japan on technabob...

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.

Nobody wants to talk about it, but who really wants to listen to your gaseous emissions? Not me. This weird gadget from Japan lets you mask your bathroom activities while you “do your business”.

The television display size war is officially over. Mitsubishi showed off a 155-inch OLED display at the Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies (CEATEC) 2009 in Japan. If you’re going “155-inches! ZOMG” right now, then you’ll probably die of excitement when I tell you that the display is infinitely expandable. As in you could create a…

Okay so Activelink’s Power Loader is not really a weapon, it’s a tool for heavy lifting. But so was the loader in the Aliens movie from which the exoskeleton takes its name. That didn’t stop Ripley from pwning the alien queen with it.

The Power Loader is made of 500 lbs of aluminum alloy. It’s equipped…

Construction and erection of the 18-m (59 ft) Tetsujin 28-go (aka Gigantor) statue in Kobe, Japan wrapped up a few days ago, more than a couple of weeks after the Gundam statue – the Neil Armstrong of robot statues – was dismantled. The statue, which has been set up at Wakamatsu Park in Nagata Ward…

If you thought that the derelicts they have walking around city streets donning smelly mascot costumes and trying to hand you flyers for hot dogs and prepaid cell phone cards weren’t creepy enough, have I got something for you! Pretty soon, those guys will be replaced by robots.