Sick of your friends saying you look fat in those jeans? Apparently, NTT DoCoMo feels your pain and aims to swap out the peer criticism with smartphone objectivity. Shown off in advance of CEATEC Japan 2011 (an annual electronics trade show), the operator took the wraps off several mobile-based accessories, ranging from gamma ray and UV light monitoring phone cases to a breathalyzer-like add-on for measuring body fat (you paying attention, HTC Rhyme?). There were also a couple of applications on hand for checking photos of food against a calorie database à la Google Goggles, and an AR implementation for weather services on tablets. It’s not clear whether the Japanese carrier actually intends to release these innovations to the mass-consuming public, but as with all things tech in that corner of the world, they’re sure to get it before we ever do. Jump past the break for a video peek at Nippon’s creep towards a Hitchhiker Guide-style wireless world.

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For years, Japan was the innovation leader in the cell phone industry, until South Korea and the US started catching up rapidly. If you look back at what Nippon’s mighty carriers have released in the past few months, you mainly see super-powerful handsets with large OLED screens, 12MP cameras, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, double digital TV tuners, etc.

But the form factor never really changes, as the majority of Japanese consumers still demands clamshell phones with jog dials enabling them to conveniently thumb-text emails. But if a country churns out 100 different handsets per year, there have to be some exceptions. And the most notable exception (that now has been priced and dated) is Fujitsu’s F-04B featuring the world’s first separable two-module body.

It seems the car industry doesn’t have any problems left that need to be solved. Or what else can explain Nissan’s shot at designing a car that can “show emotions”? The so-called Smiling Vehicle was jointly developed by the Hara Design Institute Nippon Design Center and the automaker. And yes, the mini vehicle, based on the Nissan Cube, does look friendly.

The concept car is covered with a substance called ROICA, a polyurethane elastomer fiber from major chemical company Asahi Kasei. ROICA has the ability to deform by up to 900% and is normally used for producing shoes, clothes or car seats. Combine the material with Animatronics, and you get a car grill that can actually “smile”.

The idea behind the Smiling Vehicle sounds rather esoteric. Apparently, Nissan sees this technology as an extension of the driver’s character, meaning it can be used to express your current feeling when you sit in the car. This involves being able to share your feeling with other drivers, thereby “communicating” with other people while on the go.

This video (courtesy of Diginfonews in Tokyo) shows the Smiling Vehicle in action:

I don’t know what it is about Japan and USB, but Nippon just keeps on churning out USB-powered crap gadgets. Thanko is one of the Tokyo-based companies responsible for this phenomenon, the other is Greenhouse. And Greenhouse announced not one but two silly USB gadgets, memory sticks to be more exact in the last 48 hours: One is shaped like a cork [JP], the other like a mini light bulb [JP].

The cork version holds 2GB and weighs 13g.

The mini light bulb USB stick holds 2GB, too, and weighs 25g.

Greenhouse is selling the sticks for $35 each. As they’re Japan only, I suggest you contact the usual suspects, import/export specialists Japan Trend Shop, Geek Stuff 4 U or Rinkya, if you’re interested.

It’s another humanoid from Japan, it doesn’t have an official name yet, but it’s pretty cool: This new robot [JP] is the result of a collaboration between various Japanese companies and institutions, namely the Nippon Institute of Technology, Harada Vehicle Design [JP], ZMP and ZNUG Design. Based technically on ZMP’s Nuvo robot, it stands 1.26m tall and weighs 15kg.

He’s powered by a lithium ion battery and has 21 joints (three in his head, six in each leg and three in each arm). There’s also a camera, a gyro sensor, an accelerometer, a distance sensor, an infrared sensor and a pyroelectric sensor in his body. Pretty unusual even for such an advanced robot: He also has a fully functional video projector in his body. Needless to say, the Megaman-lookalike can “hear” and “speak”, too.

Software-wise, the humanoid is powered by Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio. It can be remote-controlled by users via Wi-Fi.

The main purpose of the humanoid is to send it to schools so that children can learn about robotics through a real, finished product. But the little guy isn’t a prototype that’s limited to educational institutions: You can actually buy him for $77,000.

This video shows him in action:

Via Robot Watch [JP]

Does anybody remember the DVD I blogged that was supposed to cure shyness in geeks by letting them look at 50 different girls over a time span of 96 minutes? The girls would just sit there, not saying or doing anything. The idea was to make you get used to looking at pretty girls on the TV to overcome your shyness in real life.

That was last year. And now we have the Hougen CD [JP], which is more or less trying to do the same thing – but this time not with video but audio. In my view this CD, a real product you can buy, is even dumber than aforementioned DVD: What you get is a CD on which 600 different Japanese girls say “Daisuki!” or “Meccha Daisukiyanen!”, which means “I love you!” in Japanese.

As a bonus, the girls talk in their home dialects (”Hougen” means dialect in Japanese) in order to satisfy geeks all over Nippon. Record company NR Pro also throws in a second CD on which, for some strange reason, the girls will yell at you (”I hate you” etc.).

The Hougen CD goes on sale just in time for Christmas, on December 23 (price: $25).

And as if NR Pro wanted to prove everything is possible in Japan, they’re also offering the Chuu CD [JP] (”Chuu” means kiss in Japanese). 12 different girls are making 100 kiss noises each on it. And those 1,200 kisses will set you back exactly 1,200 Yen ($15). You get one kiss for one yen and there are no language barriers.

Ask CD Japan in the unlikely case you want one of those CDs shipped outside Japan.