Everybody knows Japan is awesome at robots, but younger generations might be missing the practical, hands-on, mechanical education that enabled their forebears to create awesome robots and automation processes. Enter Robot Summer School!
This week it’s Sony selling stuff to Iran, stuff that America doesn’t like, which is yet another “Sony, what are you doing?” moment, a huge internet cable has been completed in Asia, and Japan’s gung-ho nuclear (energy) tech proliferation is causing political unrest.
THIS WEEK’S DISPATCH: JAXA & the ESA taking NASA stuff into space, Japan likes Apple’s patents better than Samsung’s, Toyota and Tesla made an electric baby RAV4, and the guy who invented DRAM got a Japanese medal and $500 Gs!
THIS WEEK’S DISPATCH: Japan continues international outreach with nuclear-friendly French (outreach began with Turkey and the UAE), and sad news for hippies: a UN science committee has found no increased risk of cancer due to the Fukushima accident.
Japan’s NHK has developed a subtly robotic virtual reality interface (that actually virtualizes the non-real), and Honda has released 100 of it’s subtly robotic assistive devices into Japanese medical institutions; Subtle robotics moves, exciting robotics potential.
THIS WEEK’S DISPATCH: NHK is showing off touchable TV and ultra-res TV cameras that are just bananas, Japan’s got super-duper malaria vaccine (giveth to Africa), and Japan’s hunting rare earth in Malawi (taketh from Africa).
THIS WEEK’S DISPATCH: Square mobile payment comes to Japan, super-green Kitakyushu & UNIDO join, Japanese research groups are Joining the European Human Brain Project, and some really unfortunate and sad news in the world of humanoid robotics.