King showed a snow statue of Candy Crush Soda Saga in Sapporo Snow Festival

King makes efforts in various original marketing and promotion in Japan since they establish a Japanese branch in last April. These are the largest in them. They showed a huge snow statue of Candy Crush Soda Saga in Sapporo Snow Festival held to February 5-11 in Sapporo-shi, Hokkaido.

Sapporo Snow Festival is one of the largest and most distinctive winter events in Japan. Various huge snow statues are made by volunteer citizens and the Japanese Self-Defense Forces every year.
The size of the King's snow statue was 5m(h)×10m(w). They showed snow statue and showed the projection mapping every night. 2,700 audiences gathered here on the first day.

This is a part of the "Soda Planet campaign" that King performs in global. They have already carried out such large-scale promotion in London and New York.

A new theater opens in Yokohama in this spring, but human do not appear at all

The theater where only virtual characters of 3DCG appear opens in Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa in this spring. Human singers and actors do not appear at all. Area is 800 square meters, the capacity are about 400 people. In the theater, the shows of CG characters such as the living theater, concerts, games, traditional arts, company events are held for a medium-and-long term. The theater aims at gathering audiences from not only Japan but also the foreign countries. If Hatsune Miku's show come to be always seen, it will be cool!

via http://www.atpress.ne.jp/view/55981

The relaxation apps that put bath time and a karaoke together

Bath time and the singing are the best methods for relaxation. Music contents company Fuji Pacific Music and Della released karaoke apps for Android "Furooke"(Furo + Karaoke: Furo means a bath in Japanese). The downloading is free, and they release the iOS version in this spring.

Furooke is a support tool to wash away fatigue and stress in bath time. Users can sing with α wave music-box music while watching beautiful video on Furooke. This adds the relaxation effect from eyes and ears to the bath time that simple hygiene. Users can sing three songs for free and add it for 1 song for 100yen.

The baby robot which heals elderly people

Masayoshi Kano, an associate professor of robotics at Chukyo University in Nagoya, and Togo Seisakusyo Corp., a spring manufacturer based in Togo, Aichi Prefecture developed baby robot "Smiby(Smile Baby)" which heals elderly people living alone.

Smiby has an sensor that allows it to react when users cradle it in their arms. When users hug Smiby, it begins to laugh. However, if left alone for a while, it start crying. When users leave it for a long time, it falls asleep.

Smiby has expressions and 500 types of voices, cry with tears being indicated by blue lights and cheeks turn pink and smile when it is happy. 

The height is 44 centimeters, weighs is 1.2 kilograms and Price is 68,000 yen.

via http://www.togoh.co.jp/products/care-smiby.html

Ring type wearable device to operate by writing a letter in the air

Fujitsu Laboratories announced that they developed ring type wearable device.

Ring detects the exercise of finger-tip, so users can choose menus and write memos by writing letters in the air. Furthermore, by the NFC(Near field communication) tag reader that this has built-in, when users touch a tag attached to the object, they can see work contents and instructions on monitor and HMD(Head Mounted Display). Because even a busy state can operate information in minimum movement, they assume use of factory of this, and aim at putting it to practical use by the end of this year.

via http://pr.fujitsu.com/jp/news/2015/01/13.html