Archive for Asia
August 14, 2008 at 6:23 pm · Filed under Asia, Paranormal, Society
Over the next two months, a team of Japanese explorers hopes to obtain indisputable video evidence confirming the existence of the legendary yeti, the mysterious apelike creature long believed to inhabit the Himalayas of Nepal and Tibet.
A 7-member crew of experienced climbers, led by veteran yeti hunter and mountaineer Yoshiteru Takahashi, will depart Japan on August 16. At their destination in the Dhaulagiri mountains in central Nepal, they will establish base camp at an elevation of 4,300 meters (14,000 ft) and set up an array of automated infrared cameras along a ridge. For six weeks, the state-of-the-art motion-sensitive cameras will monitor the area for signs of the yeti.
The expedition is Takahashi’s third attempt to find the elusive creature. The 65-year-old mountaineer first became interested in the yeti while on a climbing expedition in the Dhaulagiri region in 1971, after fellow climbers saw a mysterious humanoid creature covered in […]
Original post by Edo
July 24, 2008 at 12:29 pm · Filed under Asia, Simulacra, Tech Biz, Sport
The Yomiuri Online has posted a photo of some new Olympic-themed statues on display in Beijing’s financial district. The statues — which appear about one year after Disney cried copyright infringement in response to a host of knock-off Disney characters at Beijing’s Shijingshan Amusement Park — depict five Mickey Mouse-like characters engaging in Olympic sports. When asked about the resemblance to Mickey, a spokesperson replied, “They have square holes in their ears. They are not copies.” The spokesperson suggested the statues are unique because they incorporate the themes of old Chinese coins (the square holes), the year of the rat, the Olympics and the financial district into the design. However, children passing by the statues were seen pointing and saying, “Look! It’s Mickey!”
Original post by Edo
January 11, 2008 at 11:53 am · Filed under Smart Tech, Asia, Sentient Tech
Tokyo-based educational company Gakken is recalling 10,000 of their electronic talking Smart Globes following a rash of customer complaints about a mislabeled Taiwan. On the globes, Taiwan — a self-governing nation that split from communist China in 1949 during a civil war — is labeled as “Taiwan Island,” and the globe’s smart pen reader, which streams audio data about a nation’s geography, history and culture whenever you touch its location on the globe, identifies Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic of China.
Gakken had originally intended to use the standard labeling for Taiwan (as per the Ministry of Education’s specifications), but the Chinese factory based in Shenzhen apparently refused to produce the globes unless Gakken agreed to label Taiwan as part of China. Gakken agreed to the factory’s demands.
The company sold out their entire first shipment of 10,000 Smart Globes, which were released in Japan last […]
Original post by Edo
August 2, 2007 at 9:34 am · Filed under security, Safety, Asia, Robot, Sumitomo
An autonomous robot janitor built by Subaru (Fuji Heavy Industries) and Sumitomo has landed a job cleaning the outdoor hallways of a new 14-story Bali-themed luxury apartment complex in Tokyo. Lovingly nicknamed ‘Tondon’ in an apparent reference to a legendary Balinese snake god, the robot is a close relative of RFS1, the autonomous floor cleaning robot that received Japan’s 2006 Robot of the Year Award last December.
Like the RFS1, which currently cleans hallway floors inside ten Tokyo-area office buildings, Tondon works unsupervised and relies on an optical communication system to control the building’s elevators, allowing it to move freely from floor to floor as needed. To improve the robot’s ability to clean gritty outdoor surfaces, Tondon’s makers have added a set of heavy-duty brushes designed to sweep up leaves and dirt from hallway floors and drains. Furthermore, Tondon’s outer shell has been strengthened and waterproofed to protect its internal […]
Original post by Edo
July 20, 2007 at 3:00 pm · Filed under security, Smart Tech, Asia, Biometrics, Imaging, Sentient Tech, Transportation, Imaging/Display, NEC
On July 19, electronics giant NEC announced it has developed the world’s first automated border control system that uses facial recognition technology capable of identifying people inside their automobiles. The system is already in operation at checkpoints on the Hong Kong - Shenzhen border.
Built around NEC’s NeoFace biometric face recognition system, as well as NEC’s electronic passport technology, the system is designed to boost the speed and efficiency of Hong Kong Immigration Department operations by allowing residents with microchipped national ID cards to remain in their vehicles while automated cameras verify their identities. Hong Kong residents aged 11 or over are required by law to carry a national ID card (HKID), and the recently issued “smart” IDs are embedded with chips that contain biometric and personal data.
The system works by first reading a vehicle’s license plate as it approaches a border gate. Because each vehicle in Hong Kong […]
Original post by Edo
February 1, 2007 at 11:12 am · Filed under Asia, Crime, Robot
This story is not from Japan, but I couldn’t resist…
On Tuesday, police in Seoul, Korea enlisted the help of a small robot to track down a fugitive purse-snatcher hiding out in the city’s sewage system. Eyewitnesses attempted to catch the 57-year-old suspect after they saw him snatch a woman’s purse at a hospital, but the man wriggled out of his clothes and managed to escape into the city’s sewage system through a 1-meter (3.3 feet) diameter pipe.
Police located the man four hours later with the help of a 6-wheeled, camera-equipped sewage pipe inspection robot able to broadcast images for up to 150 meters (nearly 500 feet). Once they apprehended the man, who appeared to have lost his way in the darkness of the cramped pipes, the police returned him to the hospital, where he received treatment for hypothermia. The temperature in Seoul on Tuesday was 1 degree Celsius (34 degrees Fahrenheit).
At the end of this video news clip, the police ask the man why he stripped off his clothes, to which he replies, “Leave me alone. I’m not feeling well.”
[Sources: Chosun Ilbo, TUF]
Original post by Edo
