection robot “Kaori-chan”
(Photo: RKB Radio Broadcasting’s blog)

Crazy Labo and Next Technology, LLC., two startups from Japan’s western city of Fukuoka, have jointly invented a couple of scent detection robots. One is the human-looking Kaori-chan, and the other – Shuntaro – is made to resemble a dog.

The lady robot is designed to measure the whether or not your breath smells ok, in the interests of promoting oral hygiene. When you breathe on her, she will respond with one of four different behaviors. If your breathe is ok, you will hear a chime that tells you are okay. If it’s not great, she rings another chime to indicate as much. But if your breath has some serious problems, she will be screaming. And if it really stinks completely, she will look like she’s out of order.

As for Shuntaro the dog, he measures how much your socks smell. And similarly, there are four ways that he will react. If he finds your socks smell nice, he will come a little closer to you.

If the smell is not so great, he will look at you and bark several times. If you smell really bad, he will snarl. And if you smell especially awful (ru-roh!), he will play dead.

The company expects to rent these robots for festivals or exhibitions, helping organizers attract and entertain their attendees.

Tokyo’s Asahi Shimbun newspaper has visited their offices to how the robots behave. Check their video here for more information.

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Hand-powered personal fan promises to be big in Japan this summer

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.05.06

Summer in Japan can be very humid and uncomfortable. Paper fans and parasols are what people usually use to beat the heat, but there might be a better solution. This coming summer, people can try out a battery-free portable fan called Kuru-Kuru Eco Fan, developed by Takaratomy. The first version of this eco-fan was released in April of last year with over 120,000 items shipped. The original fan required the user to turn the handle, but this reworked version is powered when you squeeze the handle which then triggers the fan blade to turn (see picture above). With one squeeze, the fan turns more than 50 times. Suited for both adults and children, the fan’s handle is only 5.5 cm wide (in the open position), and weighs just 51 grams. The three fan blades are made of soft material making it safe for children to use. All it takes is a squeeze of the handle and you can enjoy a nice breeze. Your other hand is, of course, free to use your smartphone. Kuru-Kuru Eco Fan is priced at just 787 yen, or about $8. It comes with a strap to hold it around your neck, and extra design patterns…

Summer in Japan can be very humid and uncomfortable. Paper fans and parasols are what people usually use to beat the heat, but there might be a better solution. This coming summer, people can try out a battery-free portable fan called Kuru-Kuru Eco Fan, developed by Takaratomy.

The first version of this eco-fan was released in April of last year with over 120,000 items shipped. The original fan required the user to turn the handle, but this reworked version is powered when you squeeze the handle which then triggers the fan blade to turn (see picture above). With one squeeze, the fan turns more than 50 times.

Suited for both adults and children, the fan’s handle is only 5.5 cm wide (in the open position), and weighs just 51 grams. The three fan blades are made of soft material making it safe for children to use. All it takes is a squeeze of the handle and you can enjoy a nice breeze. Your other hand is, of course, free to use your smartphone.

Kuru-Kuru Eco Fan is priced at just 787 yen, or about $8. It comes with a strap to hold it around your neck, and extra design patterns which you can use to dress it up a bit. The fan is part of Takaratomy’s Eco Toy initiative, aimed to create toys that are friendly to the enviroment.

Speaking of summer, character goods merchandiser called Runat released a silicon ice cube tray called Manga Gori, or Manga Ice. The tray makes ice cubes that are shaped like onmatopoeic words often seen in manga. The clever ice cube tray is available on Amazon for 1029 yen, or about $10.

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StickerMe: Add your own face to mobile chat stickers, share on Facebook, Line, or Kakaotalk

SCORE 2,302

Rick Martin 2013.05.03

Adding to our growing list of fun Japanese photo apps, here’s one for all your guys who have joined the mobile chat app craze. It’s called StickerMe, and it comes from the folks at Motion Portrait, an app publisher well known for its face-altering technology. One of the biggest attractions of mobile chat applications like Line or Kakaotalk is that you can use fun stickers to express yourself. And now with StickerMe, you can take a picture of yourself or any of your friends, and make it into a cute sticker that you can send with your favorite mobile chat application. After taking your initial photo, you can then choose from a pretty wide array of stamps, many of them closely resembling those you’d find on Line (see pictures below). But given the growing popularity of these chat apps in Asia and around the world, this certainly looks like it could be a popular photo utility. Check it out over the Apple App Store, or see how it works in the video above.

Adding to our growing list of fun Japanese photo apps, here’s one for all your guys who have joined the mobile chat app craze. It’s called StickerMe, and it comes from the folks at Motion Portrait, an app publisher well known for its face-altering technology.

One of the biggest attractions of mobile chat applications like Line or Kakaotalk is that you can use fun stickers to express yourself. And now with StickerMe, you can take a picture of yourself or any of your friends, and make it into a cute sticker that you can send with your favorite mobile chat application.

After taking your initial photo, you can then choose from a pretty wide array of stamps, many of them closely resembling those you’d find on Line (see pictures below). But given the growing popularity of these chat apps in Asia and around the world, this certainly looks like it could be a popular photo utility.

Check it out over the Apple App Store, or see how it works in the video above.

news

This hard drive will self-destruct: New HDD case from Japan takes security seriously!

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.05.03

Whether it’s a Facebook post, a tweet, or a photo, the general understanding of web and digital content used to be that it lives forever. But very recently, we’re seeing a lot of services built around the concept of expiration dates. For example, the photo sharing app Snapchat has become popular among teenagers, now boasting over 150 million photo shares per day, each one with a limited duration viewing period. Likewise Twitter app Efemr allows you to post self-destructing tweets by adding a dedicated hashtag to your message. This self-destruct feature is not limited to just services. A Japanese company called Century has released a hard disk drive case called Jigen (CT-25-ERP). When there is no access to the encrypted drive for a set period of time, the encrypted key is automatically deleted thus making it impossible to access what’s inside the drive. The period of data preservation can be set by using a dedicated utility available on the Century website for both Windows and Mac. The data can be preserved up to a maximum of 9,999 days. In addition to this self-destruct feature, the device has automatic locking as well. When there is no access to the encrypted drive…

Whether it’s a Facebook post, a tweet, or a photo, the general understanding of web and digital content used to be that it lives forever. But very recently, we’re seeing a lot of services built around the concept of expiration dates. For example, the photo sharing app Snapchat has become popular among teenagers, now boasting over 150 million photo shares per day, each one with a limited duration viewing period. Likewise Twitter app Efemr allows you to post self-destructing tweets by adding a dedicated hashtag to your message.

This self-destruct feature is not limited to just services. A Japanese company called Century has released a hard disk drive case called Jigen (CT-25-ERP). When there is no access to the encrypted drive for a set period of time, the encrypted key is automatically deleted thus making it impossible to access what’s inside the drive. The period of data preservation can be set by using a dedicated utility available on the Century website for both Windows and Mac. The data can be preserved up to a maximum of 9,999 days.

In addition to this self-destruct feature, the device has automatic locking as well. When there is no access to the encrypted drive (for a maximum of 999 minutes), the content will be locked and will require a password.

Your HDD/SSD can be divided into three partitions, but only one can be encrypted. Such a case would be perfect for Inspector Gadget (see the video below for some fun 80s nostalgia!) is available for just 3,980 yen, or about $41. Note that if data is deleted as a result of misuse, the company says it will not be held accountable.

Japan appears to like such self-destructing services and solutions that provide anonymity on our increasingly social web. For example, to avoid the possibility of having your boss read your angry or dissatisfied tweets, there are interesting solutions such as Arrow which we featured recently. There are also services like Gtitter (a playful variant of the word ‘vent’) which allows users to complain about things anonymously.

[Via Impress]

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‘Kame Camera’ takes Japanese schoolgirl Dragon Ball meme a step further

Masaru Ikeda 2013.04.29

About a month ago, an internet meme called Makankosappo (literally translated as “Magic Penetrating Killing Ray”) spread around the world pretty fast. It all began when Japanese schoolgirls were photographing themselves as if they were hit by a special attack from Dragon Ball. And from there it took off, even spawning a ‘Quidditching‘ spin-off. But Tokyo startup Nagisa, which is well known for having developed the Balloon messaging app, has taken the meme one step further. The company recently introduced a photo effects app that allows users to easily create pictures with that sort of effects. It’s called Kame Camera and today it became the top ranked application in the free photo & video category on the Japanese App Store, also reaching the 20th position overall. The app is available in both English and Japanese, and can be downloaded for iOS and Android platforms. It has multiple photo effects including Kamehameha (from Dragon Ball), Hadoken (from Street Fighter), and the Force (Star Wars) as well. In their announcement, the startup noted that it aspires to create more apps to bring fun Japanese culture to the world. If you don’t want to miss out on the fun, now is the time…

About a month ago, an internet meme called Makankosappo (literally translated as “Magic Penetrating Killing Ray”) spread around the world pretty fast. It all began when Japanese schoolgirls were photographing themselves as if they were hit by a special attack from Dragon Ball. And from there it took off, even spawning a ‘Quidditching‘ spin-off.

But Tokyo startup Nagisa, which is well known for having developed the Balloon messaging app, has taken the meme one step further. The company recently introduced a photo effects app that allows users to easily create pictures with that sort of effects. It’s called Kame Camera and today it became the top ranked application in the free photo & video category on the Japanese App Store, also reaching the 20th position overall.

The app is available in both English and Japanese, and can be downloaded for iOS and Android platforms. It has multiple photo effects including Kamehameha (from Dragon Ball), Hadoken (from Street Fighter), and the Force (Star Wars) as well. In their announcement, the startup noted that it aspires to create more apps to bring fun Japanese culture to the world. If you don’t want to miss out on the fun, now is the time to give it a try.

Of course, Japan has no shortage of other great photo apps if you’d like to check out some more. Regrettably, they aren’t all quite as much fun as Kame Camera!

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Line tries to hook kids early, launching toy smartphone with Takaratomy

Rick Martin 2013.04.29

Last week we had a chance to hear Line Corporation’s Akira Morikawa talk about his company’s fast and furious global strategy to promote their Line chat application. But it looks like the next few months will see the company quite active marketing to its home market of Japan as well, with a new ‘Line Town’ toy series to be released next month in cooperation with Takaratomy. Line Town, as you may know, is the animation series of the same name that broadcasts on Tokyo TV. Headlining its repertoire of toys will be a sort of imitation smartphone for kids called ‘Line Town MyTouch.’ With the goal of letting kids enjoy Line characters too, this pretend smartphone has a color LCD as well as sliding touch motion designed to look like smartphone interfacing. While there’s not actually a phone function, it looks like this toy handset will use an NFC function to let kids exchange stamps and some messages when one phone contacts another. It will also feature some mini games like picture matching, janken (or rock-paper-scissors), and brain training. The toy phone will be released on August 8, and will be priced at 6825 yen (or about $70). It will…

Last week we had a chance to hear Line Corporation’s Akira Morikawa talk about his company’s fast and furious global strategy to promote their Line chat application. But it looks like the next few months will see the company quite active marketing to its home market of Japan as well, with a new ‘Line Town’ toy series to be released next month in cooperation with Takaratomy. Line Town, as you may know, is the animation series of the same name that broadcasts on Tokyo TV. Headlining its repertoire of toys will be a sort of imitation smartphone for kids called ‘Line Town MyTouch.’

With the goal of letting kids enjoy Line characters too, this pretend smartphone has a color LCD as well as sliding touch motion designed to look like smartphone interfacing. While there’s not actually a phone function, it looks like this toy handset will use an NFC function to let kids exchange stamps and some messages when one phone contacts another. It will also feature some mini games like picture matching, janken (or rock-paper-scissors), and brain training.

The toy phone will be released on August 8, and will be priced at 6825 yen (or about $70). It will be available in three colors: pink, green, and blue. Surely Line Corporation is hoping that if they can promote the Line brand to kids at a young age, that they’ll stick with the brand as they get older and buy real smartphones.

Line Corporation will be releasing a number of other toys as a part of its cooperation with Takaratomy, including a character branded version of the Automee-S smartphone and tablet cleaner that we featured back in February. There will also be a Line Town Message Seal Maker, Line Town figures, a ‘tobisau’ pop-up toy, and Line stamps as well (yes, actual stamps). See the pictures below, or Takaratomy’s website for more information. [Via Impress]

For more information on the growth of Line, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until the present day.

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EnchantMoon handwriting tablet unveiled, first orders sold out in an hour

Masaru Ikeda 2013.04.26

Ubiquitous Entertainment Inc. (UEI for short) is a Tokyo-based startup well known for providing backend-centric software/hardware solutions. The company recently started receiving orders for its new tablet PC for handwriting, called EnchantMoon. They quickly got more than 1,000 pre-orders, selling out in just an hour. EnchantMoon runs on the Enchant OS, which has been developed using technologies from Enchant.js and microZEKE. Enchant.js is a framework for developing simple games and applications in HTML5 and JavaScript, and microZEKE is the startup’s own original middleware for developing Android-based platforms. The tablet gives users the capability to execute commands with handwriting. The startup hopes to change all the world’s paper works to digital format, making them easier to manage and distribute. Many notable people are involved in the design and development process of the product, including the famous film director Shinji Higuchi, Japanese cultural critic Hiroki Azuma, and anime artist Yoshitoshi Abe. On Wednesday a presentation and launch party was held for the product in Tokyo. There was a long queue in front of the venue, and I was waiting my turn for more than one hour but had to give up in the end. According to the company, there were 250 people…

Ubiquitous Entertainment Inc. (UEI for short) is a Tokyo-based startup well known for providing backend-centric software/hardware solutions. The company recently started receiving orders for its new tablet PC for handwriting, called EnchantMoon. They quickly got more than 1,000 pre-orders, selling out in just an hour.

EnchantMoon runs on the Enchant OS, which has been developed using technologies from Enchant.js and microZEKE. Enchant.js is a framework for developing simple games and applications in HTML5 and JavaScript, and microZEKE is the startup’s own original middleware for developing Android-based platforms.

The tablet gives users the capability to execute commands with handwriting. The startup hopes to change all the world’s paper works to digital format, making them easier to manage and distribute. Many notable people are involved in the design and development process of the product, including the famous film director Shinji Higuchi, Japanese cultural critic Hiroki Azuma, and anime artist Yoshitoshi Abe.

On Wednesday a presentation and launch party was held for the product in Tokyo. There was a long queue in front of the venue, and I was waiting my turn for more than one hour but had to give up in the end. According to the company, there were 250 people are waiting for a ‘touch and try’ session.

The tablet was first exhibited at CES (Consumer Electronic Show) in Las Vegas earlier this year, and they’ve generated some buzz among event attendees and international media. The device is available online for 39,800 yen (approximately $398), but sales are temporarily on hold until the next production lot is available.

Ubiquitous Entertainment was founded by award-winning programmer Ryo Shimizu, and it raised 500 million yen ($5 million) from Japanese VC firm Jafco. In late 2012, they established a subsidiary called Enchant.js, Inc. in California to market the Enchant.js framework and sell the EnchantMoon tablet for the North American market.

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Fujitsu’s new projection technology adds a gesture interface layer to any object

Masaru Ikeda 2013.04.17

Fujitsu Laboratories, the R&D arm of the Japanese electronics giant, recently unveiled a new technology that recognizes your finger gestures and allows you to add a sort of intelligent layer onto physical objects. The technology that makes this possible is a combination of a projector and several overhead cameras, letting you use gestures on an object as if it were a tablet or smartphone device. The company plans to develop a commercial version of the system by the fiscal year 2014. They say it could be used to show detailed information at a travel agency, or when you fill in forms at a city office. This technology, as well other futuristic developments like Google Glass or Telepathy One, have led some people to comment on social networks that the sort of interfaces seen in the movie Minority Report are almost a reality. To learn more about how it works, check out the following Diginfo News video report.

Fujitsu Laboratories, the R&D arm of the Japanese electronics giant, recently unveiled a new technology that recognizes your finger gestures and allows you to add a sort of intelligent layer onto physical objects. The technology that makes this possible is a combination of a projector and several overhead cameras, letting you use gestures on an object as if it were a tablet or smartphone device.

The company plans to develop a commercial version of the system by the fiscal year 2014. They say it could be used to show detailed information at a travel agency, or when you fill in forms at a city office.

This technology, as well other futuristic developments like Google Glass or Telepathy One, have led some people to comment on social networks that the sort of interfaces seen in the movie Minority Report are almost a reality.

To learn more about how it works, check out the following Diginfo News video report.

Fun tech

How to transform your iPhone into Nunchucks. (Yes, nunchucks!)

Japanese solar-powered digital camera seeks photographers who care

Robot dog from Japan plays dead if your socks stink

Hand-powered personal fan promises to be big in Japan this summer

This hard drive will self-destruct: New HDD case from Japan takes security seriously!

‘Kame Camera’ takes Japanese schoolgirl Dragon Ball meme a step further

Line tries to hook kids early, launching toy smartphone with Takaratomy

EnchantMoon handwriting tablet unveiled, first orders sold out in an hour

Fujitsu’s new projection technology adds a gesture interface layer to any object

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