The robot community in Japan is never short of ingenuity, take this robot maid for example. This custom bot was built by Dr. GIY, a well respected member of the Robo-one scene. The first of the Doctor’s creations I saw live was an anthropomorphic robot cat that wowed the audience in a dance competition. It’s quite obvious he’s a wiz at making his creations dance. Watch her go.

According to Dr. GIY the choreography is not as smooth as he’d like it to be so he’ll be working on refining it. …

The world famous 1:1 Gundam made it’s return to Odaiba this spring. Youtube user Darwinfish105 has the best short videos of this beast. Even one with last weeks super-moon in the backdrop.

RePro3D is a naked eye, multi-perspective 3D display that allows users to “touch” 3D characters. Using an infra-red sensor, the system recognizes the position of the user’s finger and the displayed 3D character responds to the virtual contact. The group is also working on a device worn on the finger that simulates for the user, the sensation of touching something when the character is poked.
What are the possible uses of this technology? According to Keitaro Shimizu of Keio University:
“There are many attractive characters in animations and games, but since those …

Proving once again that when an otaku sets his mind to it he can make fantasy a reality, a sculptor has created a life size model of a powered battle suit from the Japanese version of StarShip Troopers. The suit doesn’t appear to be able to move, but that doesn’t make it any less cool.
ToyBoxDx via: DVICE

Check out this transforming robot beer can from Ron Tajima. This genius created a Wii-mote controlled walking bot disguised as a cold one. Probably perfect for a reconnaissance mission at a house party. Let’s just hope no one crushes it on their head.

GetRobo

Just a few scenes from last month’s Make: Tokyo Meeting 06. I’m still in awe of the ingenuity of the exhibits, being that a lot of them are from people who are only hobbyists.
Make Magazine is a DIY (Do it yourself) and DIWO (Do it with others) publication that caters to creative people who love experimenting with electronics, computers, robots and craft in their free time. What better place than Japan bring this party? Originally from the US, Make has been in Japan for a while now and is …

Japan’s creative hobbyists were out in there numbers this month for MAKE Tokyo Meeting number 6. There were works from both the fields of technology and art. The exhibitions were generally impressive, here some of the cute and funny ones.
The remote controlled bunny ears were the cutest thing there. It’s a pair of animated rabbit ears that you wear. You can control the movement of the ears with a remote controller in the form of a ball (also dressed up as a bunny). The ball has a tilt sensor so …

When Ryo started his diet, he got really bored with measuring his progress and keeping motivated. So he did what any good geek would do; use a video game to help him out, and thus the “Final Fantasy V Diet Chair” was created.
It’s simple, Ryo sets a goal and measures his weight everyday, his progress with is diet is shown as progress in a Final Fantasy V video. For this he uses a Wii balance board hooked up to his PC and a custom Google Chrome add on. Here’s …

Ghibli fans will instantly recognize this creation as a mechanical version of an Ohmu from the classic “Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind” This is creator Dr. Gen Endo’s tribute to one of his favorite films. This is how it crawled at MAKE Tokyo.

Mecha Ohmu has a bump sensor so that it can change direction when it hits an object. It’s also sensitive to bright light, if you shine a light at it gets angry, and just like the ones in the film the eyes start glowing red …

Mechas, we grew up with  them, Voltron, Gundam, The Mighty Orbots, The Power Rangers’ Megazord. It’s a pretty long list. As a kid you thought  it would be cool to pilot one of those things (I still do).  Well, actually it wouldn’t. The whole idea of  using a giant-sized humanoid robot in battle is incredibly ridiculous. Here are 3 reasons why.
1. It would be ridiculously expensive!
How expensive? Try around *960 million dollars!!.. for just one!
Takayuki Furuta, the director of Japan’s Future Robotics Technology Center, did the math. Back in 2008 in …