japan on technabob...

How many times have you had to get your lazy ass off of the couch to get up and change the channel because the batteries in your remote died. Well thanks to some fine high-tech minds, someday you may never need to worry about changing the batteries in your remote again.

This unassuming looking prototype…

Yuta Sugiura and his colleagues at the Graduate School of Media Design in Keio University had a valid starting point – most of the software or hardware input systems today have no direct correlation to the command to be executed, and so are not that easy to master. As high-tech items like robots become more…

Fans of the classic Japanese Anime series Gundam will recognize these familiar items. Except instead of firing deadly projectiles, these miniature weapons fire ink onto paper. Well, they don’t really shoot ink, they just write like any other ballpoint pen. But they sure do look cool doing it.

These Gundam-inspired ballpoint pens are being released…

We’ve seen some strange computer mice over the years, and here’s a new one to add to the pile of unusual mousing devices. This one is covered with grass.

Created by Japanese artist Hanaoka, the Siva mouse is part of a series of grass-covered objects he’s produced for the world to enjoy. This mouse is…

Takara Tomy’s latest remote-control car is definitely unique. Not only does the Aero Spider Laser drive on walls or ceilings, it goes where you tell it to using a light gun.

The gun-shaped controller projects a bright red light beam (not sure it’s really a laser beam) where you want the car to go, and…

Having cut my gaming teeth on the classic Namco arcade games of the 1980s, I just had to give these new Namco 8-bit video game cigarette lighters a mention.

Created in celebration of Pac-Man’s impending 30th birthday (boy, I feel old), these limited-edition series of Zippo lighters from Banpresto includes shiny, butane-filled versions of Pac-Man,…

NEC aims to overcome language barriers with the Tele Scouter, a system that will process spoken language and display a translation on a retinal display. To maintain the portability of the gadget, NEC split the Tele Scouter into three parts: an eyepiece, a small computer and a remote server.

Aside from the display, the microphone…

Tomotaka Takahashi, creator of the high endurance EVOLTA robot, recently showed off his new robot, ROPID. The name is supposedly a combination of rapid and robot, so it was either ROPID or RABOT. The cute robot is about 15 inches tall and can jump about 3 inches high. It’s twisting torso also makes it an…

The rumors were right – Nintendo officially unveiled the DSi LL, which is basically a Nintendo DSi but with much larger 4.2-inch screens, a 93% increase over the 3.2-inch screens on the DSi. The DSi LL also has 2 pens, a relatively jumbo sized 5-inch pen and a smaller pen that’s still slightly larger than…

This odd little gadget from Japan is perfect for placing subliminal messages in the background of epic rock albums. It’s also good for recreating disturbing and surreal scenes from Twin Peaks and The Shining.

Even though the product description over on Strapya World says “The things you can do with this machine have no limits!,” from what…

This new technology from Hitachi automatically detects when you’re actually watching your television, then shuts the display off whenever you’re not looking.

By using advanced facial recognition technology, the monitor can tell when your eyes are on the TV screen, and keeps it turned on only when you’re actually watching. Jump to the 45 second…

Now I’m just fine with my DualShock 3 controller, but for those of you out there who prefer their joypads with a bit more character, you might want to check out this Samurai warrior USB controller.