We all hate using a smartphone or tablet when the screen’s covered in greasy fingerprints. But it’s a situation that’s easy to solve with nothing but a shirt sleeve, or if you’re particularly anal, a microfiber cloth. What the world doesn’t need is a tiny Roomba-like cleaning device designed specifically for cleaning fingerprints, but apparently Takara Tomy didn’t get that memo. More »
Takara TOMY Company, Ltd., the Japanese toy company, just released a tiny cleaning robot, called the “Auto Mee S”, designed for cleaning smartphone and tablet LCD displays.
This is a fun gadget to have and would be a great gift that I would love to get…
With 2 rotating cleaning papers and 3 tires on its bottom, it wipes off fingerprints and dust during its travels over smartphone and tablet displays. It recognizes the end of the screen so it will turn and keep sweeping …
Halt, citizen! Put the goldfish down. You cannot take care of it, and it will not fill the hole in your heart that your ex punched through when she left. But if you already bought an aquarium, consider filling it with Robo Fish. Lifelike swimming is its prime directive.
Made by Takara Tomy, Robo Fish can move up and down randomly and at times even act like it’s foraging for food. It uses two LR44 watch batteries to power its waggling tail. Here’s a video uploaded by YouTuber Brandon Avery:
They’re not as lifelike as this one, but they’re good enough as toys. Or not. Some of the customer reviews on Amazon Japan – where Robo Fish can be ordered for￥2,980 (~$38 USD) each – say that the toy drains its batteries in just 2 hours. So maybe it really is looking for sustenance.
[via Boing Boing]
Great news if your aquarium goes through fish faster than a fish n’ chips restaurant. Takara Tomy has created these robotic alternatives that will swim around your tank in an incredibly lifelike fashion. But they never need to be fed, and more importantly, will never dirty the tank. More »
Light painting can be a pretty awesome technique, which involves the capture of a moving light source, using long-exposure photography. Photographers have created some pretty amazing images using the medium, but it can be complicated to pull off unless you know exactly what you’re doing, and have a camera with full manual exposure controls. Now the fine folks at Japan’s Takara Tomy Arts have released a little gadget and app combo which makes it easy for anyone with an iPhone or iPad to make their own light paintings.
This little penlight gadget, thats name roughly translates to “Oekaki: The Night Sky” provides a bright, point source of light, and works with a companion iOS app to let you record long-exposure images. Simply start up the app, place your phone in the included base (or stand up your iPad), and start drawing in space. The penlight itself lets you choose from combinations of cyan, magenta or yellow light in 8 levels each, providing for a total of 27 colors for your images, and you can shoot either stills or time-lapse video with the app.
You can check out the app and pen in action in this clip (though it is in Japanese, it’s pretty easy to follow), or you can download the app itself for free here – though you’ll really want to have the light pen or a good point light source to make it work. I tried it out with a laser pointer aimed at the wall and it worked pretty well.
The app and light pen combo makes it shockingly easy to create light paintings. While the gadget was designed for Japanese markets, you can pre-order one for worldwide shipment over at Gizmine now for $69.99 (USD) with an estimated ship date of November 20th.
The latest in a long line of completely unnecessary gadgets from Japan lets you pretend you’re carrying around a lit piece of fire wood. Why, because it’s something that hasn’t been done before, that’s why.
TakaraTomy Arts’ FireWood Pocket is a keychain gadget that simulates the crackling sound and shimmering light of a real fire. And in case that wasn’t enough, blowing on this fake fire will actually make it glow more brightly – as if you’re giving added oxygen to your virtual flame. It also simulates a chunk of wood, for those of you who don’t have any real wood lying around.
There’s also a desktop version of the FireWood, which simulates an entire miniature bonfire. It also has a “music mode” which will respond to sounds from your MP3 player or smartphone. I found a video of the larger model in action over at Amazon Japan that’s so cheesy that I’m surprised it wasn’t shot with Vaseline on the camera lens.
You can find the FireWood Pocket for ¥1,080 (~$13 USD), and the desktop model for ¥5,800 (~$74 USD) over at Nigishow (JP). Chances are you’ll be able to find them soon over at worldwide exporter Strapya-World, since they are affiliated.
Star Fox 64 is as famous for its one liners as it is for its origami style vehicles. If you’re a fan of the game, these figurines by Takara Tomy won’t let you down, sir. They’re actually based on the 3DS remake of the game, but these are the first and thus only official models of the vehicles, so there’s no sense in nitpicking.
Although the models are available separately, Ryan Deaver of Nintendo Connect bought a whole set and was kind enough to share these pictures of his assembled vehicles. Although these are currently limited to Japan, Deaver says the instructions and labels are in English, so you don’t have to worry about messing up the Arwing, Landmaster or Blue-Marine.
Even though the models are not officially for sale outside of Japan, you can do what Deaver did and get them on eBay, where you can find a whole set for as low as $28 (USD).
[via Nintendo Connect via GoNintendo]
Tomy has announced an interactive robot dog, called i-SODOG, that works with a smartphone.
This is a follow-up to the i-SOBOT, a bipedal robot released in 2007. i-SODOG is intended for customers of all ages.
“Of course, this robot moves autonomously. It has sensors in its back and head, and two microphones, and it can recognize about 50 spoken words. i-SODOG can also dance, and do regular dog actions, like shaking hands and sitting on command.”
i-SODOG comes with a special-purpose …
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