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TOKYO--Walking into Mikami Seiko's installation "Desire of Codes" feels like taking a trip into the mind of a robot.

In a large, dark room, cameras on articulated robotic arms swing from the ceiling and track your face, only inches away.

On a nearby wall, 90 small robotic arms, some equipped with sensors and cameras, whirr and click like so many metallic caterpillars as they track your movements.

They're watching you and recording you, then mixing the footage in a giant projection at the rear of the space. Like an enormous insect eye, it shows a multifaceted pastiche of quick clips taken in the room as well as from surveillance cameras around the world. Check out this video of a previous version.

The effect is disorienting. Welcome to the machine. … Read more

Mazda takes a stab at wrapping its new "Kodo: Soul of Motion" design language around the lithe proportions of a sporty sedan in December, when it will debut its Takeri concept at the 2011 Tokyo Motor Show.

The inverted, pentagonal grille and angry eyes of the Kodo style, which debuted first on the Shinari concept and will hit the road on the CX-5 small crossover, seem particularly suited for the Takeri sedan. From the looks of the photos, this could eventually manifest as the next incarnation of the Mazda6 midsize sedan. The Takeri isn't just a pretty … Read more

The Force is now strong with train commuters in Tokyo. Lucky subway travelers are able to wrap fingers around handrails that have been transformed into life-size lightsabers.

According to Japan Trends, the lightsaber handrails are part of a promotion by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment Japan for the release of the complete "Star Wars" saga in a Blu-ray boxset.

These are not just lifeless wrap-arounds. The lightsabers have built-in LEDs. Squeeze a button and it lights up. You'll have to provide your own sound effects, but I know you've been working on those ever since you saw the first movie.

Unfortunately, the handrail lightsabers are fixed in place, which makes it difficult to carry out epic battles in the train aisles. Perhaps you could sneak a Spyder III Pro Arctic laser or JediBot onto the train with you and re-create your favorite scenes from "The Return of the Jedi."… Read more

Steve Jobs' resignation as CEO of Apple has prompted emotional words from consumers, tech leaders, and journalists alike. For some, however, words can only say so much.

Media producer Joseph Tame showed his appreciation in a more visual way, using two iPhones (plus his legs) to map the equivalent of a digital heart for Steve Jobs. Tame, a marathon runner from Tokyo, ran 13 miles in 2 hours, with a specific route in mind: the Apple logo.

Using the Runkeeper app to track his path through the center of Toyko, Tame's iPhone automatically drew the Apple logo here. The route starts out near the Imperial Palace, goes through Roppongi, and weaves around Shinjuku to Kagurazaka.… Read more

Japanese researchers are developing a robot that can adapt its behavior to new situations and make educated guesses about new challenges based on its knowledge.

Tokyo Institute of Technology's Osamu Hasegawa and collaborators are working on a robot that operates based on an algorithm they've termed a self-organizing incremental neural network (SOINN), which is designed for unsupervised learning tasks.

The humanoid bot has a head, cameras, and two arms. In an experiment, when it's told to serve water, it can identify a cup, grasp it and then pour pellets, acting as the liquid, into the cup.

As seen in the vid below, the experiment isn't exactly mind-blowing. But practical artificial intelligence that works in real-world situations will require robots like this one to be able to figure out what a cup is, and how to pour water.

The SOINN system can filter useful sensory data from background noise, as well as mine the Internet and the experiences of other robots for knowledge. Hasegawa gave the example of an elder-care robot in Japan querying another in England on how to make tea. … Read more

You can't learn to play the guitar like Eric Clapton by doing nothing, but a new system that controls the muscular movements of your hand might be a step in that direction. The question is, will you want to use a device called "PossessedHand?"

Developed by the University of Tokyo and Sony Computer Science Laboratories, the "hand gesture manipulation system" electrically stimulates muscles in your arm that move your fingers. Once specific movements are programmed into a computerized unit kept in a forearm belt, impulses travel through wires to electrodes attached to the arm. Those charges move the necessary muscles and control hand movements--reportedly more accurately than the human brain alone can guide the fingers.

PossessedHand stimulates each muscle with 28 electrode pads, and muscles at different depths in the forearm can be tapped by varying the stimulation level. Developers' experiments indicate that PossessedHand can control the motion of 16 joints in the hand.

The device is being hyped as a way to teach students how to play the guitar and other instruments more accurately. But it could seemingly also help surgeons and other professionals who need to improve finger dexterity as PossessedHand can automatically calibrate for individual uses and specific skills. However, it's still in the experimental stages. … Read more

Planes will be popping out of screens in Japan this month as Sony is launching the country's first 3D television series, a drama about air traffic controllers dubbed "Tokyo Control."

Sony supplied the 3D technical support for the 10-episode series, which is produced by Fuji TV. It's set to debut on satellite broadcaster SkyPerfecTV's 3D channel on January 19.

Starring Ayako Kawahara and Saburo Tokito, the show will include 3D scenes such as a staffer at the Tokyo Air Traffic Control Center imagining dozens of small planes all around her as she works. … Read more

In the classic 1982 Disney sci-fi movie "Tron," Kevin Flynn (played by Jeff Bridges) says with cool confidence, "It's all in the wrists." I couldn't agree more.

As a lover of exotic watches who's enthusiastically awaiting the upcoming "Tron: Legacy" movie, my eyes lit up when I saw the 7R0N, a Tron-inspired LED watch featured on the blog of wacky watch seller Tokyo Flash.

The design is very svelte, undoubtedly futuristic, and has a monolithic black band with electroluminescent accents on the strap.

The timepiece features a throwback to the "Tron" disc design, with the LED displaying minutes on the outer ring and hours in the inner ring. This accessory will definitely signal that you're the biggest geek in the room, and could nicely accent the recently announced Tron Gaming Mouse. … Read more

TOKYO--Japan has vending machines that can talk to you, sell you everything from bags of rice to porn magazines to bouquets of flowers, and recharge your phone. But a new breed of automated seller has smarts, too--these machines can detect your age and gender and offer drink suggestions accordingly.

The new machines under the Acure brand were recently installed in Tokyo's Shinagawa Station and they're about the size of two refrigerators.

Run by a company under the JR East railway group, the "next-generation drink machines" are imposing enough, but fortunately they don't talk to you. … Read more