Let's make mahjong play easier

Mahjong is a traditional table game developed in China's Qing dynasty era and is now familiar all over the world. Because it is a game played by four people, it will deepen friendship, and is a psychological warfare game that requires logical thinking and fingertip action, so it is also used as a preventive measure for dementia in Japan. On the other hand, Mahjong has many types of tiles and their combination patterns, it is very difficult and troublesome to calculate the score of the players by remembering them. As a result, not only beginners, as well as players enjoying mahjong from day to day, there are not many people who can calculate scores perfectly, which is a barrier to the expansion of Mahjong players.
So, Creative Agency North Shore has released iOS application Mahjong Camera which can calculate the score of Mahjong by image recognition technology.

If you launch the this and hold the iPhone or iPad camera over the Mahjong tiles, the application recognizes each tiles and calculates the score of Mahjong soon. For its development, they adopted KDDI's image recognition library. It is known for recognition accuracy of the world highest level. In addition, they are planning not only to calculate the score, but also to add a suggestion function that recommends an efficient combination of tiles and respond to Mixed Reality head mounted display. The application download is free.

Body odor measuring instrument

Finally summer has come. Summer in Japan is hot and humid, so it's uncomfortable, it's as if you are in a sauna wearing clothes. Especially this year the rainy season is over earlier than usual, the temperature has exceeded 30 degrees since late June. Health gadget company Tanita released an odor checker ES-100 to check own body odor and perfume scent on July 1.

There are hundreds of substances that cause body odor, ES-100 measures components contained in sweat, estimates the amount of each odor component using its own algorithm, and calculates body odor at the level indicate. In addition, it corresponds not only to body odor but also to fragrance of perfume and aromatics.Tanita uses the detection algorithm by the semiconductor gas sensor for this, they applied the know-hows of breath checker and alcohol checker of their hit products.
Usage is simple. When you open the sensor part of this, the power supply turns on automatically, and the measurement is completed only by bringing the sensor close to a parts where odor such as neck, head, and armpit are concerned for about ten seconds.

This determines the odor in 11 steps from 0 ~ 10. According to them, if you beyond level 5, you need some care.
The size of this is 94 mm × 52 mm × 25 mm, the weight is about 60 grams. The color variation is only black. Semiconductor sensors are cartridge type and need to be replaced after using 2000 times or one year. The price is an open price, the direct sales price is 13,824yen (tax included) and the optional cartridge is 5378yen (tax included). The main target of this is businessmen of 40s ~ 50s who begin to be aware of body odor, and Tanita aim to sell 10,000 units a year.

Retro style electronic cigarette

Toward the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, the new tobacco laws and regulations are now being discussed at the government in Japan. On the other hand, the popularity of smoke-free electronic cigarettes is increasing. So Numata-Chaho, who sells electronic cigarettes and their goods, has announced a new electronic cigarette "electronic Kiseru" in a retro form.

Kiseru is a traditional Japanese smoking pipe. It began to be used around the 16th century and became a common daily necessity in the Edo period, but as people enter the modern era gradually become obsolete, few people currently using it.
This is a gadget that revived Kiseru to the present age.

As a tool for coordinating with kimono and immersing them in emotion, they aim to appeal this to a wide range of tobacco lovers as nostalgic contents. And They are planning to sell this to overseas tourists as well. Although Kiseru has a very long and narrow shape, all parts such as constant voltage output system, air flow detection sensor, and battery are stored in this. Battery is rechargeable with lithium ion battery, and you can charge this by placing it on a charger like a cigarette tray.

The USB cable is unnecessary, and the LED emits during charging. Also, it does not have a power button, when you suck it, automatically works by the airflow sensor. They have not yet announced the release date and price of this, but they are planning to start sales in this year.

The robot of a most famous character

Japan already has many home robots and robot toys, so Takara-Tomy chose one of the most famous characters in Japan to counter them. Pikachu-shaped robot toy "HelloPika" is a new product focused on speaking behavior.

It has a sound recognition function, and when you talk to this, it responds variously with the voice of Pikachu, but they are all expressed as "Pika". In addition, it sings, activates skills, nods, laugh and makes the cheeks flash. If you titillate its sides, this may tickle and laugh. It's almost like interacting with pets.
The size of this is only 75mm × 115mm × 45mm and both arms have a clip-like structure, so you can put this in a shirt or bag pocket and take it outside. It works with two AAA batteries, the price is 3,229yen (including tax), and they release this on August 4th. Further, they plan to release this not only in Japan, but also in nine countries including Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. 

(c)Nintendo・Creatures・GAME FREAK・TV Tokyo・ShoPro・JR Kikaku
(c)Pokemon

Tutoring school in the pocket

In present day, only real textbooks are not tools of study and rather, those numbers are decreasing rapidly. On the other hand, it is mobile apps for studying that are increasing instead of them. Educational services company EduLab has released a free learning video application "Study Gear" for primary school and junior high school students.

They noticed that many of the existing learning mobile applications are aimed at university entrance examinations and many of them are charged. So, they provide learning contents optimized for the low age group in Study Gear for free. The subjects handled by this application are national language, mathematics, society, science, and English, and you can learn them at your own pace with original short animation of one and a half ~ two minutes. If you are good at a particular subject, you can also learn by skipping. They cooperated with ONE MEDIA in video production to produce high quality learning contents, and publishing company Obunsha was responsible for providing and supervising the questions. In addition, this application is supposed to be used by parents and their children, the more they learn by using this, the parents can obtain Study Gear Point, and can exchange them for NTT DoCoMo's point service d-point. Now, there are 500 kinds of contents showed in this application, and they are aiming to increase these to 3000 kinds in one year. Downloading and using the application is free(iOS/Android).