At the beginning of this month, Thanko, whose interesting and unique goods are often featured on AkihabaraNews, finally opened their global online shopping site called “Raremonoshop.jp” for overseas customers.
With the launching of the site, they are currently offering a special 10% discount for all purchases worth 50 USD or more through July 31.
Visit Raremonoshop.jp and you can actually buy their funny goods including the necktie with a fan to cool you down or the self-shot stick to take a great photo of yourself, etc.
This robot is being developed to automate the management of laboratory animal colonies used by pharmaceutical companies and research institutions, primarily those that raise from 10,000 to 30,000 mice or rats. It’s currently under development by Nikkyo Technos and Yaskawa Electric.
“The biggest problem in raising animals is that diseases can spread from people to the animals. If that happens, all the animals have to be killed and replaced with new ones. So, infection by people must be prevented. By managing animals using robots in an enclosed space, it’s basically possible to eliminate the spread of diseases from animals to people or from people to animals.”
This six-axis, vertical, multi-jointed robot can mimic the motions of a human. It can change cage sheets, top up the food, and change the water. Taking out cages, changing sheets, and topping up food are each done with separate tools, which the robot picks up in turn. In this model, the amount of food remaining isn’t taken into account. But in the next model, a camera will be used to see how much food is left, so the robot can add the right amount.
“Mice, especially, are nervous animals, so the robot handles the cages gently. These tasks account for about 80% of the work involved with lab animals. So, our aim is to automate the hard, dirty, and dangerous task of dealing with so much dust and droppings.”
This robot also can also work in coordination with a robot that carries cages from the rack to the workbench, and a monitoring system for the animal facility. In this way, it can automate all aspects of animal raising, from surveillance to care.
“The animals can be monitored with cameras 24/7. So, people can check their own cages from the monitoring station. The animals’ body temperature can also be managed. It takes about two hours for the cages to come back from the lab, but data can be viewed directly from a PC in the monitoring room. So, people can see the cages they want right away, wherever they are.”
“Doing this work with robots makes it much faster, so lots of cages can be handled in a short time. Also, using cameras to monitor food and water is safer and more reliable than having people do it. We’d like to complete the system this year, and next year, we’d like to produce several sets, so we can make at least a provisional start.”
This content is provided by DigInfo.tv, AkihabaraNews Official Partner.
To celebrate the release of the Hatsune Miku collaborated Xperia smartphone “Xperia feat. HATSUNE MIKU SO-04E” from NTT docomo, for a limited time, Metro Hat (one of the buildings at Roppongi Hills in Tokyo), has been transformed into the Hatsune Miku outdoor concert venue.
“HATSUNE MIKU AR STAGE” takes place only from July 16 to July 21, from 19:30 to 23:00 every day for 5 days.
We were invited to a press event on launch day but there were already a lot of fans of hers who came to be part of her concert. Many of them just looked like regular salarymen, but they took off their business shirts to reveal their Hatsune Miku fan T-shirts! I was able to see that she has attracted so many fans!
According to NTT docomo staff, “HATSUNE MIKU AR STAGE” is the biggest outdoor AR event in Japan. Hold an Android device over the exterior wall of Metro Hat, and then the wall opens, Hatsune Miku appears from the inside and starts dancing and singing to the special song “Packaged”. The first 1,500 people joining the event are able to download the song.
Before watching the event, make sure you have the dedicated AR application installed on your Android device and run it. If you don’t have an Android device, you can borrow one at the venue.
Elecom is going to release the USB 3.0 compliant a dime-sized ultra-small USB flash drive “MF-SU3 series” (8GB, 16GB, 32GB) in mid July.
Since it’s extremely compact (W21.5xD12.2xH4.6mm), you might be concerned about accidentally dropping or misplacing it. If so, you can attach a strap to the strap hole on the USB flash drive.
Compatible OS: Windows 8/7, Vista, XP, Mac OS X (10.6～10.8) Interface: USB3.0/2.0 Size: W21.5xD12.2xH4.6mm Weight: About 3g
This remote medical care robot for use in emergency situations, is under development by a research group at Waseda University, led by Dr. Hiroyasu Iwata.
“If a person receives an impact in an accident, there is a possibility that they could have internal bleeding. In emergency rooms, there’s a diagnostic method called FAST, using ultrasound imaging to check for internal bleeding. But that can’t be done until the patient reaches the hospital. So our idea is that this robot can be put on the patient in an ambulance, and while on the way to the hospital, it can be controlled by a doctor in a remote location. As there is ultrasound probe attached, this robot can be used to check for internal bleeding.”
This robot, which weighs 2.2 kg, can be attached to the chest area using a belt, and can be used anywhere as long as there is a network connection. So it could also be used in the home or remote areas.
To enable a physician at a remote location to operate the robot intuitively, it’s controlled using an iPhone, with the robot’s rotation and the ultrasound probe angle controlled by touch.
“The ultrasound probe is attached here, and as it moves, the ultrasound image appears like this. If there’s bleeding, that appears as black shadows like this. If the patient has internal bleeding, they’re in danger unless they get to a hospital. This system lets the physician know that.”
“One point about this robot is, you can change the probe angle freely, keeping the probe in contact with the body. So, even if the patient is moved, the robot moves with them. This means images can continually be sent to the physician at a remote location.”
“Before this robot can be used in emergency care, legal barriers must be overcome. So, what we’d like to do initially is use it for pregnancy check-ups. By doing that, if we make one more prototype version, we think the robot will become practical. In that case, we think this system could become practical within three years.”
This content is provided by DigInfo.tv, AkihabaraNews Official Partner.
Toshiba is going to release the UHS-Ⅱ compatible SD memory card “EXCERIA PRO” series (32GB and 16GB) in October – It has the world’s fastest writing speed 240MB/s.
The writing speed is 2.5 times faster than the existing UHS-Ⅰ compatible models so that “EXCERIA PRO” series can transfer large volumes of data more quickly. Its reading speed s 260MB/s.
Also, around November “EXCERIA” series (32GB and 64GB) will be out as well. Its writing speed is 260MB/s and the reading speed is 120MB/s.
It’s been a while that we haven’t featured a HDD Stage Rack on AkihabaraNews and behold the RocketStor5212! Desinged by the US Based company Highpoint and imported in Japan by Dirac at a whooping 27,000 Yen, the RocketStor5212 is a dual SATA HDD dock that comes with a unique Thunderbolt port with a 10Gb/s maximum speed and capable to support HDDs up to 4TB!
Microsoft Japan is going to reduce the price of their “Surface RT” by 10,000 yen on July 15.
Currently, “Surface RT” is already 10,000 yen cheaper than the regular price because Microsoft Japan has been running the discount campaign from June 14 to July 14.
Below is the new price list:
Surface RT 32GB ¥49,800 -> ¥39,800
Surface RT 64GB ¥57,800 -> ¥47,800
Surface RT 32GB and touch cover ¥57,800 -> ¥47,800
Surface RT 64GB and touch cover ¥65,800 -> ¥55,800
Force Media is going to release the Bluetooth/NFC compliant speaker “MIRROR BOOMBOX” that exactly looks like a BMW MINI’s side mirror in mid July.
The shape of a BMW MINI’s side mirror and the union jack design on it are gorgeous, which makes not just BMW MINI fans but everyone want to purchse it.
It’s compatible with AAC/aptX codec, and has a passive woofer and 2 of 35mm anti-magnetic full rage speakers built-in to create rich bass sound. You can continuously play music for 8 hours because of the 2,200mAh lithium-ion battery.
Price: About ¥16,800 Size: W145xD100xH97mm Weight: 340g Maximum output: 4W+4W
If you drank too much last night, probably you should test the level of alcohol in your blood with Thanko’s “Alcohol Checker for iPhone 5″ before starting driving a car.
After setting “Alcohol Checker for iPhone 5″ to your iPhone, breathe in the device and then you will get the result in 20 seconds. The result will be shown both in numbers and colors (green, yellow, and red depending on the alcohol level).
No extra battery is needed because iPhone 5 supplies power to the alcohol checker. It can be used with other devices that have a lightning connector such as iPad and iPod.
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