Earlier today, we’ve covered Honda’s U3-X, and now we bring you another mobility robot from Japan. What we have here is a robotic skateboard, which was developed by the Shibaura Institute of Technology in Tokyo. And no, it’s not really a fun project. That DIY Segway skateboard is about to get some serious competition.

The current Robo-Skateboard prototoype weighs 15kg, is 30cm wide, 60cm long and 25cm tall. Its speed and direction can be controlled by shifting your body weight. For example, when you put your weight on either one of your feet, the skateboard will automatically accelerate. There are load sensors on all four corners of the board, motors (and wheels) on the sides and a control computer unit in the middle.

The research team at Shibaura says the Robo-Skateboard can travel as fast as 10kph and is suitable for riders weighing up to 80kg. You can use it continuously for about an hour on a single charge.

The developers plan to reduce the robot’s weight and push down its price to about $1,000 before trying to mass-produce and bring it to market by 2013, probably in cooperation with a toymaker.

Via The Nikkei [registration required, paid subscription]

Do you like the feeling you get when you break a chocolate bar in half? Do you want to experience that feeling over and over for some reason? Then you’re in the target group for a new Japanese toy called Mugen Chokoreeto [JP], which (kind of) translates back to “Endless Chocolate Bar”. It’s the brainchild of major Japanese toymaker Bandai.

It’s essentially a mini toy made of plastic that looks like a small chocolate bar and that you can “break” into two parts repeatedly. You can choose between three “flavors”: milk chocolate, high-milk chocolate and white chocolate. The “bars” have a case, too, and weigh 22g. The Meiji branding you see on the picture above is actually the result of a licensing deal Bandai made with a real Japanese confectionery company called Meiji Seika.

Bandai plans to start selling the Endless Chocolate Bar in Japan on January 30. The official target group are men in their 20s. The bars will cost $7 each and are the newest addition to the Mugen series Bandai started a while ago.

The Mugen Pop Pop, for example, made it to America. But if you don’t want to take a chance, I suggest you contact import/export specialists Rinkya or the Japan Trend Shop in case you’re interested but live outside Japan.

Here’s something yourself or your sister might be particularly interested in: A digital camera that helps you to pretty up pictures taken with it on the go. The so-called Love-Digi Moving Photo Camera [JP] is made by Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy and based on the cultural phenomenon of Purikura, photo booths in Japan that especially teenage girls use to create decorated snaps of themselves.

All you need to do is to take a picture (just with a regular camera) first and then add a total of 40 different backgrounds, 30 different frames and about 120 different stamps to it. The 2MP camera has a 2.34-inch LCD with 480×234 resolution, 1GB of internal memory, a microSD card slot and a battery life of 2.5 hours. It’s called “moving photo” because the decorations in the pictures are actually GIF animations that you can view on the camera’s LCD screen. Now the only thing that’s missing in order to really call this a portable photo booth is a built-in printer.

Takara Tomy will start selling the Love-Digi in Japan on November 21 in blue or pink. The Japan Trend Shop already offers the device for everyone living outside this country for $168.

Here’s the super-cute commercial for the camera:

Via Akihabara News

For some reason, Japan has a thing for strange alarm clocks. Think of the helicopter clock, the Gun o’ clock or the railroad sign clock, for example. And now major Japanese toymaker Banpresto follows up with an alarm clock that has the characteristics of a traffic light [link leads to Amazon Japan, the company hasn't set up a dedicated site for the gadget yet].

And this alarm clock really looks nasty. Banpresto says they built in a 40mm speaker to make sure even the sleepiest of the sleepy will notice it once the alarm starts ringing (but there’s a snooze mode, too). You’ll get harassed by a total of four sounds, including traffic noise.

The traffic light alarm clock goes on sale in Japan on November 25 for $27. Contact the  Japan Trend Shop, Geek Stuff 4 U or Rinkya if you want to pre-order one and live outside Japan.

Japanese toymaker Takara Tomy claims it has developed a device that can translate what a dog “says” into human language and emoticons in real time. And the so-called “Bowlingual” [JP] isn’t being marketed as a (pure) gag product.

Jointly developed with an acoustics research laboratory and a veterinarian, the Bowlingual works wirelessly (your dog must wear a wireless mic around the neck). Let the device catch noises made by your dog (transmission range: 10m) and it will analyze the “animal language” with a special algorithm before telling you on the LCD screen what was being “said”.

The Bowlingual displays text (in Japanese) and a range of graphics to show what your dog feels, in real-time (there is also speech output). There are around 200 text blocks and icons that illustrate a total of six moods: frustration, joy, sadness etc.

Data can be saved for later analysis. And Takara Tomy even threw in a answering machine function that makes it possible to monitor your dog’s feelings when you’re away.

The Bowlingual will hit Japanese stores on August 23 with a $220 price tag. It’s Japan-only for the time being.

Here is the official promo video:

In case you thought the cockroach key chain holder I wrote about earlier this year was disgusting, think again. Because today I give you a remote-controlled flying plastic cockroach [JP]. Just like the keychain holder, the thing is the brainchild of a twisted Japanese mind but available also for all people outside Japan.

The cockroach is produced by Japanese toymaker Taiyo [JP] and apparently has been around for a while, but I discovered it just today. Charge it for 30 minutes and you can play with it for 5 minutes.

The cockroach comes with a charger and a remote-control. If you live outside Japan, get it at Rinkya (they also sell a remote-controlled plastic rat, in case you’re interested.). The Japan Trend Shop is also offering the cockroach ($68+shipping).

Via Rinkya