Oto-San is featured in the commercial as the head of a Japanese family and promotes the mobile operator plans. It’s popularity grow so quickly that now Softbank decided to release a DVD with Oto-San daily life. The DVD is scheduled to be released during September.

In order to sign his new movie contract Oto-San has arrived in a limousine to the headquarters of Softbank, and signed the agreement with Softbank president Yuichi Kato. Two scary looking bodyguards escorted him all the way from the limo to the building.

The dog doesn’t come cheap. You will have to cough up $24 for the Dog’s DVD only, and $31 for a DVD plus a lunch box.

You can watch some of Oto-San short commercials here:

And here:

So let’s sum up: A dog is the head of the family and sells mobile phones gets to be the star of a new film. Not bad for an ordinary weird day in Japan.

via [Japan Today]

The system in the video is called the Da Vinci system and it’s made by Intuitive Surgical from Sunnyvale in California. The system allows the surgeon to perform tasks in HD video while moving the robotic hands. COOL!

Using ads in web sites and magazines, four people have tried to sell pills that enlarge women breasts. The ads promised a D-cup size after only three pills. That’s obviously didn’t work.

It’s amazing to see the frustration of Japanese women (see illustrated image) in Japan. This frustration led the company to make almost 8 million dollars (830 million Japanese yen) in the last two years from selling the pills. More the 26,000 women (although in japan you may never really know) bought the pills, and probably were very disappointed to find out that it didn’t work.

The four men running the company were arrested by the police. The charge against them is selling medical drugs without permission. That’s a bit weird, since even with a permission it would be a scientific miracle to get this pill to do some change. Anyway, Japanese women will just have to wait to some kind of boob’s robot to help them change their body.

Source: [Mainichi]

We all know that Japanese loves robots and that the robots can do all kind of thing for them. They can be our best friends, decide what we watch on TV, or just be stupid and useless. But now they can also play for them in a concert.

Toyota showed a performance by introducing its line of robots in Aichi in Japan. The robots playing are the “DJ Robot” and the “Partner Robot” (standing). Partner robots are promised to be available to the general public in 2010, to help daily chores around the house and in hospitals.

The robots played some popular jazz songs like “Moonlight serenade” by Glenn Miller, “Stompin ‘at the Savoy” by Edgar Simpson, and “Take the ‘A’ Train” which is written by Billy Strayhorn from the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

In the mean time you can watch the complete video from the show after the break.

Well it’s certainly an advance from cleaning the toilet for us. But the robots seem just programmable and we would love to see a robot doing a free jam session. Next time you visit Tokyo, be sure to throw in spare change for that poor and lonely robot playing at the street corner.

More (Japanese translated): [Robot Impress]

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]

You come home after a long day at work and all you can think about is a long, hot shower. The plans for the rest of the evening include only relaxing in front of the fireplace with the newspaper.

Well not everyone have a fireplace, but everyone got a shower and what can be more entertaining than reading the newspaper in the shower itself.

A new invention from Bridgestone (Yes, the famous tire maker) is an electronic paper that work on steam. The pages are displayed on the electronic paper, and to turn a page you only need to wait about 15 seconds until it refreshes itself. Keep some real newspaper crossword while you wait for this.

A video of the electronic paper in action after the break:

To most consumers Bridgestone is known as one of the world largest tires manufactures. But actuality the company, headquartered in Japan, manufacture a variety of chemical and plastic products. In 2004 it already showed prototype of electronic paper. In 2006 it showed another working prototype that was the thinnest electronic paper in that time, that was only 0.29 millimeters thick. In 2007 it showed the a larger paper, in an A3 size, and it also was able to display 4096 colors, instead of just two colors in the 2006 model.

So in about five years you might be reading this article on your plastic newspaper. Who knows, maybe a robot will even bring your slippers to the couch.

Source [Digital World Tokyo]

Well, Thanko Japan has the solution for you: A laptop bag with an expandable wheel. For only $96 you can carry the bag in style in the subway:

If you walk down the street , the wheel can come handy again:

By the way, if intend to impress that cute girl from the next cubical with your gadgets knowledge – go with a MacBook instead. And let’s thank the Japanese engineers for not getting the bag to turn into a robot.

More and a video: [Thanko]

It’s only in Japan that one robot can fight another robot and it’s seems right for everyone.

Robo-One, was held in Korakuen stadium in Tokyo today and drew much attention as every year.

112 robots started the championship and fell along the fights. South Korean robot Teakwon-V, took home the championship belt and $10,000 in the lightweight category.

King Kaiser, took the first place in the heavyweight category. Don’t think it was so hard. The robot was operated by a 12-years old and a 9-years old, the two sons of the engineer who developed the robot.

Video From Reuters

More [Robo-One]

Japan has a long love affair with robots. It also has a long love affair with mobile phones. So it’s not surprise to find out that mobile phone provider, Softbank, is offering a RoboPhone.

The phone will have arms and legs and it can be folded into normal mobile phone. The Robophones will have faces according to the mood of the owner.

otherwise from that it’s just a regular phone. No word yet on the pricing of this weird combination.

from [Softbank] via [Japan Times]