Do you like humanoid robot?

The video clip I found out yesterday really impressed me. :)
I didn't know the robot came to this far.

And here is another video clip taken at the same event,



In this video, they are comparing latest version of the robot and one generation older robot, and emphasising what the latest one can do while older one can't do and how new one improved many things, putting both type of robots side by side. (Grinding its waist is what new one can do and older one can't do, etc.)


Okay, I think I had seen similar situation in somewhere.
Oh, it definitely was in RoboCop. I forgot the name, but the company that once developed Robo Cop created new ones, and emphasised how new robot is superior than old one,

Exactly the same thing is happening in this video. Older robot came onto the stage just to show how new one is superior than the old one.

I can't help but I feel sorry for the old version of the robot, really.

What are Japanese robots doing when Fukushima faces hard time?

Still, there are a lot of things to do in Fukushima Nuclear power plant until it becomes stable to cool down the reactor. All on-site workers are working  for long hours, with wearing heavy anti-radio active uniform. Until this season it may be endurable for workers keep wearing those uniforms. But soon the summer season will be coming and it is expected the temperature goes up to more than 40C very soon.

So, I wonder what Japanese robots are doing. If they could replace human workers, it will significantly reduce the burden which are now only on human beings.

Then I found out at youtube what they are doing.

They are dancing, and singing on the stage.


This video clip was taken in October, 2010.

The other day, I watched TV program in which some very famous doctors in the robot research lab got together and had open discussions. Some of them said that Japanese robot industry tend to stick too much to humanoid robots. And some said, despite of the critics about the fact that none of the robots have been working so far when actual trouble happens, that they will keep all their focus on developing humanoid robots until it comes into our dairy life. I think both opinions are correct.

It is a bit ashamed that none of the robots developed by Japan is working on site.
But like we see in a super computer industry, which has just developed the world's fastest super computer this year regardless of the significant budget cut of the Government's subsidiary for the project,  I hope those hard critics will help robots industry to expand their focus more widely as a whole.


For the record, if we could say that unmanned track vehicle to carry the debris as one of robots, yes those Japanese made vehicles have already been working on site.

And yesterday, first Japan made robot 'Quince' went into the building of the Fukushima reactor to measure the radio-active contaminated water.

So, I am expecting more robots are coming into this facility to help human beings.

A Man Behind the AKB48, who made AKB48 sell CDs by JPY 6.7 Billions

AKB 48 sold  almost 2.6 million of CD with just two songs, and earned 6.7 Billion JPY (rougly USD 83.7M) during 1st half of 2011.

At a time when music industry is struggling because of the  decreasing sales of CDs, this figure is extraordinary. The CD featured No.3 ranked song of Arashi sold only 624,000 copies. So,  selling more than a million of CD has been a very tall order for these years.

How could they achieve such a sales record?  It's is because of the strategy of a man behind the AKB 48, whose name is Akimoto, Yasushi.

Akimoto, Yasushi was once a famous TV scenario writer, and mid 80's he produced two mjor girl's music groups. The first 'All Nighters' composed by  women in their colleges, and  'Onyanko Club', that may be translated as 'Kitty Club'. composed by  high school girls.

His theory to make huge boom  is to bring amature level girls into the enternaiment world and have the audience involve into the process of those girl's growth as a top idol.

This time's huge CD sales of AKB 48 is because of the votes by their fans to determine who is going to be a center position for next one year.  One voting right comes along with one CD. So if you want to vote for one girl, you buy 100 CDs, they you can cast your 100 vote for her.  The more you buy CDs, the more you can have a voting write. (this is literally money oriented politics. It is often done in a night club when they determine the most hottest host/hostess. The hottest host/hostess are determined based on the number of the orders of champaigns, which cost hundreds of dollars, they got from their customers.)

By doing this, AKB 48 achieved incredible sales during this 1st half of the year.

Below clip is Onyanko Club, that made great sensation in the entertainement industry in mid 80s, where we can see Akimoto's golden theory.

Update: Now U.S Airforce's Unmanned Aerial Vehicle(Global Hawk) helps Fukushima Nuclear Plant

It seems the article that I posted March 17 got many hits from the visitors of my blog.
http://myprojectatdc.blogspot.com/2011/03/now-us-airforces-unmanned-aerial.html

So, here is the update.
It seems that Global Hawk flew over the Fukushima nuclear powr plant couple of times at the beginning of the Fukushima Nuclear Powerplant outage.


But it seems they figured what the most useful in this situation is not a Global Hawk, but T-Hawk, which is the Unmannned  Helicopter.



Yesterday,June 24, this T Hawk fell over to the roof of Daini (No.2) nuclear reactor, since it became uncontrollable from remote locations.

AKB 48 is the top idol of Japanin 1st Half 2011

Do you like AKB 48?  Whether you like them or not, this girls music unit is litteraly a top in Japan music scene.

According to the Oricon Chart, AKB occuppied top1 in the category of

Category1: The most sold single music CD;
  No.1 Title; "Go with Katyusha!!"
 Second most sold music is also by AKB48,  "Let's become Cherry Tree."

Category2: The total sales by artists
 No.1 AKB 48

In Japan's music scene now, couple of Korean girls units are also popular. Probably it is fair to say that those Korean group's sing and dance is way better than AKB48.

But some say AKB48 is not a group that shows the final figure of the artists, but have fans enjoy by showing the whole process of their growth as artists, while olders complain that they can't remember each girl's name and face.

Anyway, here is the best sold single music in 1st half of 2011.
I hope you understand why they are so popular in Japan by seeing this clip.

Buzz Word: HOT SPOT

HOT SPOT is now becoming a buzz word, and what area does HOT SPOT mean in recent these days?

We now use this HOT SPOT to point out the area which shows high radio-active doze despite of being long distance away from Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant.

Now, it turned out that Kashiwa city, Misato city, Matsudo city, Nagare Yama City shows the high radio-active zone, while adjacent other cities to those four cites does not show that high level.
(Yellow high lighted area at the bottom of the below map shows those four cities.)

Recently now many people, especially house-wives that have little kids, buy Geiger Counter and measure the radio-active by themselves to protect their children.

Hoo, I suppose this commotion will continue for a while.