4.27.2017

The consumer robot which does window cleaning


Do you have a vacuum cleaner robot? Next, how about the window cleaning robot? Gadget company Thanko released cheap window cleaning WINDY. It is only 29,800yen(in tax).


This sticks to the window by the power of the motor and cleans it while recognizing the area of the windowpane with a sensor. Cleaning time is 2.4 minutes per 1 square meter, and when cleaning is over, it informs it by alarm. In addition, users can control it by remote control. Because this has cleaning pad for water wiping and dry wiping, users can use them properly by uses. The size is W240xD240xH100mm and weight is 1.2kg. A power supply cable is necessary for it, but, for time when it fell by an accident, this has emergency battery.

4.13.2017

Is this Super-Sentai show? No, it's company information session

Now jobs outnumber job seekers in Japan. Low birth rate and slowly recovering economy are keeping Japan’s job-to-applicant ratio at a 25-year high. Therefore the many Japanese companies perform various measures to get excellent talented people. Particularly, they focus on students graduating in 2018.

Tech company GMO Pepabo which provide various Web Service held interesting company information session for university students on April 12. It was surely company information session. However, the thing which students watched was Super-Sentai show.


*Super-Sentai(スーパー戦隊)
Japanese superhero team franchise of TV drama series. Sentai(戦隊) means Squadron in Japanese. Each member are given colors, and they are very colorful. They are known by the name of "Power Ranger" in the North America.

These are Tweets of recruiter of GMO Pepabo.





At first, Kentaro-Magma, the boss of the cabal of evil "Death-Boys" appeared. They conquered Shibuya. Recruit-Sentai Peparanger appeared there! By the way, Kentaro-Magma is GMO Pepabo CEO Kentaro Sato.







You may think that they are joking around. However, they are earnest and finished all the necessary speeches and panel discussions as Japanese company information session...with costume on.

Their corporate philosophy is "We can make more fun" and they held unique company information session to have student job seekers experience it. Their executives played Peparanger, Kentaro-Magma's costume was handcrafted by an staff, sound track of this show was composed by the staff of former musician and it's shown in SOUNDCLOUD. They accomplished all in themself. Surely their passion must have reached students. Archive video is here. They speak only Japanese, but You can feel fun atmosphere.


4.12.2017

Child rearing support mobile application "Moopen"



Child care always comes together with questions and the troubles. If young parents can teach child care know-how between them, they will feel encouraged. Therefore Medicalnet released open child care application "Moopen" which support mothers experiencing child care for the first time.


This resembles cooking recipes application. Mothers can post experiences and methods of their own child care and watch them of other mothers. This application is Social Networking Service also, and all users of this are mothers. Users talk with other users about child care and can talk with each other in peace. In addition, Medicalnet holds photocontests and questionnaires so that users use application more willingly. For example, when they invite photos from users on a theme "How do you store clothing of the baby?", users can take photos of the closet, and post it immediately. It is very convenient to be able to check the experience of various mothers in one kind of theme transversely.


The downloading of the application is free(iOS/Android) and you can read posts of users from the Web site.

3.24.2017

The robot of popular anime was reproduced

Now, SF film Ghost in the Shell was shown in Japan. Ahead of this film, gadget maker Cerevo reproduced the robot of the original anime of this film.


It is mini-size of the 1/8 scale(352mm × 391mm × 249mm), but is a real robot, not a model. This is "TACHIKOMA", the AI deployment tank appearing in anime "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex". Cerevo made this with 1/8 scale as part of a project to reproduce the items which appeared in animes, games, and the movies using the technology of the household appliance. This has joints, pod, a manipulator, wheels, and of course they move.



Furthermore, this has a sound recognition function, a voice synthesis engine, a camera and is connected to the cloud Internet. And owners can talk with this. When you show an apple towards the camera of this and ask "What is this?", the object recognition engine in the cloud recognizes it and answers "I know, this is a apple". When someone tell this that "the apple is sweet", this understands it, sends the information to the cloud and share information with other TACHIKOMA. In other words, this learns a lot of information by many owners talking to this. They accept the pre-order of this, but surprisingly the price is 169,992 yen!(in Tax). Furthermore, SPECIAL EDITION using aluminum parts is 191,592 yen!(in tax). The shipment start is June.

3.17.2017

Japanese flea market app "Mercari" went into the U.K.


Japanese flea market app "Mercari" step forward abroad steadily. They released application in U.K. This is their overseas development following the U.S. and they aim at the European market. U.K. version site is here.

Mercari was released in Japan in July, 2013. Various flea market apps existed before this, but as for them, web service for PCs was the main constituent, and the mobile apps were late departure. However, Mercari was the "mobile-first" thoroughly and simple(they have web service for PCs now). If you want to sell something, you have only to take its photos with the camera of the smartphone and write its captions. If you have luck, it may sell in several seconds. I used Jp version of Mercari, and earned about 170,000yen(about 1,510USD) so far. In Japan, we must pay recycling fees when we discard large garbage and household appliance garbage. However, we can earn pocket money if we sell these in Mercari.

They released U.S. version in September, 2014, and apps broke through 20 million downloading now(40 million downloading in Japan). They established branch office "Mercari Europe" in the U.K. in 2016 and prepared for the advance to the European market.

Mercari was established in February, 2013 by Japanese serial entrepreneur Shintaro Yamada.