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Engadget
Methodman  |  by cellphones.engadget.com. All rights reserved. 2.04 | 6:28

Meet the BANCLOCK alarm clock. Not to be confused with the , this alarm clock features a display like a national debt ticker and alarm which can only be turned off by feeding the damn thing some coin. No option to snooze here brother.

Of course, there's nothing to prevent you from feeding it slugs you cheap azz, but you're only cheating your kids of their education. Available in Japan for 5,985 or $51 bucks which is itself, a crime.

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Man, that didn't take long. ASUS' SideShow-enabled laptop and 2.2-pound with LED backlit display -- as prototypes during January's CES -- are hitting Japan (at least) mid-March.

An estimated 224,800 (or about $1,915) should take home the 12-inch W5Fe preloaded with Vista, a 1.86GHz Core Duo T2350 proc, 1GB memory, 80GB of disk, and standard 1.5-hour battery.

If ultra-portability is more your game then you'll need roughly 269,800 (about $2,298) to bring the 11.1-inch U1F home equipped with a 1.06GHz Core Duo U2400 CPU, 1GB memory, 80GB disk, and standard 3-hour battery.

But you'll want to dig a little deeper for the optional 6-hour extended battery eh road warrior? We expect to hear of a broader release sometime before CeBIT next week.

-- W5Fe
-- U1F

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If you're one of the unfortunate few outside of Japan to get locked into media after it was touted as the next big thing, well, take heart: I-O Data still loves you. Today they announced 80GB (iVDR-80) and 160GB (you guessed it, the iVDR-160) cartridges. Available late April in Japan for 38,850 (about $333) or 22,050 (about $189) of the green stuff for the 160GB and 80GB cartridges, respectively.

Ouch. We hear they'll look great stacked up side-by-side with your MiniDisc collection.

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The DriveMaster Pro from Japanese manufacturer Hino is one of those products that's surely flying off the shelves, because who wouldn't want to pay good money for a device that sits on your dashboard and constantly reminds you that your driving style is so very environmentally unfriendly. Although once again our best efforts at machine translation are thwarted by in-graphic text, it seems that the DM Pro ships with a number of different sensors that are able to detect your speed, acceleration / deceleration, idle time, gear ratio, and emissions; if any of these metrics indicate that you could be outside the range of government-suggested levels, the info-packed display lets out audible and visual alerts that hopefully won't distract you enough to crash and kill a tree or something. No word on pricing, once again making it quite difficult for us foreigners to get our hands on the best Japanese gear.



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Posted Mar 2nd 2007 5:02AM by
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Hot on the heels of Purdue's chemical analyzer comes a (somewhat) similar creature from the other side of the globe, as University's Yoshiaki Sugimoto and colleagues have "found a way to use the atomic force microscope to produce images that reveal the chemical identity of individual atoms on a surface." Essentially, this new discovery allows scientists to look at a mixed material and "pick out individual atoms of different elements on its surface, such as tin or silicon.

" The microscopes themselves are quite common in this realm, but until now, they have not been capable of distinguishing between atoms of different chemical elements. The atomic fingerprint, as it's so aptly named, is what the crew scrutinized in order to distinguish between varying atoms on a sample surface, as they witnessed that the relationship between force and distance is "slightly different for atoms of different elements." Of course, we have to look for the practical use in all this hubbub, and a non-participating scientist from the has insinuated that the discovery could be useful for researchers trying to design devices at the molecular level -- and who wouldn't be down a little or a snazzy new ?

Posted Mar 1st 2007 10:25AM by
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If you've got a around to flip your channels and any uninvited intruders, there's not too much else a lonely, elderly individual needs from a fellow humanoid, but researchers at the University of are crafting more lifelike and more agile servant bots nevertheless. In an effort to create a tactical team of droids ready and willing to serve the aging population of Japan, the team is working with to create friendly robots that can assist folks with around the house chores such as pouring tea and cleaning the dishes.

Several models were out and about during a recent demonstration, as one wheeled bot delivered beverages to its master, and other renditions responded to human movements and the bevy of sensors installed in the floor and sofa of a room. Essentially, the team is attempting to seamlessly integrate robotic life with our world, and they're already prepared to feel a lashing from privacy advocates who will protest the embedded camera systems that the robots feed off of. Still, we'd rather have a potentially Big Brother-equipped to make sure our favorite dramas get recorded than no one at all.

Posted Feb 27th 2007 8:27AM by
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Lockheed's shiny new F-22 Raptor stealth fighters may have owned a few war games, but crossing the International Date Line left them as helpless as a carrot in a rabbit trap, with multiple system crashes causing an emergency detour en route from Hawaii to Okinawa, Japan. Communication, fuel subsystems, and navigation systems were rendered useless and repeated "reboots" were of no help.

Luckily, the fleet had clear skies and refueling tankers to guide them back to Hawaii. If they had separated from the tankers, "they would have turned around and probably could have found the Hawaiian Islands. But if the weather had been bad on approach, there could have been real trouble," states Retired Air Force Major General Don Shepperd.

The voyage suffered a two-day delay on account of the system failures -- "a computer glitch in the millions of lines of code, somebody made an error in a couple lines of the code and everything goes." What should have been a showy parade of $125+ million super fighters quickly turned to disaster for Lockheed who would've had a lot of explaining to do, had this happened during combat.

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Researchers from Ritsumeikan University and the Shiga University of Medical Science have developed a miniature robot prototype that is controlled remotely once placed inside the body via an incision (whew! not a suppository) at the affected area. Unlike existing that can only snap pictures and gather info, this minibot is maneuvered by controlling external magnetic fields located close to the patient, and can perform medical treatments that may, in some cases, negate the need for surgery.

As of now, the researchers have experimented with 5 different variations of the device to test functions like capturing images, taking tissue samples (see creepy forceps above), and administering medicines. The robot is positioned and guided using an MRI of the patient taken pre-surgery, and an attached mini-cable relays stats and images back to a computer during the procedure. The robot is composed of plastic and measures at 0.

8-inches in length and 0.4-inches in diameter, which, by all means, doesn't seem that tiny when you picture it crawling around inside of you. Supposedly, this little guy has tested well with animals, so we humans may be next in line.



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Although it may be perceived that folks purchase in order to simply tell the time, we've learned that this misconception is often proved wrong by the watchmaker itself. The Art 8 Elite by follows the company's of busting out slick looking timepieces that aren't exactly when it comes to quickly portraying the current time, and while we certainly appreciate the handsfree approach and futuristic appeal, telling time based on resin inlays could take some getting used to.

Regardless, this stainless steel wristwatch boasts a butterfly clasp, Super 2035 movement from Citizen Japan, four years of battery life, water resistance, and is available with "coffee" or "marble" colored faces. So if you've always desired a moving dartboard on your wrist, and just weren't satisfied with all the this week, you can snag this piece right now for $138.84.



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TDK just slipped crazy-thin SoundVu technology into your pocket. That's right, the 80 117 x 16-mm (3.

15 x 4.6 x 0.63-inch) Xa-10 flat panel speaker brings a 1.

2W x 2ch waft of breathy bass you might otherwise choose not to float from your trou. The speakers will accept USB power (or batteries) and a mini-stereo input when they hit Japan in March for just 2,980 or about $25.

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Posted Feb 20th 2007 9:12AM by
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What do you do when your Human Transporter skids off the plateau of human interest only to be pummeled by ? Why, start building mobility solutions for robots, of course. We've already seen a few around the lab; soon enough, we'll be seeing a lot more what with the Segway RMP (Robotic Mobility Platform) now launched in Japan.

The RMP is meant to provide a quick and easy transportation underpinning for new domestic and military robots. RMPs range in price from 6,037,500 to 1,376,550 ($50,000 to about $11,500) and vary by maximum load, speed, size, max angle of climb, and battery capacity. Let the begin!



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Wrap an MP3 player in a silicone tube held secure with cable-ties and what do you get? Well, if you're Japan's Century then you've got yourselves a waterproof MP3 player dubbed the Dolphin.

Ok, the player does carry an IPX7 Ingress protection rating which means it really is waterproof (not just splash-proof) up to a depth of about 1 meter -- ideal for laps around the Coral Key Park Marine Preserve. Inside, the Dolphin packs 1GB of flash, USB 2.0, and support for MP3/WMA playback off 8-hour battery.

Looks aside, at 12,800 (about $107) -- which includes a pair of unusually decent looking waterproof headphones -- it'll save you a healthy chunk-o-change compared to the $250 we showed you last week.

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It's not like we really rely on to spice things up on the PC front, but we're still a little disappointed in the distinct lack of interestingness going on here in Sotec's new "e-three" series.

The HA3000 laptop sports a 1280 x 800 15.4-inch LCD, Windows Vista (Home Basic or Business) and ExpressCard/54 slot -- and that's about it. There's a VIA VN896 chipset for integrated graphics, WiFi and gigabit Ethernet, but it's only certified for Vista Basic, so don't plan on squeezing much Aero action out of this unit.

The rest of the laptop is BTO, and while prices start at a commendable 96,390 yen ($808 US), you'll only be getting a 1.46GHz Celeron M processor, 512MB of RAM, a 60GB HDD and a DVD / CD-RW combo drive. There's room for up to a Core 2 Duo T7400, 2GB of RAM, a 120GB HDD and a DVD burner, but it'll cost you.

The HC5010 (pic after the break) takes a similar approach, but does it in a slim desktop form factor. Starting at a Celeron D 331 2.66GHz processor, 512MB of RAM, 80GB HDD and Intel 945G Express integrated graphics, you can pick one of these up for 64,800 yen ($543 US), but there's plenty of room to grow on specs and price.

Both of these should be available in Japan on March 1st.

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- HA3000
- HC5010

We've got that have seen , and now we're seeing ones that brave the rain, as Asahi Kasei's plainly-named Rain Sensor spends (quite literally) half its time perched outdoors awaiting those sprinkles. As you might expect, this two-part device consists of a mountable rain sensor that resides outside and connects wirelessly to the indoor monitor in order to alert you when it begins to drizzle.

Presumably aimed at those who frequently leave their car windows down or wet clothes on the line, this little fella belts out a friendly jingle whenever its drop-sensing partner . Although there's always the "look out the window" approach, this device does indeed save you from focusing intently on what's happening outside in order to determine precisely when the first drop falls, but even if it doesn't seem worth the 3,980 ($33) asking price to you, be sure to click on through for a live demonstration anyway.

[Via ] The available to your youngsters are by the week it seems, but for those looking to acquire a less voyeuristic (and likely more effective) way of tracking down your wandering kids, Dandella's for you.

Taking home the gold at the International Design Competition Osaka, the dandelion-inspired GPS sticks come with a flower pot vase that syncs with your computer in order to select a "home" point in which the device continually seeks to be near. Designers Yong-kai Tan and Priscilla Lui's invention was spurned by the need to "simply find someone" if you get detached in a busy theme park or office building, and if each stick is programmed to find one another, even a child should be able to walk in the direction that the flexible, lit tip points. Additionally, it packs built-in in order to sync with mobile devices or other wireless computers, and gets powered by an integrated Li-ion battery.

Now, how in the world do we choose just one location? Decisions, decisions.

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Keywords: Rain Sensor, Core Duo, Posted Feb, Posted Mar
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