Can you blame me? After all, it’s a FIRE BREATHING ROBOT! We’ve done some YouTube video before, but I’m going to be trying it out live tonight streaming from my phone on Qik on and off from around 8pm or so. The frame rate isn’t beautiful, but let’s just consider this a test session. Tune in live or catch it recorded below:
This is a quick pic that I snapped while there, but Pink Tentacle has a great series of photos of the bot in all his flaming glory.
Qik is nice because it automatically starts streaming (and recording) when the phone goes live, but also gives instant geo-positioning to web viewers. Most of our audience isn’t out of bed yet during broadcast time, but this will make a nice test.
For parents worried about where their children are going, there are several devices available out there to keep track of them from afar. Every mobile provider now carries kid-friendly phones that have alarms and GPS capabilities that allow parents to watch via satellite. Other techniques, such as sending email alerts to parents once children go through train station gates with their RFID train passes are also hands-off ways to track.
Recently, Princeton unveiled a tiny device that is designed for finding kids, but might be even more useful with your keys! The Kid Finder (shop link) is a remote that displays basic directional information to lead the holder to the corresponding receiver (front, right, left). It also gives basic distance information and has an alarm for the kid’s side in case of strangers bearing candy.
Since it works up top 90 meters, you won’t exactly be able to find your kids with satellite precision from far away, but the idea is that you keep good track on them in public places while you’re there. However, it’s a bit surprising that devices like this haven’t made more of a splash for basic things like bags, pets, and the ever-elusive house keys.
This is radio-based, but with the decreasing costs for RFID tags making the technology more affordable, and receiver integration into most phones in Japan, we could be looking at tagging just about everything we have! Just bring it up on the phone’s menu, and get instant feedback on location. For now, the Kid Finder is the best we have it seems, but combine it with a camera and we’ll need nothing else!
The Tokyo Girls Collection is best known for blending forward-thinking e-commerce strategies with the appeal of a classic stadium extravaganza. While three dozen popular domestic fashion brands stage runway shows of their latest looks, audience members can purchase the items as seen immediately with their mobile phones through a dedicated mobile retail site. The event also eschews typical fashion world exclusivity by offering a general admission ticket for just $40 (less than a typical concert ticket), regularly attracting a crowd of 20,000 plus teens and 20-somethings.
According to organizers, a remarkable 57 million yen ($580k) worth of merchandise was sold during the event as users accessed their phones to grab the latest looks as they were first revealed on the catwalk.
Below is a report from our friends at Diginfo News
Event producer Branding Inc. is the media company behind top portal and retail websites Girlswalker.com and Fashionwalker.com. According to a survey conducted last season by the company, 85.6% of respondents in their teens or twenties spend nearly 100 minutes on the mobile internet per day and more than 70% have used their mobile phones to shop at least once in the last year.
Now in its 8th season the Tokyo Girls Collection also features an increasing number of partner booths and presentations, collaboration projects, and spin-off activities in addition to the mainstay fashion shows and pop singer performances. Event partners include leaders from diverse industries, such as cosmetics, automotive, and food & beverage.
Trend Potential The Tokyo Girl’s Collection is a big deal, not just for fashion, but for mobile, e-commerce, publishing, New Media, and more. This is why we go to every TGC and document it top to bottom with sound analysis on the trends, marketing collaborations, and technology behind the events. For our full report and the connection to related global trends, you’ll find it all in the Trendpool. For companies and individuals interested in experiencing the action themselves, our Tokyo Trend Tours can integrate the next TGC event with a full retail experience in the city.
Mobile carrier NTT DoCoMo just began a new online promotion where they created a branded miniature virtual world for users to compete for prizes by playing mini-games.
“Play! Prime” allows visitors to pick from many different characters and wander the town in search of others to compete against. Each player begins alone, but can win followers by beating other players in the world at a variety of mini games.
After competing, the winner takes the followers of the loser, with the ability to get up to 100 followers within the allotted 300 seconds and 5 games. Top-ranked players get listed and, inevitably, end up trying to beat their previous scores as with any addictive online game.
Those who win all five games can enter their personal details to win a DoCoMo Prime Series phone, and everyone who finishes can download a free screensaver. Additional free mobile phone content is available by scanning the provided QR code, but is only available to current DoCoMo handset users.
Trend Potential Play! Prime has taken the look and feel of mobile virtual worlds and made it PC friendly to engage users. For this and more in the mobile space, the Mobile Trendpool contains innovative applications, campaigns, and technology from around the world.
The latest edition of Deutschland Magazine, features an extensive interview of CScout Japan CEO Sven Kilian in a piece titled A Scout in the Streets of Tokyo
Above is the Japanese version of the magazine (click pic to read), but we haven’t found the article available in English yet. However, Deutschland does have an English portal so keep your eyes peeled.
Last week we had the pleasure of talking at length with CNN about Japanese mobile phone novels, how the trend manifested itself, and where it’s going from here.
Click below to read all about keitai shousetsu (mobile phone novels) and their unique imprint on the Japanese media landscape in the last couple of years.
We explored the topic previously on-camera with German ZDF.
Recently, women’s undergarment maker Peach John started offering a line of gashapon capsules containing their own branded items. These miniature mobile phone “straps” attach to the hole on a mobile phone for decoration and can be found on just about anyone’s handset these days.
Below is a video introduction to the Peach John shop in Shibuya 109.
Peach John’s straps are available in machines in their shops, but if you go to just about any shopping center or toy shop you can find row upon row of gashapon machines that dispense everything from miniature anime characters to collectible items on just about any topic. Many of these machines are selling branded items, typically miniature versions of the real product, that can be attached to handsets. Below are four examples (out of many) that we saw recently representing Mister Donut, Lotte Gum, AU mobile (mini handsets!), and Gatsby hair gel.
While brands often give away mobile phone straps as promotions, these cost money (from $1 – $5) and still manage to sell out. This is where Japan’s deep consumer and mobile phone cultures collide in a fun way.
Trend Potential Mobile phone culture runs deep in Japan, and accessorizing the devices is particularly important for users regardless of age. The Mobile Trendpool features the rest of this report and many other similar marketing and mobile trends.
The digital lifestyle application in development from Tonchidot, makes its first public appearance in Japan at the fashion trade show Rooms.
Tonchidot’s “Sekai Camera” made its Japanese debut in the most unusual place: at Tokyo fashion trade show Rooms. While the Japanese creators have presented this iPhone application to “tag the real world” at noteworthy expos overseas (like TechCrunch 50 in San Francisco), they had yet to demonstrate it in their home country.
To catch you up, Sekai Camera (“world camera” in Japanese) is an Augmented Reality iPhone application in development that offers users “pop-up” information about their surroundings, as viewed through the camera screen. Touch any of the approaching icons to pull up the corresponding information into the frame or drop it into your “pocket” for later. Put simply, it’s a kind of Second Life spatial interaction for your, err, first life.
Visitors to a space can also tag the place themselves through comments, photos, and eventually voice recordings, viewed by friends or the public depending on filter settings.
But returning to the first point—it was the fashion industry that got a sneak peak of this future-forward technology. More specifically Rooms is a high-profile, yet invitation only, trade show attended by thousands of buyers, designers, and press. Nonetheless these are professionals who, by reputation, are typically more interested in things more tangible and less tech-y.
Trend Potential
We have been covering the increasing convergence of fashion retail and digital lifestyle trends for some time. To read the rest of this review with more depth, as well as connections to similar trends, you’ll find it all in the Trendpool.
Last week we went with clients to the German Embassy here in Tokyo to introduce our guests to their Tokyo-based countrymen before a week of meetings with some of the best and most innovative New Media companies in Japan (one of our popular Trend Tours).
We also like to shake things up, so we dragged along the always energetically harmonious Danny Choo who documented the goings-on and decided to have a “name that car” contest on the site with his legions of loyal readers. The result was Inkmaster naming it perfectly and taking home the innovative Augmented Reality toy Cyber Figure Alice from JapanTrendShop.com.
To see this amazing technology and how creative you can be with it, check out Inkmaster’s Flickr set (samples above) as well as the video he took below.
Robot designer Tatsuya Matsui is known for his innovative humanoid robot creations Posy and Palette, the former having appeared in Lost in Translation and the latter (a robotic mannequin) featured in a Louis Vuitton shop in Paris.
His company Flower Robotics, is actively working with robotics for real life. Whether for communication between man and machine, or for interactive retail installations, Flower Robotics is at the cutting edge of design and technology, both of which are crucial to making robots that humans can not only use, but connect emotionally with. Without design, the connection is lacking.
The above photo is a CG rendering of the upcoming head pieces for Palette, which is expected to become a mass-produced item used in retail. After years of development, perhaps it’s now time for robotics to take center stage as both an example of Japan’s innovative power and as the next Big Technology that will further our lives.
Metropolis covered Matsui’s creations for an exhibition back in 2007 in a pretty good overview.
On Monday, March 9th at 7 p.m. Tatsuya Matsui will be giving a Robot Design Seminar at the Design Hub in Tokyo Midtown. To reserve a spot go to this link , and we’ll be there as well to get our own glimpse of our robotic future.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
This is a quick pic that I snapped while there, but Pink Tentacle has a great series of photos of the bot in all his flaming glory.
©Flower Robotics Inc.
©Flower Robotics Inc.
©Flower Robotics Inc.