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).

Toys to help studying

INTERNATIONAL TOKYO TOY SHOW 2018 was held this month, many toy companies released interesting new products accordingly. Among them, there were a lot of digital gadgets for kids reflecting the present day.
Sega-Toys will release a tablet Magical Me Pad for girls tied-up with Disney in August 9.

It has a camera for face recognition, video shooting function, translation function, Game development application touch pen and AI. For example, when users talk something to it in Japanese, Mickey Mouse translates it into English and talks on the screen. In addition, they cooperated with publisher Gakken Plus to install learning drills and Japanese-English dictionary on this, when users study using these, AI measures their proficiency level and quizzes questions suitable for them. This is a function reflecting the necessity of English compulsion at elementary school, but this also supports another new compulsory subject, programming learning. In the game development application, users can simulate game development by programming using Disney characters. Of course this also has features other than study. Currently, Youtuber is a very popular job for Japanese kids, and users can make their own videos like Youtuber using video shooting and editing functions. Unfortunately this have not internet function, but it supports microSD and users can store data in it.
The size of this is 189mm × 123mm × 20mm, and it works for 3 hours continuously with four AA batteries. The target age is over 6 years old, and the price is 16,200yen(including tax).

(c)Disney
(c)Disney. Based on the “Winnie the Pooh”works by A.A.Milne and E.H.Shepard.
(c)Disney/Pixar

Cosmetic application using AR

Cosmetics are one of the difficult items that purchase on e-commerce sites.So, cosmetic company DHC released a make-up simulation application "Make-up Palette" using AR.

By using this, their customers can try cosmetics casually. This is an application that reproduces various make-up patterns using DHC cosmetics with camera of smartphones and face recognition technology. Eyeshadows, teaks, lipsticks... you can select and simulate cosmetic items and makeup patterns on your face on the smartphone's screen. Even if you change the angle of the camera and expression, the make-up simulation follows them. It is very convenient to compare the faces before and after making-up and decide in advance which colors are suitable for you. When you find your favorite items, you can go DHC's shopping site immediately from the application and buy them. They are using this to send for their customers the latest products, campaigns, and seasonal make-up information also. The downloading is free(iOS/Android).