Largest bank in Japan cooperates with Ingress

The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ(BTMU) which is one of the largest bank in Japan started collaboration with Google's mobile game Ingress. They made all of their branches and ATM "BTMU portal". Their customers can hack portal whenever they use branches and ATM.

In addition, they released new virtual item "MUFG Capsule". This is the first of its kind in Ingress, rare item allows agents to store and even accumulate more items over time.

Japanese Ingress agents are very active and perform various original activity. Companies pay attention to it, and are going to apply it in business. It is not only BTMU to cooperate with Ingress. Convenience store Lawson made all stores portal from last year(By the way, their symbol color is blue). The local government of Iwate prefecture utilizes Ingress for regional vitalization, and achieve big result. You can fully play Ingress if you come to Japan for sightseeing or business.

Ingress special page of BTMU is here.

Stylish bionic hand of open source

exiii is a startup developing 3D-printed bionic hand of the stylish design and low price. They released the design data and source codes of HACKberry, their latest 3D-printed bionic hand as open source in Github. They demand the participation of cooperators from all over the world to raise the completeness of this. Developers and designers can arrange designs, 3D prints parts, and renew source codes based on their data. When they improve HACKberry than an original, it is necessary to report it to the HACKberry community.

Let's add voices to illustration works

Voice actors/actresses of anime and games are very popular in Japan. Illustration communication service pixiv released iOS application "pixvoice" which users can add voices to illustration works which other users drew.

If characters spoke lines? And if myself played it? Users can record lines within 40 characters and 30 seconds, post it for illustrations and experience a voice actor/actresses willingly. In addition, users can check illustrations with the voices of popularity in ranking, look for illustrations recruiting voices and listen to voices that other users posted. Android version is released in a few days, too.

Chat robot which can talk naturally

Leading mobile phone carrier NTT Docomo and toy maker TAKARA TOMY developed chat robot OHaNAS which can talk naturally. They sell this for 19,800 yen on October 1. OHaNAS connects to Docomo’s cloud-based natural language dialogue platform by smartphones or tablets using Bluetooth and apps, and utilizes data on cloud and chats with users. He/She answers the slight question of users, sends the latest information such as the news and weather information, suggests menus of the dinner, and says jokes.

Beer whisk using the supersonic wave

The season when cold beer is indispensable comes over soon. Therefore, gadget company Green House released "Beer Foamer" of a beer whisk using the supersonic wave.

This is whisk of the stick type of 43 grams in weight and makes creamlike heads by supersonic vibration of 40,000Hz. Foam made with this is very small and keep for a long time. How to use is easy, place this in the glass which you poured beer and only touches a switch. The power sources are two tetramorphism alkali dry cells and you can use it in succession for about one hour.