March 2009

  • Oooh, same shirt as last night?

    By akgoemans on 3/29/09 9:48pm
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    If you happened to be an 80s child, chances are, all your creative writing teachers demanded fictional essays that predicted life in the year 2000. It could have been laziness on their side; after all, they didn't need to come up with a title on the spot. Or they might very well have wanted us, I mean those proverbial 80s children, to really look forward to the future (read: graduation). Either way, you would have grown up with pretty high expectations of the 21st Century. And by this I refer to visions of spaceships as transport vehicles, teleportation capabilities, weird little capsule food and of course, everyone donning the Jetsons' outfits. Well, guess what? We just might be that much closer to realizing one of those dreams.

    And what dream might this be? It's called J-ware and apparently you can wear it seven days a week. Now if I can tone down the infomercial-style enthusiasm in my voice, I will elaborate. It's simply odor-free, clean-enough-to-wear-for-a-week outfits. That's right, the technological breakthrough in question is a style of clothing, eight pieces to be precise.

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  • Cooler than Johnny 5

    By akgoemans on 3/20/09 2:21am
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    As I read more and more about androids, robots and whatnot walking the walk in Japan, I keep expecting one of them to pipe up with “Bite the shiny metal...” or something similarly Bender-like. That, by the way, was a reference to the science fiction animated show called Futurama which depicted a strange little future where humans and robots co-exist. Might I add that in that show robots seemed to have equal status (read: life, liberty and all other such civil right goodies) as humans.



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  • WTHIGO #4

    By msarko on 3/10/09 10:50pm
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    I try to be understanding. Really, I do. I try not be judgmental or to jump to ridiculous, even offensive conclusions. Heck, I've even decided to ramp up my cultural sensitivity by going into this project with the assumption that there's some non-twisted logic behind Japanese cultural ephemera. I have to remind myself that Western culture is full of its own post-industrial absurdities.

    Take for instance our marketing tools, which sometimes veer into downright surreal territory. Since 1963, corporate shills have used the following things to sell cheap hamburgers to the American public: A clown who hallucinates a day-glo world filled with friends and adversaries who all have eating disorders, a megalomaniac with a history of home invasion, a shameless rip-off of Pippi Longstocking, and yet another, somehow creepier clown who refuses to go east of the Rocky Mountains.

    So, is our culture really so much saner than the ball-trampling, squid-ink-eating, giant-robot-fetishizing Japanese?

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  • Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge ... Change track

    By akgoemans on 3/9/09 10:17pm
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    Photo Source: AtomicJeep via Flickr

    License: Attrib/Deriv

    The internet is abuzz with news of this handy little Japanese innovation. I say handy but no manual dexterity is actually required for this device. Rather, the aim is to manipulate electronic equipment using your facial expressions. Enter the “Mimi Switch”!

    Now, with a simple facial expression, people will soon be able to change the music tracks, go back to a previous song or even switch off their washing machine. First we had mouse gestures for our browsers. Now we get the facial equivalent for everyday appliances.

    Here's how it works. The device itself is called the “Mimi Switch” or the “Ear Switch”. It looks like headphones and its purpose is to interpret various facial expressions of the wearer. The way this is accomplished is quite amazing.

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  • WTHIGO #3

    By msarko on 3/3/09 8:48pm
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    Every culture has its strange public customs. Many people are aware of the Encierro, the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. There was even a custom during the long reign of The Most Serene Republic of Venice in which the people of the city divided into two equal teams and spent the day beating the crap out of each other for sport. Asian cultures are no exception. Both at home and abroad, communities of Chinese people practice their famous Dragon Dance and wish good luck to local businesses with firecracker displays. Human behavior is, when taken from the outside perspective, quite strange.

    I don't know enough about Japanese culture to delve into the history of certain public events without some research, especially considering that Japan is a future-leaning society. They do new things all the time and are more than willing to embrace new holidays.

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  • How much is that robot in the window?

    By akgoemans on 3/2/09 7:58am
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    Photo Source:masaaki miyara

    Attrib;Non-Comm.;No-Derivative-Works.

    Somehow I expected an electronic arf arf to that one. Everyone has been saying that robots are the next big thing. This statement would be more impressive if people had not been muttering this for two decades now. As it is, predictions in the 1980s promised hover space cars. Which was just about as far-fetched as the 4-day working week. But there is one man who has dreamed of ushering in a new era, filled with useful and chic robots. And that man is robot designer Tatsuya Matsui.

    Founder of the aptly named Flower Robotics, Matsui has been pushing for wider use of robots in the everyday aspect of human lives.

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