Virtual reality umbrella shares vibe of guerrilla rain, frog falls and more

This week’s Digital Content Expo at Miraikan is one of the less corporate tech shows on the Tokyo calendar, so it’s no surprise to see some pretty kooky engineering like the Funbrella from a grad-student team at Osaka University. Kansai’s finest came up with the concept of ‘tele-rain’ to allow anyone holding the Funbrella to experience what it might be like to get caught in a hailstorm on a sunny day, a shower of marbles, or even a downpour of snakes and hamburgers. Er, yeah. If that makes...

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Japanese Cigarette Machines Can Detect Age Of Buyers

Gadget Lab predicts that there will be new fashion amongst underaged Japanese smokers: stupid, wispy, half-grown bum-fluff mustaches. Why? Age-detecting cigarette machines. In order to combat illegal vending sales to the under 20s, Fujitaka Co has come up with a machine which uses a digital camera to study the faces of potential buyers and detect “wrinkles surrounding the eyes, bone structure and skin sags”. The problem is that the device only achieves a 90% hit rate, meaning that “minors that look...

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Sega Toys Homestar Planetarium

For those of us who live in big cities, when we look up to the skies at night, all we see is an empty and opaque sky cover, tampered with pollution and the city lights. We forget the sky above us, is filled with stars, galaxies and other celestial bodies. We forget how contemplating starry skies heals, inspires and energizes our souls. To change all that, Sega Toys from Japan and award winning inventor and genius, Takayuki Ohira created The Homestar Pro Portable Planetarium series. The 2nd...

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Super Slim Video Camera Pen

    New pen camcorder brought by Japanese gadget maker Thanko. This is a super slim pen video & audio recorder, ideal to record hidden transactionsor or else. The camera is hidden just above the clip making it perfect for placing the pen in your top pocket and having a clear recording of everything that the wearer is seeing. ...

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Invader Alarm Clock

We know that you eat and sleep gaming... But do you wake up to it? That is exactly what you can do with the retro-looking Invader Alarm Clock. This bug-shaped harbinger of lucidity will allow you to be awakened by a tiny space invader, just in time for you to slip into another marathon of virtual reality. Just set your alarm and let the intergalactic assassins do the rest.  ...

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