This is English version of Japanese blog media "vsmedia". About Japanese Social Games & Apps, Augmented reality, Virtual Worlds, Avatar, Virtual Goods, Social Media, Fab Culture...etc...
Currently, "Hello, ONE PIECE", an exhibition of the popular Manga ONE PIECE is being held at Sendai mediatheque, a cultural facility in Sendai, Miyagi Pref.
Hello, ONE PIECE was originally held in Malaysia to commemorate the 20th anniversary of serialization in ONE PIECE in magazine. Currently, it is traveling around Japan and overseas, and is scheduled to be held in Wuhan, China after Sendai.
The main exhibition contents include handwritten manuscripts by ONE PIECE creator Eiichiro Oda, full-color illustrations, and a reproduction of his desk. His full-color illustrations are especially wonderful. They are just a flood of colors! Everyone will be amazed by his color sense.
In addition, like a modern exhibition, photography is possible in the venue. If you are a fan of ONE PIECE, you can shoot photos as if you were in Manga.
By the way, you can experience special VR content by paying an additional 300 yen in venue.
The VR HMD used is Dell Visor VR118.
“Look inside the heads of Eiichiro Oda” was the concept of VR content. Specifically, we can relive Eiichiro Oda from his perspective through a series of steps to draw ONE PIECE characters using Google's Tilt Brush. He hasn't done any digital drawing yet, and has done all the work in analog, but surprisingly he was completely familiar with Tilt Brush.
This is a making video. In a way, this shows how intuitive the VR drawing tool is.
His VR work was available on iPad.
This exhibition is held until August 27th. If you live in Sendai and like ONE PIECE, this will be worth seeing.
In summer, mosquitoes bother people. Fortunately, in Japan they does not carry any serious illness, but when bitten by them, makes the skin very itchy and uncomfortable. Mimimoto No Boon Zero EX10 is a trap for insects that can be enjoyed as an interior with a cool appearance.
It has an LED UV lamp, and it collects insects that have the habit of gathering in the light, such as mosquitoes, small flies, and moths. The frequency of LED UV lamp is 365mm which insects like, and its cover range is 50-100m2. Because it does not use harmful insecticidal ingredients or fire, it does not generate smoke and odors and can be used safely by families with young children and pets. The fan's inlet is covered with a safety guard so that if children or pets touch it, their fingers will not get caught in the fan. Small insects usually become dehydrated and die within 1-2 days, so you only throw them out of the trapping box below every 2-3 days. Of course, you don't have to touch the insects directly.
This is a USB rechargeable type, so if you use it with a mobile battery, it will work even outdoors such as camping. This was funded in the crowd funding platform Green Funding, and has already raised more than three times the target amount. You can buy it from 6500 yen, and if you settle in August, it will be shipped in this month.
Do you know Japanese social networking culture called Nuidori(ぬい撮り)? Nuidori refers to a way to take a stuffed toys to various places, create a situation by combining items, take photos and post them on social networking. It has been popular among female users who frequently use social networking services for several years, and if you search for a hashtag of “#ぬい撮り”(Nuidori) on Instagram, you can find over 100,000 photos.
Actually I am one of them and always out with the game character Nameko.
In order to push this Nuidori movement further, doll maker Sekiguchi has released the Nudori-specific photos social networking app nuidol.
nuidol is an app that aims to promote communication between users who like to take photos of stuffed toys. The basic usage is the same as for other photos social networking apps, but the official accounts of characters and doll companies are prepared at the time of release.
These are the official accounts of Sekiguchi, the publisher of this app. Users can see original photos of the dolls and stuffed toys they sell here.
App features and usage are similar to Instagram. Just take a photo, apply a filter, add comments and tags.
When we post a photo, it is immediately reflected in All Post on the top screen. It's a chance for other users to see our stuffed toys!
Adding tags is easier than Instagram. We don't have to enter #.
Certainly, there are already many photos of stuffed toys posted on Instagram. But because it's the world's largest photos social networking app, our photos will soon be buried among many photos. But there are only stuffed toys in nuidol, and only stuffed toys will be visible when we launch it. It's really cute!
Downloading the app is free(iOS/Android).
In Japan, summer is a ghost friendly season. Especially in August, there is a custom Obon what the ancestors soul come home, so the ghosts and humans become intimate. So in summer, many department stores, shopping malls, and amusement parks provide horror houses, and currently, VR is utilized for them.
E BeanS, one of Sendai's department stores, offers a VR horror show that you can enjoy while lying down.
Huge banner on the wall of the building.
By the way, why do we enjoy watching VR content while lying down? Because this VR horror show motif is "Paralysis"(It is called Kanashibari in Japanese). Have you ever had sleep paralysis before? If you have that experience, you will understand VR horror shows that lie down.
While waiting, we are shown a video explaining the story. This is a good idea for smooth guidance. Also, waiting time is not wasted.
VR HMD was also explained along with the story. Oculus GO seems to be the best for beginners.
This is the VR Horror Show seat, where we lie down and enjoy the content. An oblique backrest is installed, and this is the key point of this horror show. In fact, this is a vibration sheet linked to the content, and expresses a paranormal phenomenon by directly vibrating people's back.
When we wear Oculus GO, an old Japanese room appears and notice that we are sleeping there. In this content, we are tourists who are lost in a Japanese village in the countryside, and we see a cursed doll there. And we were also cursed by this doll, so we had to spend the night in a room for wiping to solve it. But of course, it doesn't come to a peaceful night...
Interestingly, this combined VR with the traditional typical horror house approach. The staff sent the wind to the people with fans that linked with the content along with the vibration sheet, and produced fear. Creating horror by directly stimulating the senses of people is just a traditional horror house.
This is held until September 1st. If you live in Sendai and want to experience Japanese horror in VR, check it out!
Nagashi somen(流しそうめん：flow noodle) is the one of menu of Japanese summer. It through a Straight waterway made with bamboo, we catch it with chopsticks, and dip it in mentsuyu(麺つゆ：noodle source) to eat. It's very cool, but it's difficult to do at home because it requires a lot of settings, and it's usually done at some event. However, toy maker Takara-Tomy Arts has released a set to enjoy Nagashi somen at home. Moreover, it is designed like a more complex race course, and somehow uses the universe as a motif.
This Big Stream Somen Slider Galaxy is one of their cooking toys. Originally they released a set of Nagashi somen every year, and gimmicks have become more complex year by year, and this year's feature is "weightlessness". Usually, Nagashi somen flows from top to bottom according to the slope of the waterway, but Big Stream Somen Slider Galaxy jets the water stored in the "Mars-tank" with the power of the motor, puts the noodles on top of it, and flows it from the bottom to the top. The noodles run up through a transparent tube called the "hyperdrive-tube", so you can see the noodles rising and flowing. It ’s just like "weightlessness".
In addition, it also has a docking feature, if you buy the optional waterways in this series, you can combine them to create a more dynamic waterway.
The body size of this is 792mm × 217mm × 460mm, and works with three D size alkaline batteries. The price is 10,778 yen (including tax), but you can buy it cheaper at stores and mail orders.
