news

Recipe suggestion app ‘Me:new’ wins Docomo Ventures’ second demo day

NTT Docomo Ventures

Masaru Ikeda 2014.03.28

Docomo Ventures, the investment arm of Japan’s leading mobile telecom, held a demo event this week, where they showcased six startups from the second batch of their incubation program. Recipe suggestion app ‘Me:new’ won the top award and was the audience favorite at the event. Here’s a quick rundown about on how these startups have cultivated their ideas over the past several months. Me:new Me:new won a trip to Silicon Valley, as well as arranged appointments with investors there. The demo was presented by founder and CEO Nobuyuki Miyake and by certified dietitian Keiko Hori who supervises recipes. Busy families often need to think carefully about what they cook. Me:new (a name likely derived from the word ‘menu’) proposes what you should cook for the next seven days, thus saving you time. Depending on what you choose to cook, the app will tell you what you need to buy at the supermarket so that you can easily see what you need to pick up in one trip, rather than make multiple trips as you might without such planning. The company plans to acquire 8 million users in the next three years. It will take a monthly subscription fee paid by…

Docomo Ventures, the investment arm of Japan’s leading mobile telecom, held a demo event this week, where they showcased six startups from the second batch of their incubation program. Recipe suggestion app ‘Me:new’ won the top award and was the audience favorite at the event. Here’s a quick rundown about on how these startups have cultivated their ideas over the past several months.

Me:new

Me:new won a trip to Silicon Valley, as well as arranged appointments with investors there. The demo was presented by founder and CEO Nobuyuki Miyake and by certified dietitian Keiko Hori who supervises recipes.

Busy families often need to think carefully about what they cook. Me:new (a name likely derived from the word ‘menu’) proposes what you should cook for the next seven days, thus saving you time. Depending on what you choose to cook, the app will tell you what you need to buy at the supermarket so that you can easily see what you need to pick up in one trip, rather than make multiple trips as you might without such planning.

The company plans to acquire 8 million users in the next three years. It will take a monthly subscription fee paid by premium users, projected to be 5% of its user base. For additional revenue streams, they will consider an online meal ordering service, advertising, and partnership with online healthcare services.

menew_pitch — Me:new’s Nobuyuki Miyake and Keiko Hori

ATLS (by ForEst)

ForEst took the so-called ‘best stretch award’, also winning a trip to Silicon Valley and appointments with investors.

Presented by Takumi Goto, ForEst aims to be the Amazon of online learning. In the same way that Amazon suggests recommendations when you visit their site based on what you have bought in the past, ForEst will build an online learning platform for students that can propose what and how to learn by measuring how much they have understood a certain topic.

They have partnered with educational publishers who have allowed the use of their materials on the platform. Based on accumulated data, it helps you overcome difficult problems and better prepare for tests or entrance exams.

Egao no Hon (books for smiles)

Some of our readers may recall we told you that Tokyo-based startup Egao has been developing an online photobook album app. Based on the presentation by Shohei Ota, it appears they have adjusted their game plan since then, now focusing on providing an online platform to help children buy event photos taken by photographers at their schools.

Here in Japan parents typically need to visit their child’s school to select from photos posted on in the school’s corridor. According to a survey, a photographer often needs to put 8,000 photos on a wall in this way (after an event, for example), and a parent will pick about 9 or 10. This process is obviously very time-intensive.

Egao’s online platform uses facial recognition technology to helps you find photos that show your child from a collection of images. Photographers benefit because they no longer need to print out so many photos to put on the wall. The company has partnered with some local photo studios and photographers around the country, and their platform lets you create a photo book from the photos you’ve selected. You can even order specific prints upon request if you choose.

Dank1 (Dankichi)

Presented by Taiki Yojima, Dank1 is a video coaching app that lets you learn from professional athletes. Many sport fans would love to be coached by professionals, but that would be especially hard for anyone living in remote areas of Japan.

The business will start by providing coaching in baseball (specifically pitching and hitting), but they plan to expand to other sports like golf later on.

Pozica by Wizpra

In the retail business here in Japan, many part-timers are hired only to quit after as little time as three months. Often this is not because they don’t like the work or pay, but instead it is often due to miscommunication with other part-time employees. As a result, this kind of turnover puts pressure on store owners.

Inspired by internal communication tools like McDonald’s Web Smile, Wizpra has developed a communication platform called Pozica which helps managers better engage with their part-timers through increased communication opportunities. The idea was presented by Yoshimitsu Imanishi, and their potential clients include beauty salons and restaurants, business that often make use of part-time employees. The company plans to eventually expand this business globally as well.

pozica_pitch — Wizpra’s Yoshimitsu Imanishi

WonderBee

WonderBee is a gadget-focused social network platform where users can exchange their insights and comments about hardware. When you are buying consumer electronics, it can be hard to identify specific user benefits through the manufacturer’s website. So the best way for you to find out is by asking people who already own that device.

The platform has a community classified according to products, so you can easily speak to someone who owns the device you are thinking to buy. On the community page there’s a ‘buy button’ that takes you to an online store-front, which helps drive traffic to manufacturers pages as well.

The company expects to build revenue streams through affiliate marketing, banner ads, and through its own online e-commerce channel. They hope to acquire more than 3.2 million users in the next three years.

wonderbee_pitch — WonderBee’s Hayato Sudo

Coinciding with this Demo Day event, Docomo Ventures announced it has just started receiving applications for the next batch of the incubation program, which is due May 8th, 2014. Selected startups will receive with assistance in partnering with NTT group companies, and Sony Mobile Communications has been added as a program partner.

The maximum amount of seed investment startups are likely to obtain has been increased to 5 million yen ($50,000), up from the 2 million yen ($20,000) for past batches.

news

Sensei Note: Japan’s new social network for teachers

Masaru Ikeda 2014.03.27

See the original article in Japanese Sensei Note, a new social network service for teachers, has officially launched in Japan. The service was originally started as an online market place for teaching materials, but it has since evolved into a closed social service for teachers. Its users are restricted to just teachers or to people who want to be a teacher. Sensei Note took over a year to launch its official website. We heard from CEO and co-founder Haruki Asatani about what took so long. I’ve visited teachers throughout Japan to speak with them face-to-face. I sometimes even stayed at their homes. I wanted to have a deep understanding about their needs, and even things not really related to their work. In the end, I realized that the problems they face cannot always be solved by sharing file-based content. And I became convinced that a community where teachers gather and share their knowledge is much more valuable than just a content sharing platform. The most common image of knowledge sharing in a teacher community is that it’s passed down by experienced teachers to new ones through word of mouth. But on Sensei Note, it is also possible for young teachers…

See the original article in Japanese

Sensei Note, a new social network service for teachers, has officially launched in Japan. The service was originally started as an online market place for teaching materials, but it has since evolved into a closed social service for teachers. Its users are restricted to just teachers or to people who want to be a teacher.

Sensei Note took over a year to launch its official website. We heard from CEO and co-founder Haruki Asatani about what took so long.

Haruki Asatani

I’ve visited teachers throughout Japan to speak with them face-to-face. I sometimes even stayed at their homes. I wanted to have a deep understanding about their needs, and even things not really related to their work.

In the end, I realized that the problems they face cannot always be solved by sharing file-based content. And I became convinced that a community where teachers gather and share their knowledge is much more valuable than just a content sharing platform.

The most common image of knowledge sharing in a teacher community is that it’s passed down by experienced teachers to new ones through word of mouth. But on Sensei Note, it is also possible for young teachers to share their knowledge with experienced ones. The relationship among users is very horizontal.

The service could potentially have a viral effect, if teachers recommend it to other their peers when gathered in a school’s teacher lounge for example.

bulletinboard — Sensei Note bulletin board

Monetizing a community

Asatani is passionate about improving the educational environment. His previous work experience at Bennese Corporation (a Japanese educational service company) and his own personal experiences have resulted in a strong interest in educational issues. He believes it is essential to build a teacher community first, and the revenue can come later. But the most important thing is to initially create solid and thriving community.

We are trying to tie up with local NPOs, many of whom have contacts with local teachers. So when we explain the concept of Sensei Note to NPOs, they happily refer teachers to us. We also approached universities so that aspiring teacher can use our platform as well. 130 universities are telling their students about Sensei Note. The service is free, so they have no reason not to recommend it to students.

If the service is free, then how do they plan to monetize it? Asatani has an idea.

There are actually many companies that want to approach teachers, students, and their parents, many of them offering information services or selling educational materials. Most of them operate through agencies, and have no channel to directly approach teachers. But Sensei Note could them reach teachers directly by letting them provide educational content on site.

For example, one company provides videos on career development for students on Sensei Note. One such video has been watched by 400 students by teachers. The content itself is free, but companies can benefit by gaining more recognition among teachers and students.

Sensei Note wants to solve other issues faced by schools and teachers, not just using its own marketing budget but also via government funding or corporate social responsibility programs.

Advice from a friend

Asatani first announced Sensei Note a year and a half ago at a Startup Weekend Tokyo event. While I wasn’t at the event myself, I recall hearing that he left Benesse right after winning the event in order to focus on Sensei Note. It struck me at the time that he has remarkable passion for his vision. About a year passed since then his team has been focusing on developing the service without external funding during that time. Nakatani elaborated on his motivation:

After I quit Benesse, I had an opportunity to go for drinks with a friend from my university. He had become a teacher, and he talked about his passion for why he had done so. Many new teachers have concerns, but they all have to manage their classes alone. I felt that I should support them, and that feeling really pushed me to build Sensei Note.

Now that Sensei Note has finally launched, I hope the team can come closer to their vision, and find fundraising opportunities in the near future.

news

Japanese cafe and restaurant portal makes use of Panoplaza to virtualize local spaces

Rick Martin 2014.03.24

Tokyo-based startup Kadinche announced today that its panoramic virtual tour technology Panoplaza will be used by Recruit Lifestyle for its restaurant and cafe portal site, AirWALLETxCAFE. For Kadinche, it’s pretty significant to tie up with a web operator of Recruit’s stature, which should bring them some promising exposure as they pursue other such business from similar portals dealing in things like real estate, hotels, and shops. Recruit Lifestyle is a subsidiary of Japanese internet giant Recruit. Readers may recall that it was just last week when Recruit Lifestyle struck a partnership with another startup Freee to integrate with its AirRegi app.

Tokyo-based startup Kadinche announced today that its panoramic virtual tour technology Panoplaza will be used by Recruit Lifestyle for its restaurant and cafe portal site, AirWALLETxCAFE. For Kadinche, it’s pretty significant to tie up with a web operator of Recruit’s stature, which should bring them some promising exposure as they pursue other such business from similar portals dealing in things like real estate, hotels, and shops.

Recruit Lifestyle is a subsidiary of Japanese internet giant Recruit. Readers may recall that it was just last week when Recruit Lifestyle struck a partnership with another startup Freee to integrate with its AirRegi app.

news

Japanese internet marketing giant Allied Architects partners with growth hacking startup AppSocially

Masaru Ikeda 2014.03.24

Tokyo-based internet marketing company Allied Architects (TSE:6081) announced today that it has partnered with and invested an undisclosed sum in the growth hacking startup AppSocially. AppSocially was launched back in February by Japanese serial entrepreneur Yusuke Takahashi, and it has been providing growth hacking solutions by helping app developers analyze how much their existing users help bring in new users. Allied Architects recently started expanding its business into the big data market. Partnering with AppSocially can be seen as a part of this effort. They also invested in Japanese text analysis company Metadata just last month. The company plans to provide better marketing solutions for its clients, combining AppSocially’s high-accuracy metrics and analysis technology with its own marketing platform, Monipla. via Venture Now

Tokyo-based internet marketing company Allied Architects (TSE:6081) announced today that it has partnered with and invested an undisclosed sum in the growth hacking startup AppSocially.

AppSocially was launched back in February by Japanese serial entrepreneur Yusuke Takahashi, and it has been providing growth hacking solutions by helping app developers analyze how much their existing users help bring in new users.

Allied Architects recently started expanding its business into the big data market. Partnering with AppSocially can be seen as a part of this effort. They also invested in Japanese text analysis company Metadata just last month. The company plans to provide better marketing solutions for its clients, combining AppSocially’s high-accuracy metrics and analysis technology with its own marketing platform, Monipla.

via Venture Now

news

Japanese livestreaming app TwitCasting to support collaborative broadcasting

TwitCasting

Masaru Ikeda 2014.03.23

We have featured the Japanese live broadcasting app TwitCasting more than a few times here on The Bridge. Moi Corporation, the startup that operates the service, recently unveiled that it is planning to add a new multi-person broadcast feature very soon. Many international TV news stations like CNN and BBC sometimes bring live feeds from multiple locations onto a single screen. The app’s new feature will allow up to four users to bring their live feeds into a single program channel. The company hopes this feature will let new users enjoy collaborative broadcasting with veteran users, and encourage them to start their own live programs using the app. This feature will be available upon the next update, so keep an eye out for it. The startup also announced that the Twitcasting service has surpassed 5.45 million users. The founder sees this as a significant figure, as it’s more than the current population of Finland – a country where he used to live and that he respect a lot. Interestingly, the name of his company Moi Corporation also represents a Finland connection, as ‘Moi’ means ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ in Finnish. via TechCrunch Japan

We have featured the Japanese live broadcasting app TwitCasting more than a few times here on The Bridge. Moi Corporation, the startup that operates the service, recently unveiled that it is planning to add a new multi-person broadcast feature very soon.

Many international TV news stations like CNN and BBC sometimes bring live feeds from multiple locations onto a single screen. The app’s new feature will allow up to four users to bring their live feeds into a single program channel. The company hopes this feature will let new users enjoy collaborative broadcasting with veteran users, and encourage them to start their own live programs using the app. This feature will be available upon the next update, so keep an eye out for it.

The startup also announced that the Twitcasting service has surpassed 5.45 million users. The founder sees this as a significant figure, as it’s more than the current population of Finland – a country where he used to live and that he respect a lot. Interestingly, the name of his company Moi Corporation also represents a Finland connection, as ‘Moi’ means ‘hi’ or ‘hello’ in Finnish.

via TechCrunch Japan

news

Japanese travel log platform raises funds Incubate Fund, Recruit

Junya Mori 2014.03.21

See the original article in Japanese Wunderlust, the startup behind the travel log platform Compathy, has allocated shares to Incubate Fund and Recruit. The amount of shares was not disclosed, but it expected that Companthy has raised tens of millions of yen (or hundreds of thousands of dollars). Compathy lets users upload their travel photos to a page (or pages) telling their travel story. They can easily create the online album pages by sorting uploaded photos based location and date information, arranging them in chronological order. The service was released at the end of last year, and within in three months about 1200 users have posted travel records, and 8,000 comments have been posted on the site. The team will use the new funds for app development. Kentaro Horie, the CEO of Wunderlust, told us: After we released the service, we found out some users felt awkward about uploading their photos. One reason for this is that many users couldn’t choose the best photos out of so many shots. Another reason is that because the average quality of photos posted by travelers is quite high, many other users lack confidence and feel awkward sharing in public. Horie says that the…

See the original article in Japanese

Wunderlust, the startup behind the travel log platform Compathy, has allocated shares to Incubate Fund and Recruit. The amount of shares was not disclosed, but it expected that Companthy has raised tens of millions of yen (or hundreds of thousands of dollars).

Compathy lets users upload their travel photos to a page (or pages) telling their travel story. They can easily create the online album pages by sorting uploaded photos based location and date information, arranging them in chronological order. The service was released at the end of last year, and within in three months about 1200 users have posted travel records, and 8,000 comments have been posted on the site.

The team will use the new funds for app development. Kentaro Horie, the CEO of Wunderlust, told us:

After we released the service, we found out some users felt awkward about uploading their photos. One reason for this is that many users couldn’t choose the best photos out of so many shots. Another reason is that because the average quality of photos posted by travelers is quite high, many other users lack confidence and feel awkward sharing in public.

Horie says that the team is going to develop an app that will try to break such a psychological barrier, thus increasing the amount of mobile users.

We aim to make it easier to upload photos from mobile devices, and we want to let users to apply enhancing effects to photos in the app. By overcoming this psychological barrier, we can motivate users to share travel records and add more comments about travel destinations.

They plan to develop an iOS app, with a launch planned for this summer. Compathy is also starting a marketing campaign by tying up with Airbnb Japan, offering a discount in Airbnb fees for users who register for Compahy before the end of May. The startup is willing to actively collaborate with other travel-related services like this in the future.

news

Meet the Japanese company looking to change online video by crowdsourcing animation

Takeshi Hirano 2014.03.20

See the original article in Japanese Before reading on, please check out the clip above. The promotion videos introduced in that clip can be produced for less than 200,000 yen ($2000) each. How can it be done for such a low price? The answer lies in crowdsourcing. On March 18th, Japanese startup PurpleCow launched a crowdsourcing service called Crevo, specializing in animated videos. Clients can choose a creator from the portfolio page and then order various video work, such as promotion videos for an app, or a YouTube ad with custom scenario and characters. In addition to matching clients and creators, Crevo is actively involved with the production process until the end of the project. Pricing plans range from 180,000 yen ($1800) to 490,000 yen ($4900), depending on the length of the video (from 30 seconds to 80 seconds) and the copyright conditions [1]. Custom-made videos are also available for order. According to PurpleCow CEO Kensuke Shibata, the startup has already built a network of about 4000 creators through another design crowdsourcing site Design Clue. About 200 of them have already registered for Crevo. We previously reported on the video crowdsourcing service Viibar. What’s different about Crevo is that it…

See the original article in Japanese

Before reading on, please check out the clip above. The promotion videos introduced in that clip can be produced for less than 200,000 yen ($2000) each. How can it be done for such a low price? The answer lies in crowdsourcing.

On March 18th, Japanese startup PurpleCow launched a crowdsourcing service called Crevo, specializing in animated videos. Clients can choose a creator from the portfolio page and then order various video work, such as promotion videos for an app, or a YouTube ad with custom scenario and characters. In addition to matching clients and creators, Crevo is actively involved with the production process until the end of the project.

Pricing plans range from 180,000 yen ($1800) to 490,000 yen ($4900), depending on the length of the video (from 30 seconds to 80 seconds) and the copyright conditions [1]. Custom-made videos are also available for order.

According to PurpleCow CEO Kensuke Shibata, the startup has already built a network of about 4000 creators through another design crowdsourcing site Design Clue. About 200 of them have already registered for Crevo.

We previously reported on the video crowdsourcing service Viibar. What’s different about Crevo is that it focuses on animated videos.

Shibata: We focus on animation and do not create live-action videos. The process between the two differs a lot, and there’s a big difference when it comes to cost structure. For live-action videos, equipment rental can cost a lot, and so it is harder to make a profit.

Animated videos don’t require as many resources, so they fit the crowdsourcing model better. The type of videos Crevo creates will be mostly promotional videos or YouTube ads, as you can see from their website.

The production process starts with a client meeting, then it continues to rough drawing, character production, and then video production – getting feedback from the client along the way.

But how can they operate at competitive prices? If they make creators work for less than the market standard, surely they won’t be happy.

Here is how it works. Clients choose creators who creates the artwork, and then they also choose a narrator. And the art director that oversees the whole process of production is chosen by Crevo. Crevo staff manage the whole process. The key to streamlining lies in the process management. The greatest benefit of crowdsourcing is that it becomes possible to create a virtual workspace for a project and arrange resources efficiently by allowing the workers to utilize available time for appropriate pay.

While there are limits to streamlining the production process, there is room to make process management more efficient, as we reported when we discussed Mugenup, another anime-focused crowdsourcing site. Crevo says they are also developing a tool for process management.

Although the startup has been struggling with Design Clue in the area of logo design, Shibata tells us that they have accumulated experience and knowledge to manage designers online. As I took a look at some of these demo videos, it’s easy to be impressed by the quality. Since their products are limited to only animation videos, the size of the market might be a challenge. All the same, I think there is much for this service.

The more expensive plan gives clients copyright of the work. ↩

news

Brand Pit: Giving companies a clear picture of their fans

Rick Martin 2014.03.19

Back in September we told you about Brand Pit, a startup which at that time won the Startup Sauna Tokyo pitch competition. It’s an analytics tool for brands that are trying to learn more about their fans, relying on image recognition technology instead of text or keyword analysis. Currently their focus is on analyzing images shared on Instagram, with some Facebook and Twitter analysis as well. By detecting brand logos in socially-shared images, any company that uses Brand Pit can gain valuable insights about who their fans and influences are, or even view a geographic heat-map of activity around their brand. In this way, they can get around the many problems associated with keyword analytics such as language barriers or spam. I had a chance to catch up with the company’s founder TT Chu (he’s the one in the video above), when they were pitching at e27’s Echelon Tokyo Satellite event last week [1]. He tells me that in the future, they plan to expand the scope of their image recognition technology in a way that will also expand its value for brands: We intend to detect more than just logos, brands and products. we are trying to extract and…

Back in September we told you about Brand Pit, a startup which at that time won the Startup Sauna Tokyo pitch competition. It’s an analytics tool for brands that are trying to learn more about their fans, relying on image recognition technology instead of text or keyword analysis.

Brand Pit image recognition finding Starbucks logos

Currently their focus is on analyzing images shared on Instagram, with some Facebook and Twitter analysis as well. By detecting brand logos in socially-shared images, any company that uses Brand Pit can gain valuable insights about who their fans and influences are, or even view a geographic heat-map of activity around their brand. In this way, they can get around the many problems associated with keyword analytics such as language barriers or spam.

I had a chance to catch up with the company’s founder TT Chu (he’s the one in the video above), when they were pitching at e27’s Echelon Tokyo Satellite event last week [1].

He tells me that in the future, they plan to expand the scope of their image recognition technology in a way that will also expand its value for brands:

We intend to detect more than just logos, brands and products. we are trying to extract and identify other information presented in the photo, such as the environment and the objects surrounding the branded products. This peripheral information will allow us a more accurate in-sight into the real situations/conditions where the products are being used/consumed. This piece of information is critical in segmenting the customer base.

I understand that their image recognition technology has been developed in house (primarily by Chu himself), and one of its key advantages is that it can perform well even when applied to user-generated images. So even when the images are poor – either too dark, maybe obscured by another object, or even if they’re too small, that Brand Pit can detect them where other technology might not.

When it comes to detecting peripheral objects for context, Chu tells me that they can even detect low-contrast objects like wine glasses, which is certainly an impressive feat.

They’re currently looking to raise funds to take their startup to the next level. And given the size and growth of the business analytics market, and the fact that they don’t really have many competitors, I expect that it won’t be too long before we have some more good news to share about Brand Pit.

Shamefully I couldn’t quite remember where I knew him from when we met again this time. I’m horrible with faces, much to my embarrassment. ↩

news

iChef’s restaurant point of sales solution impresses at Echelon Tokyo

Rick Martin 2014.03.14

We had the pleasure of attending e27’s Echelon Tokyo Satellite event today, where Taiwan-based startup ICHEF won the judges prize at the events pitch competition. They explained that conventional point-of-sales solutions are slow and heavy, and they result in bottlenecks during peak restaurant hours. But in contrast, their app is much quicker and versatile, using one iPad or multiple synchronized iPads. Currently they have 100 restaurants using their solution in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and they are planning to expand to Japan as well. They will charge a monthly fee to restaurants for use, which is their main monetization model, but the data that they can collect about purchases and orders is something that they could potentially use as well, in an anonymized or aggregate form.

We had the pleasure of attending e27’s Echelon Tokyo Satellite event today, where Taiwan-based startup ICHEF won the judges prize at the events pitch competition.

They explained that conventional point-of-sales solutions are slow and heavy, and they result in bottlenecks during peak restaurant hours. But in contrast, their app is much quicker and versatile, using one iPad or multiple synchronized iPads.

Currently they have 100 restaurants using their solution in Taiwan and Hong Kong, and they are planning to expand to Japan as well.

They will charge a monthly fee to restaurants for use, which is their main monetization model, but the data that they can collect about purchases and orders is something that they could potentially use as well, in an anonymized or aggregate form.

news

IRKit: An open source device for hacking your home

Rick Martin 2014.03.13

I spoke to Masakazu Ohtsuka (aka Mash) about his open source infrared remote controller device back in January. At the time, I was really eager to tell our readers about another very cool Japanese hardware project, this one letting you use your smartphone an a controller for devices around your home, such as air conditioners. The project is called IRKit, and you can learn more about it in the video above. The only problem was that back in January when I spoke to Ohtsuka, there were no more IRKits left in stock. I figured I’d wait a while and tell our readers about it at a time when they’d actually have a chance to buy them. When 100 more units became available this past Sunday night, I thought Monday morning would be a nice time to write something. But surprisingly, those units completely sold out before I had a chance. As I write this now, you may or may not be able to buy IRKit on Amazon. It’s a very cool product, and the high demand has demonstrated that it’s one that people want as well. So with all that said, let me explain a little bit about how IRKit…

I spoke to Masakazu Ohtsuka (aka Mash) about his open source infrared remote controller device back in January. At the time, I was really eager to tell our readers about another very cool Japanese hardware project, this one letting you use your smartphone an a controller for devices around your home, such as air conditioners. The project is called IRKit, and you can learn more about it in the video above.

The only problem was that back in January when I spoke to Ohtsuka, there were no more IRKits left in stock. I figured I’d wait a while and tell our readers about it at a time when they’d actually have a chance to buy them. When 100 more units became available this past Sunday night, I thought Monday morning would be a nice time to write something. But surprisingly, those units completely sold out before I had a chance.

As I write this now, you may or may not be able to buy IRKit on Amazon. It’s a very cool product, and the high demand has demonstrated that it’s one that people want as well.

So with all that said, let me explain a little bit about how IRKit came into being, and where Ohtsuka plans to take it in the future. When we initially spoke, he outlined some of his own ideals as an engineer, which shed light on his aspirations for IRKit:

Many engineers want to hack or optimize processes in daily life, they don’t want to repeat something twice. Remote controls have a downside – there are batteries, or kids try to take them. They don’t look cool. So I wanted to first make something for myself. But eventually I realized that it would be more of a challenge, that it would be more fun, to make something for everyone.

What he ended up creating is a wi-fi enabled device (pictured above) that lets you use a smartphone to control things like air conditioners, lights, and TV. Essentially you can control anything that uses an infrared remote. He has made an accompanying iOS app that lets anyone use the device with ease, and an SDK for developers who want to hack it further. Off the top of my head, I’m thinking that a developer could in theory create an app that tells your air conditioner to cool your house more as the temperature outside good up.

Ohtsuka has funded this project entirely out of pocket, and he explains that it’s an operation that he can run almost solely by himself, but with occasional help from some collaborators. I wondered if he might try Kickstarter (as many others here in Japan recently have) to help promote his project. But he says that such an endeavor would require much time, and as an engineer, he just wants to code. Considering that he has managed to sell to many units already just through his own network, and without any significant marketing, it’s hard not to be impressed.

In the future, he hopes to be able to build in location-based functions, which could then trigger devices when you arrive at home or leave, for example.

Ohtsuka previously worked with Kamakura-based Kayac, but is planning to soon move to the US, so it will be interesting to see where he focuses his efforts from here. His English is pretty fluent, so collaborating with hardware hackers and fabricators stateside should be a productive endeavor for him. If his work interests you, I encourage you to follow him on Twitter, or check out more information on GetIRKit.com.

Startups

Recipe suggestion app ‘Me:new’ wins Docomo Ventures’ second demo day

Me:new

ATLS (by ForEst)

Egao no Hon (books for smiles)

Dank1 (Dankichi)

Pozica by Wizpra

WonderBee

Sensei Note: Japan’s new social network for teachers

Monetizing a community

Advice from a friend

Japanese cafe and restaurant portal makes use of Panoplaza to virtualize local spaces

Japanese internet marketing giant Allied Architects partners with growth hacking startup AppSocially

Japanese livestreaming app TwitCasting to support collaborative broadcasting

Japanese travel log platform raises funds Incubate Fund, Recruit

Meet the Japanese company looking to change online video by crowdsourcing animation

Brand Pit: Giving companies a clear picture of their fans

iChef’s restaurant point of sales solution impresses at Echelon Tokyo

IRKit: An open source device for hacking your home

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ATLS (by ForEst)

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