Four of Japan’s top robot startups have decided to pool their efforts in order to meet the threat of rival South Korea overcoming Japan’s lead int he race to commercialize robot technology.
Japan, which has long led the world in robo-technology, has created machines that can clean, dance, greet, feed, monitor, relax and befriend. […]

Sega Toys has come out with a new plastic plant robot thingy that apparently is designed for people who have no one to talk to.

The Pekoppa sits there like a regular plastic plant until you talk to it, which will cause the stem to bend, creating the impression that the plant is nodding in […]

Japan’s oldest “modern” robot — the 10-foot, 6-inch GakuTenSoku — has been awakened in Japan. Gone are the inflatable rubber tubes of the original 1928 android build by biologist Makoto Nishimura. The bot now tilts its head, moves his eyes, smiles, and puffs out his cheeks thanks to a $200,000, computer-controlled, pneumatic-servo makeover. While nothing […]

The folks who manufacture the Little Jammer Pro, an audio system with small robots that “perform” music as it is played from special cartridges, have announced a Hibari Misora add-on.
Now how can watch as a tiny virtual Hibari Misora, backed by a full (but tiny) virtual orchestra, performs some of her old favorites from […]

Check out this Reuters report on a Japanese guy who has totally given up on women and maintains a harem of 100 sex dolls.

“A 200-strong army of beady-eyed, ball-shaped robots” is being deployed nationwide, says Pink Tentacle.
Not quite as scary as they might sound, these spherical chaps are “Pollen Robots” and are to be employed by Weathernews.jp to monitor the pollen count. And this being Japan, they have built-in Cute - the ‘eyes’ light up different colours as […]

Researchers in Japan and the U.S. have successfully transmitted the brain waves of a monkey half way around the world over the Internet to a robot that performed the correct movement.
The U.S. researchers at Duke University in North Carolina pinned down correlated patterns between a monkey’s brain nerve signals and leg movements. The monkey […]

“Dentistry in the uncanny valley” is what Pink Tentacle calls its report on Simroid — a robotic dental patient with an eerily realistic appearance. And that’s pretty accurate. Well, a trip to the dentist can be like descending into the uncanny valley anyways, but this is worse.
Making her debut at the 2007 International Robot Exhibition […]

The Tokyo Motor Show opened to the Press October 24.
Nissan’s “Pivo 2″ concept car has a feature I recall seeing in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie.

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Nissan ” Pivo” Tokyo Motor Show 2007

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“Total Recall” movie 1990

Kyoto-based Takenaka Engineering is finding out that cute pays even in their field of crime prevention and disaster relief equipment.
Their Mihari Wan robot guard dog has become a minor hit in Japan, selling around 10,000 units at 12,600 a pop since 1995.
Normally sittlng quietly in the corner, Mihari Wan turns into a veritable cyber beast, […]

Recently we have been hearing about how people working for various government agencies in Japan and elsewhere have been editing Wikipedia in order to make their group look good or competing groups look bad.
Then just yesterday we had a report from Overoften about how members of Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture were reprimanded for editing […]

Now that it’s possible for all to see who exactly is editing entries on Wikipedia (courtesy of WikiScanner), there has been a number of interesting revelations, including those reported on here at Japundit last month.
It’s now been reported that the Ministry of Agriculture “has reprimanded six civil servants who spent hours at work editing articles […]

Consumers will soon be able to buy their own biped robot that can perform over 200 movements, carry out a conversation and, maybe best of all, when it gets bored, it lays on its side and scratches its ass, according to Sunday Mainichi. Exceeding expectations, Takara Tomy’s i-SOBOT is already capable of being mass-produced and […]

I don’t know about you, but this University of Tokyo robot (named Mowgli) makes me feel a bit uneasy. . . Everytime I look at the video clip I get an image of the thing jumping up on someone’s back and injecting something into their neck. . .

Via The Raw Feed

Just check this beautiful speed painting and at the same time hear Hatsune Miku. The software sold out and became the top #1 sales in amazon Japan and it cost about 150 bucks. The song you hear in the video is from Lucky Star.

Via Narutard Japan no blog

All you GUNDAM lovers out there can now enjoy piecing together your own super mobile suits with these kits with parts that fit together much like LEGO blocks.

Each suit is about one foot tall and is made up of some 700 individual pieces.

Price: 8,925 yen
Not bad compared to this, this, or this. . […]

Got bugs? If not, no problem, since Bandai’s newest high-tech toy is a robotic cockroach. “This little thing has six legs, a touch sensor that tells it to change directions when it hits a wall, a micro monitor that makes it vibrate like a cell phone, and a mic sensor that lets it scuttle away […]

Toyota’s new guide robot, formerly known as “DJ Robot” and working as the MC for a robot band, has officially been named “TPR-Robina,” according to a Japanese Toyota press release. Tokyomango says it can now hold a pen and sign autographs:
Photos reveal a slightly more professional look (no more scowling eyes) to go along with […]

Ginza Tanaka jewelry shop in cooperation with toy manufacturer Bandai Co. has produced a 30 million yen platinum figure of the cartoon robot Gundam.

The figure is 12.5 centimeters tall and has a 0.15-karat diamond on its head.