This is pretty cool, the British claymation duo Wallace and Gromit were featured in an ad for a Japanese candy a while back.
Wallace and Gromit – Japander.com
(Thank you Charles for sending me this)
Tag: Japan
‘Wiardosebn’ Bird robot kit
A little pricey at US$300 but it does have a gob (9) of servos and does not require solder to assemble (?). Nifty! The body is built out of laser cut (just a guess there, but it would be cheap to do) plywood so it will be quite tough. I’m a little foggy on the controls though, looks like it’s either by an RS-232C/USB port or a UHF RF remote. It also looks like the head/beak acts as a pendulum.
Bird type self-made robot of wonder kit products and two walking “Weird-7”
“Weird-7” Homepage
Notecard ePaper
More ePaper goodness! I can’t wait until this stuff is available on the store shelves. Once again, ePaper is a medium that will retain it’s image even after the power is removed. It could be used to electronic newspapers or books (in fact Sony already sells one)
Rice Cookers: Zojiriushi Still The King
I like my rice cooker. I’m sure not many people can say the same thing or even know that such devices exist. Rice cookers are truly wonderful things, you put rice in and add water and a little while after you turn it on you have perfect rice. No more messy boiling water and burned pans. Heck, other people must think its a good idea, it made Sony famous!
Commonly used in Japan, this type of fuzzy-logic rice cooker can be set ahead of time. I’ve purchased several for friends and family and have settled on the Zojirushi brand. I’ve used a Zojiriushi for several years, and it has held up well and completely changed my cooking habits.
Paper Fun
The Paper Forest has not failed to impress me yet again. I saw these at Boing Boing today, a flapping bat and a race track. The race track comes in two versions, realistic and cute. I’ll stick with the cute one myself. The flapping bat is huge, 16 inches long! If I were to start it now I might have it finished by Halloween (maybe).
Cool IR Auto Adjusting Door
There is a new door design out now, as you come up to the threshold the sensors in the multiple sliding slats see you and will slide just enough to let you through. This way the loss of cold/hot air inside the room is minimized. The video linked to from Boing Boing shows it in action with the normal minor glitches that happen in product demos. Works with non-human shaped objects like boxes too. This would make a nice pet door.
The sensors used in each door slider look to be the same Sharp IR detectors that many robot builders use. You can also find them in those sometimes annoying motion sensitive sinks and toilets.