Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 6, 2009 in Animation
Weighing in at about 50 tons and costing $1.5 million dollars the now famous Gigantor (原寸大鉄人28号) statute is the hit of Kobe, Japan. I figured at this point that everyone has seen all the photos of this 60 foot tall wonder, however some amazing videos are just starting to flood YouTube. Here are some of the coolest that I’ve come across so far that can give you a sense of scale: Read more…
Is it me or do you get the feeling that the team that designed the RIBA Robotic Assistance Bear had the entire robot designed — but then only after the fact slapped a moe looking bear head on the poor creature just to get some press? And as much as I love bears from a marketing point of view I just don’t think of them as a nurses best friend! Read more…
RoboGeisha is an upcoming film from writer/director Noboru Iguchi (井口昇). The trailer for this film (which will be released in 2010) looks quite campy, although I’d have to say that’s what makes me want to watch it! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jun 19, 2009 in Animation
Clockwork is a short animated film that stars a cute robot girl named Hina. Being a caffeine addict the idea of robot making a morning brew caught my attention right away, but I have to say that the design of the robot is great and the animator did a great job of picking a refreshing soundtrack for this sweet little short. Here are some wonderful photos of Hina: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 28, 2009 in Animation
I was quite pleasantly surprised that the above robot design was created by Disney! Earlier this year Disney cracked the Japanese market with a show called Fireball which was designed to appeal to a Japanese audience (with some help from Toei who did all of the heavy lifting). The main character is a robot-girl named Hatsune Miki who also goes by “Drossel” is a mech-girl — shown above is a figurine based on her character (which can be pre-order from National Console Support). Sadly Fireball didn’t do too great because a second season isn’t in the works, but here’s a bit of video to give you a taste: Read more…
Posted by Guest Author on Apr 21, 2009 in Animation, Tech
Virtual idols have been around longer than you think — shown above is a magazine cover featuring Kyoko Date from 1996. In this article Nick Kent gives us his insights:
The interesting “real” Robo-Girl in the pop culture room is Hatsune Miku, who really is software:
She’s a second generation Windows voice synthesis software released in 2007 that anyone can buy at mainstream Japanese software retailer for around $150. With a slightly difficult user interface software one can program her to sing anything in a voice that’s now not far out of place on the pop charts. The Vocaloid technology was created by Yamaha and then licensed to developers, namely Crypton who developed the character and voice. Read more…
In this article pop culture pundit Nick Kent gives us his insights into the growing trend of J-Pop singers who want to sound cyber:
I’ve been noticing a mini-trend in Japanese pop music lately consisting of pretty female singers singing with android sounding vocals rather than natural sounding ones. I can’t help but to think Cher’s 1998 hit single “Believe” makes her the Borg Queen of this phenomenon: Read more…
Sometimes it takes just the right twist to make something interesting, in this case the Spykee Spy is a WiFi robot which is controlled remotely by you but the cool thing is that the robot can take pictures and video. So while at work your robot can wander about your home and report back to you. Each robot features a bitmaped face which lends some humor to the design. But best of all certain models of the robots can act as a cradle for your iPod or iPhone (which is a nice touch):
Weighing in at about 50 tons and costing $1.5 million dollars the now famous Gigantor (原寸大鉄人28号) statute is the hit of Kobe, Japan. I figured at this point that everyone has seen all the photos of this 60 foot tall wonder, however some amazing videos are just starting to flood YouTube. Here are some of the coolest that I’ve come across so far that can give you a sense of scale: Read more… 
