(photo by antjeverena)

m(_ _)m  – I’m sorry. If you look good you’ll see a man nodding his head.

(^_^)/ – I’m excited.

(^_^;) – I’m uncomfortable/embarrassed. A man with a drop of sweat on his face.

(>^_^)> ( ;_;) <(^_^<) – several emoticons together meaning two friends hugging their crying friend, or actually laughing at him.

Sometimes only the eyes express the feelings of you the one you talk to.

>_<  – Something on my mind.

T_T – crying.

@_@ – puzzled.

=^.^= – a cat.

Know of any more funny Japanese emoticons? share in the comments.

Sharp Electronics has introduced a new LCD TV which is powered by solar panels. Sharp claims that the 26-inch screen consumes only a quarter of a energy compared with a similar size CRT.

The new LCD is actually a very low power consumption LCD screen, that is paired with a new thin solar panel from the company. Sharp suggest that this can be used in remote areas which are off the grid. But these poor people may have better things to worry about then seeing American Idol at night.

No word on pricing, availability or production yet.

Via [TechRadar]

More from Sharp [Sharp]

USB Necktie

This is an improved model of last year necktie. In the necktie you can find a small fan that gets you fresh air while sitting in the office. It may look exciting, but think what will happen if you get up and forget that you are chained to your laptop with a USB cable. And we don’t want to even start thinking what your peers will think of you. And that cute receptionist? Don’t count on a date tonight. All of this for the price of only 27 dollars. [Product Page]

Lazy Chair

In the summer you may also want to relax with your laptop a bit. Just spreading out in the floor is not a good idea. Your hands get numb, and your back might hurt. The Japanese solution? The lazy chair. The chair allows you to lie down comfortably and work on your notebook. You also get five positions for the angle of this “chair”, and you can always use it as a head rest, in case you want to read the newspaper. The price: 74 dollars. [Product Page]

Cooling Chair

We know that Japanese food might get your stomach to work differently than usual, with the related consequence. But we thought that these problems are limited to only westerns that are not accustomed to Japanese food – not to the nice and sterile Japanese girls.

Anyway, it seems to affect them too, otherwise we see no purpose to this cooling chair. The chair blows up cool air straight to your behind, and if you have to work long hours, that’s certainly going to get you some boost. We just hope that you don’t find yourself hovering above your chair in the process.Price starts at $45 without car accessories. [Product Page]

Dogs Jacuzzi

Why not to take care of your beloved friend also? It’s gets hot in the summer and your dog will rather prefer sitting in the Jacuzzi, than just getting a cold shower. IDEC Corporation invented a bubble bath that can help you wash your dog. The company calls the Jacuzzi “Wan Love Yu” or “Dog Loves Bath”.

The appliance generates 600,000 bubbles/cm³ in the size of 0.02 millimeters (these are really tiny bubbles!). The company promises that with these bubbles you can really get rid of dirt from the dog, in a way a normal shower can’t. You’ll still have to persuade your dog to get into this bubble bath. The price is between $6,000 and $7,000, and the appliance is targeted at pet hospitals and pet shops. [IDEC] (Japanese) and more on [TechOn]

One of the great frustrations of men around the world is that they cannot hear their wife while they drive. Women have the great habit of giving you good advices on the road, and you always want to listen carefully to them. “You should have taken the right turn, honey”, “Why are you driving so fast?” or “what have you got from bypassing this old woman that drives so slowly?” And such great questions.

It is frustrating when you buy a new car and what to hear your wife’s comments clearly inside the car. We know that your enjoyment from the car will not be complete without these useful comments.

Well Toyota introduced a new hybrid car in Japan called Crown Hybrid, which allows you to hear everything you need while driving. The car is offering a new noise cancellation system that makes the interior silent as an aquarium.

Inside the car Toyota has placed tiny speakers that generate a “counter noise”: an exact duplication of the engine noise only in reverse. Without getting too much into acoustics terminology, these sound waves counter the waves produced by the engine and eliminate them.

No word on pricing or availability, while the car and the noise cancellation system is still in developmental stage. But as soon as it gets to the US will let you know, so you can drive and hear your wife talking – without losing a single word. Now that’s good news, isn’t it?

Here you can see how the system is built (click to enlarge):

Via [TechOn]

The name for the tower will be “Tokyo Sky Tree”, or Tōkyō Sukai Tsurii ,and it will be finished in 2011. 610 meters of concrete and steel, in the heart of Tokyo. If you also want a tower like this in your back yard, you should prepare some money. The cost of the tower is estimated in 60 billion yen or 555 million dollars (if you still believe in the dollar).

For those of you that are concerned what will happen to the tower during earthquakes, you should know that in the bottom of the tower you will find a five tier concrete “pagodas” that are supposes to withstand very strong earthquakes.

The tower will have some restaurants in the top, and a TV station – Nothing crazy or weird. What brings us to believe that until the tower will be completed there will be more weird news about robots that will live in the upper floor. We expect no less from the Japanese.

In the mean time you can enjoy more images (click to enlarge):

And a view from the top of the Tokyo Sky Tree

Here is a video of the name unveiling ceremony:

The scientist have create a bowl of noodles or ramen (the Japanese version for noodles) in the size of 1/25,000 of an inch. the bowl which was created in the university of Tokyo is an example of what can be done with nanotube-processing technology this days.

If you were hoping on taking a spoon and digging into the bowl, you’ll be a bit disappointed. The bowl is just a mockup, and the noodles are actually made of carbon, not a very tasty ingredient in your bowl. It wouldn’t get you over your hunger also. The “noodles” in bowl are only 1/1.25 million of an inch, so you’ll need about 1.25 million bowls to get one normal noodle.

What’s a bit more weird in this story is that the scientists kept this ramen bowl for themselves for almost two years. They’ve only exposed this photo when they wanted to get the bowl into a contest. If you are in the management of the university of Tokyo, get them a free meal at McDonald’s. They must be hungry after splitting this bowl for two years.

[Yahoo News]

The art of “Dekotora” “or in simple English “pimping trucks” is a very know art in Japan. The truckers are decorating the trucks with neon lights, shiny paints and add everything that can be glued to the top of the truck. These trucks are used only as hobby trucks only and do not being used as commercial trucks.

The trend has probably begun in the ’70, and was inspired by a film called “Trucker”. The main character in the film drives a much customized truck.

Below are some great images of crazy trucks in Japan featuring amazing Dekotora.

Pictures: [Offbeat Earth]

The robot, 17 centimeter tall and 130 grams in weight, was forced to climb a 500 meters canyon as a demonstration by Panasonic for its new line of alkaline batteries.

The Evolta (combining “evolution” and “voltage”) batteries can be used to satisfy your climbing robot hunger for energy, with 20 percent more energy than Duracell and Energizer.

The batteries actually hold the Guinness book of records for being the most long lasting alkaline batteries. Panasonic claims that the batteries managed to flash a strobe light 277 times, while the existing alkaline and oxyride battery cells could set off 203 and 255 flashes, respectively.

Video after the break:

The batteries aren’t cheap and cost $5.40 for four in Japan, 15 percent higher than other batteries. They planned to reach more countries in the following months.

The robot accomplished the mission successfully within time of 6 hours and 45 minutes by using 530 meters of rope. Now Tom Cruise won’t have to worry about a stunt double, if he’ll ever want to this again:

Tom Cruise in a typical climbing.

Source: [Mainichi]

More about the Evolta batteries: [Techon]

The eye-tracking system from EMR-9 from Nac Image, is a new experimental system that tracks how a driver watches the road. These goggles are equipped with three CCD cameras that records 240 frames per second. With this data car makers can better understand how we watch the road. In the future they can design a system that identify if we cross a line, or moving out eye sight to other places than the road.

With this, and the GPS system that helps us to know if we are in a bad neighborhood, we should feel pretty safe in our cars.

More: [Cnet]

Man best friend in Japan always had a different meaning. It started when Sony introduced Aibo back in 1999 to the world. Aibo was a cute robot dog, which knew how to perform basic operations such as walking and recognizing voice commands.

Unfortunately, Sony eventually decided to cease Aibo production after 170,000 dogs sold. Although Aibo was considered a huge hit in Japan. Now a group of Japanese scientists want to create a more advanced robot dog.

The dog, “Hon Hon”, was introduced last week at Chiba’s Techno-Frontier 2008 symposium which shows technology projects from around Japan. You can see Hon Hon in action right here:

And if you want, you can always enjoy an Aibo playing with a cat:

And if you are into robotic dinosaurs, you should really take a look at Pleo.

Source (Japanese Translated): [Robot Watch]