Instant camera with wide-angle lens

Camera applications like Instagram are popular, but nostalgic real photos are also popular among young Japanese people. They take it into everyday communication. Toy company Takara Tomy will release a new instant toy camera Pixtoss on February 27.

This uses Fujifilm Instax mini film, but unlike the conventional Instax series, it has a wide-angle lens in advance. So it's not only for selfie, but also for shooting with multiple people. The mechanism is a bit retro, you have a viewfinder at the edge of the body, press the shutter lever next to the lens, and turn the handle to get the film out. You can also apply this mechanism to superimpose images multiple times on a single film and take multiple exposures. In addition, you can take photos with different colors by attaching three optional color filters to the lens.

If you are worried about overexposure, use the attached lens cap to prevent overexposure even in clear weather. The size is 145 x 100 x 67mm, the weighs about 275g, and is powered by two AAA alkaline batteries. They will release the white version on February 27 for 6,578 yen (tax included), and the pink and blue versions in March.

Speakers with remote control that won't lose

Do you frequently lose your TV remote and look for it? With this, that no longer happens. Sony released the SRS-LSR200, a wireless remote control-integrated wireless speaker that can play back TV sound at hand, on February 22 for 22,000 yen (including tax).

This is intended for use by people who are deaf such as the elderly and those who watch the TV while cooking in the kitchen. Because this with remote control, of course you can control the TV, such as adjusting the volume and changing channels.

They released the previous model SRS-LSR100 in September 2015, and this is the model change in four and a half years. The main update is that, apart from the left and right stereo speakers, a voice speaker that outputs only the human voice frequency band is located in the center. This allows you to hear clearer voices from the speakers. This is connected to the TV with an optical digital or analog audio cable. The TV and the transmitter / charger are connected with a cable, and the transmitter and the speaker use 2.4GHz band radio. The diversity antenna is used for the receiving antenna, which makes it harder to cut off than the previous model. The speaker has a built-in battery and can be used for up to about 13 hours. In addition, the speaker also has a USB-C charging terminal, so if you connect the power, you can use it without returning to the charging stand.

Let's eat AR parfait at AR cafe in Shibuya!

On November 22, 2019, Shibuya PARCO, one of the major shopping malls in Shibuya, was reopened. It has a variety of interesting shops, and Tyffonium Cafe is one of the interesting tenants among them.

Tyffonium Cafe is an AR cafe run by Tyffon, a Japanese XR entertainment company. They run VR theme park Tyffonium in Odaiba and Shibuya in Tokyo, and Tyffonium Cafe is a new business that promotes them. The concept is the "Twilight Circus", and they sells parfaits with AR contents.

There are five types of AR parfait(They call them "magical parfaits"), and you can enjoy different AR content in each of them.

You can enjoy the AR content before the parfait comes. The point is the coaster. This is actually an AR marker.

Tablets are placed in each seat, and when you watch at the coaster with its camera, the content is displayed on it. Probably this is a Web AR. An outdoor theater has appeared on the coaster!

Of course you can take screenshots and send them to your smartphone.

One of AR parfait.

If you put AR parfait on the coaster, you can enjoy different AR contents. The camera would have recognized that the glass had been placed on the coaster.

This AR content was a little horror. This is the motif of the VR attractions that they are running at Tyffonium, and it also serves as a PR. And it was designed to be a frame for decorating AR parfait. They may also be targeting social media such as Instagram.

Then, I came up with something.

This is my Nameko stuffed toy.

This can be used as a decoration for shooting photos of stuffed toys and figures! :)

If you want to share AR parfait and content gimmicks with family and friends, the AR chocolate boxes they sell are perfect. AR markers are drawn on the chocolate block, and watching these with a smartphone or tablet camera, cute AR content appears.

Don't worry if you can't speak Japanese. The cafe also supports English.

Your smartphone, wallet and charger will come together

The smartphone, wallet and mobile chargers are a necessity to go out, but they are also easy to lose. Therefore, Hirase International Trading is implementing a smart wallet "Superby" project that combines them all at the crowd funding service Makuake.

This is a rectangular wallet with a mobile battery. The mobile battery has a capacity of 5000mAh, supports wireless charging, and has built-in Lightning cable and Micro USB cable. Its output is 2A, and the Type-C terminal is stored in another pocket. It can also charge up to three smartphones simultaneously using wireless and two cables. Because this is a wallet, of course you can store money and credit cards in it, and it also has space for a smartphone.

The size is 98 x 178 x 19mm and weigh is 208g. The color variation is only black and the material is faux leather. The general sale price is 11,800 yen, but you can buy this in Makuake until February 27 by 33% off 7910 yen, 30% off 8260 yen, or 27% off 8620 yen (tax and shipping included).

Let's cook the main dish and side dishes at the same time!

The combination of white rice and miso soup is a standard Japanese food, and curry and rice is also a very popular menu in Japan. However, it is troublesome to cook other dishes while cooking white rice. Then, a mail-order service Shop Japan has released an automatic cooking pot Twin Chef that can cook white rice and side dishes at the same time on the left and right pots.

It has a unique design that allows different cooking on the left and right pots, so you can cook miso soup or curry while cooking white rice. It also has steaming plates, which you can use to cook and steam at the same time, up to four different types of cooking at the same time. This is the capacity to cook curry rice for 6 people, but the size is 410mm x 210mm x 300mm, so it does not require much space in your kitchen.

If you are not good at cooking, this has 10 quick menus. You simply choose your favorite menu from cooked white rice, cooked brown rice, cooked rice with fish and vegetables mixed in advance, rice porridge, rice porridge and vegetables, soup, stewed dishes, steamed dishes, cakes and yogurt, put the food material and press the button. Then, it automatically adjusts the optimal heat and time according to each cooking method and cooks.

Of course, if you want to fine-tune the temperature and time, they are also possible. It has a manual cooking function that allows you to set the cooking temperature and time, which can be set 35 ° C to 130 ° C and 1 minute to 12 hours. If you want to use the time even more efficiently, the timer function will be useful. It can be set in 5 minute increments up to 12 hours later, and has a warming function and a re-warming function. The pots are coated with fluorine so they don't burn. The price is 27,280 yen (including tax) and has a ladle, rice scoop, and a lightweight cup as accessories.

Pass case with security tag

Everyone doesn't want to lose important things. Especially, commutation pass is one of the important things forpeople who use public transportation. A leather item shop LIFE POCKET will release a pass case “Pass case that does not get lost” with a loss prevention tag MAMORIO for 8800 yen (including tax) on February 3.

This pass case is made of cow leather and has about 20 different color variations. It already have the tag, so you can prevent the bag from being lost along with the commutation pass by attaching this to the bag.MAMORIO is a loss prevention tag that communicates with smartphones via Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Low Energy).

Tags are also sold separately, and when those things with tags are more than a certain distance away from your smartphone, a push notification is sent to the smartphone and you can check the last communication location with the application. Also, if they get far away from you, you will be able to pinpoint what has been lost in communications between MAMORIO users. No other users will be told where you are. MAMORIO Spot of the MAMORIO's antenna has already been installed at major-railway companies such as JR and Tokyo Metro, and department stores such as Takashimaya. When things with MAMORIO Submitted to those lost and found corners, it informs the owners of the things.

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.