Category: Strange + Wonderful

Do you tend to hunch over whenever you’re working at your computer? This oddity from Japan is designed to help correct this bad behavior by serving up an alert if you’re sitting (or standing?) improperly. All I know is that you wear it around your neck, and when you start to slouch, it’ll correct you with an audible alarm.

There’s just something about anything with more than four legs crawling around that gives most people the willies. This centipede robot kit will have those folks heading for the hills. The Gakken Mechamo centipede robot measures in at about a foot long, and runs on batteries.

Text-to-speech software meets alternative music with this strangely compelling computer which has been programmed to sing. Mr. Hopkinson’s Computer sings covers of everything from Radiohead to Portishead to The Stone Roses in his computerized drone. In the video clip below, he even does a little sassy monologue and sings The Pixies classic Gigantic along with a live band.

This unique MP3 player never needs batteries. That’s because it runs on your own hand-cranked power. It may not be the prettiest media player ever made, but that’s because it needs room for the mechanical device that converts your energy into power.

Here’s an interesting tidbit of recent history for any electronic musicians out there. A couple of years back, a strange little company called Chromatone thought it was time for an overhaul of the traditional 88 keys on pianos (or less on many synthesizers.)

It’s a necktie. No, it’s a fan. No, it’s a necktie. No, it’s a fan AND a necktie in one! Yep, leave it to the gadget wizards at Japan’s Thanko to come up with this bright idea.

While they might be a bit “new-agey” for my taste, I think these LED light murals are still pretty cool. Perhaps better suited for nightclubs or restaurants than for your home, these Light Energy Paintings can fill a wall with a dazzling show of colored light.

I’ve certainly seen some odd gadgets come across my desk, but these plush speakers from Korea have to be some of the weirdest I’ve ever seen. These “BooRu-BooRu” dolls look like some sort of bizarre Teletubbies on crack.

Got 700 Terabytes of storage to spare? That’s about how much memory you’ll need if you want to use this invention to record your entire life. Professor Yasuyuki Kono and a team of researchers from Japan’s Kwansei Gakuin University have devised a system which can record everything you ever do.

Here’s another strange USB device from the Far East. Designed to massage your cares away, these USB-powered eyeball massagers look like they’ll easily poke an eye out if you’re not careful. Available in wholesale lots from Sundayo, I’m not sure how much they cost.

This is really not a good idea, given the world we live in today. But leave it to the wacky gadget makers in Japan to release it anyway. The ridiculous President Briefcase is just a gag product, but if you happen to leave it ANYWHERE, you’re likely to stir up a bigger scare than the Aqua Teen Hunger Force prank did in Boston earlier this year.

Old robots never really go away — they just come back to life singing new tunes. The gang over at Boing Boing have introduced me to this strange new trend of taking the old animatronic animal musicians from Chuck E.

The answer to that question is not “with it’s nose.” Instead, it smells like roses or peppermints thanks to this weird new USB device. As if smelly colognes and incense weren’t bad enough, now we have to worry about odoriferous computers.

This weird camera from Japan can meow. Presumably, the camera makes cat sounds to draw the attention of your elusive feline friends when you want to snap their picture. The whole idea strikes me as pretty odd though.

You better act quick if you want this great piece of Nintendo nostalgia for your house. It’s a Super Mario Brothers ceiling fan, circa 1988, that I found over on eBay. I know Nintendo merchandised the hell out of this franchise, but a Super Mario ceiling fan?

Hitachi has taken the wraps off of a new payment technology that lets you make purchases with only your finger. The new biometric system can measure the unique signature of the blood vessels in your fingers to authenticate transactions.