VR animation "Feather"

Now, a cute VR animation Feather is being screened at Konica Minolta Planetaria Tokyo, a planetarium in Yurakucho, Tokyo.

This is a new generation planetarium that opened in December 2018. It has a multipurpose digital dome theater that can enjoy high-resolution dome images up to 8K, a planetarium dome theater, and a VR theater VirtuaLink. If you come here, you can watch the beautiful starry sky in the middle of the big city.

Different movies are shown depending on each theater and time of day, and you first check the screening schedule with the ticket vending machine and select the movies you want to watch. This is almost the same as a normal movie theater.

Feather is a VR animation created by 3DCG / VR artist Keisuke Ito. It was invited to the VR section of the 2019 Venice International Film Festival. Later, it was invited to the Busan International Film Festival, the Geneva International Film Festival, and the Gangneung International Film Festival, and was highly regarded by the audience.

This is VirtuaLink, where Feather is shown. Here, multiple audiences can watch the same VR content simultaneously.

VirtuaLink uses HTC Vive. Here you can watch interactive VR contents, and HTC Vive makes the experience meaningful. Of course, a motion controller will be used, the staff will carefully teach you how to operate before the screening.

The staff are also responsible for directing and guiding before the screening. They distribute such a picture book to the audience before showing Feather and read it aloud. It doubles as a prologue of this.


The main character of this is a girl who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer. What impressed me was that, despite the fact that it was a VR animation, there was no scene where the audience looked around 360 degrees. In front of the audience is a doll house, in which small dolls move around and the story unfolds. It doesn't have dynamic actions, but it's familiar to VR beginners. Also, it was very cute that the dolls moved smoothly in the small doll house.
And the great attraction is that the audience can be involved in the story that unfolds in the little doll house. In this, Feather is a symbol of encouragement. Each time the girl is frustrated, feathers appear in front of the audience. The audience can support her by handing it to the girl. By the way, Most of the story unfolds inside the dollhouse, but it's actually a hint of the last scene. Check it out by actually watching it.

When the picture book was opened again under the guidance of the staff after the screening, the white feathers that were not present before the screening were interposed between the pages.

It costs 1500 yen(900 yen for kids) and English and Chinese are supported.

Info
https://planetarium.konicaminolta.jp/planetariatokyo/program/virtualink/autumn_19/

Schedule
https://planetarium.konicaminolta.jp/planetariatokyo/schedule/

Website
http://keisukeitoh.com/feather.html

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/FeatherVR

Twitter
https://twitter.com/FeatherVR

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/feathervr/

QUEEN become the characters of mobile game Disney: Tsum-Tsum again. And this time they are young

Last August, I wrote about the appearance of QUEEN as characters in LINE's popular mobile game Disney: Tsum-Tsum.

See Also:
QUEEN is not Disney characters but appears in the mobile game Disney: Tsum-Tsum. Only in Japanese region

Now they are in this game again. And this time they are young. But unfortunately, this is only in Japan region. Because QUEEN + ADAM LAMBERT Japan tour will be held this month. At the same time, Disney Japan will sell stuffed toys of QUEEN - TSUM TSUM.

This time, Freddie Mercury is the era when Bohemian Rhapsody was released. If you use his skill in the game, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY will be played as BGM. Also, if you use John Deacon's skill, ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST will be played.

The collaboration will run until January 31. If you are their fan, please come to Japan to see these!

Prevention of minor accidents

Someone is behind the door and collides with him/her the moment you open the door ... it's a minor accident in everyday life, but we want to avoid it as much as possible. So, an office supplies company King Jim has released a wireless type of light with a motion sensor that lets you know when someone is on the other side of the door and prevents collisions. The price is 15,400 yen (tax included).

It's a set of two, and when you mount the door with these, the sensors detect people in front of the door and let you know by flashing lights and a buzzer. The ranges covered by the sensors are about 120 degrees horizontally and about 110 degrees vertically. You can choose the buzzer volume from three levels.


Originally King Jim has been selling this wired version since June 2017, and has now released this wireless type. You can fix these to the door with the magnets on the main body, screws, and double-sided tape. Also, you can use them in single mode instead of in pairs. For example, if you fix them at dangerous places, you can alert people passing nearby. Each of these size is 140mm x 75mm x 105mm and weighs about 300g (excluding batteries). They work on four AA alkaline batteries for about two years. (When the sensor detects 30 times a day)

Expanding toy platform

Sony is focusing on developing educational toys as well as gadgets. The educational toy platform toio has just been released in March this year, but already has several expansion packs and offers children various ways to play.

Originally this was a toy product born from Sony's in-house entrepreneurship support project, and the prototype was released on crowdfunding. Then they renewed its hardware and developed a general consumer version. It consists of a small block robot called a toio cube, a console that contains software, and two ring-shaped controllers. It may look like a game console, or you may also think of this as a radio controlled robot. But that's just one of the elements. First of all, children can learn programming to move robots using physical cards called instruction cards. To make a toio cube remember a program, simply place it on the instruction card. It's easy, but children can do complex programming with a combination of cards. A picture book is included in the programming kit using toio cube, and children can learn the basics of programming while reading this, combine instruction cards, and move the toio cube according to the situation of the picture book. If children get used to programming with physical cards, they can learn visual programming languages and more advanced programming from their PCs and run toio cube. If they get tired of playing toio cube only move, the various expansion kits allow children to control complex games themselves. The list price is 18,678 yen (tax included), and it is already sold at major mail-order sites and consumer electronics mass retailers, but depending on the shops you may be able to buy it cheaper.

Let's enjoy DIY and programming together!

2020 Japanese elementary school is busy. Because programming classes are also required. Takara Tomy released a robot toy embot, that adding elements of programming learning to DIY art.

This is a programming education robot born from NTT DOCOMO's new business creation program. It's a seemingly simple cardboard robot, but it has core parts, buzzers, LED lights, and servo motors, and children can assemble robots that work by combining them. In addition, they can learn programming with an application that link with this, and move the robot accordingly. This programming language is a visual programming language that children can easily understand. It doesn't matter if your children don't have their own PC. The application can be used only on a smartphone or tablet. And, because it is a cardboard that is an exterior of the robot, children can enjoy custom by painting or adding decorations to it. The target age is over 8 years old, and the power source of the robot is 4 AAA alkaline batteries. The price is 6600 yen (tax included) and the application is free to download.