Posts Tagged ‘gadgets’

Texting in North Korea

An Asahi TV reporter visits North Korea and films some surprising things:

The report mostly focuses on luxuries offered to foreign tourists and the technological and economic development of North Korea. We are shown:

• A facial massage that is popular among Chinese tourists.
• A North Korean waitress texting somebody on her mobile phone. In addition to text messages and photos, her phone can send and receive video calls. There are now 530,000 mobile phones being used in North Korea, enough for about 2% of the country’s population.
• Prepaid foreign currency cash cards can be used at some shops in Pyongyang.
• They visit a huge ostrich farm. Ostriches are being raised as a food source, but their egg shells and skin are also used to make products for export. The farm is a big deal in North Korea, and Kim Jong-il even took Chinese leaders on a special tour of it so he could show off the DPRK’s economic prosperity. (During the early days of the farm project, they thought that osriches needed to wear clothing in winter, but now they realize that the birds have no problem with cold weather.)
• At a new luxury hotel built for Chinese tourists, the employees are kind of shy.
• There is a special train that travels between Beijing and Pyongyang four times a week. The journey takes 26 hours. From the window of the train, one can observe propaganda signs praising Kim Il-Sung, Kim Jong-il, and Kim Jong-un.

This news report gives us a picture of the comfortable lives enjoyed by North Korea’s small elite, but it doesn’t mention how the situation faced by the rest of the population. The rich are enjoying mobile phones and cash cards in restaurants full of food, but people in the countryside are on the verge of starvation. According to the AFP, the North Korean government has recently cut rice rations for the poor:

“The lowest I heard was 150 grammes per person per day, and I even heard that in Pyongyang the rations are cut to 200 grammes per person per day.”

Diplomats say the rations have been halved over the past 18 months. One hundred grammes of rice produces about 250-350 calories a day, experts said.

Zellweger said she had seen “a lot more malnourished children” on recent travels around the country.
“You see more people out in the fields and on the hillsides digging roots, cutting grass or herbs. So there are signs that there is going to be a crisis.”

Video footage filmed in secret and recently smuggled out of North Korea shows malnourished soldiers and young children caked in filth begging in markets.

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Hugging Yourself With Sense-Roid

You may soon be able to give yourself a hug, thanks to Sense-Roid, a new invention from the same folks who brought us the creepy kiss transmission device:

“There are pressure sensors throughout the whole mannequin-type device, and when they sense an embrace, they activate artificial muscles in the jacket. It can also reproduce the feeling that the wearer is being rubbed on the back. If you rub it on the back then the rear pressure sensors detect it is being rubbed. There is a matrix of vibration motors on the back of the jacket, and the motors in the same position as you are rubbing vibrate, to give a feeling of having your own back rubbed.”

“When people embrace, if their counterpart is a stranger, they probably don’t get much of a good feeling from it. If it is a lover then they likely get a very nice feeling of security and satisfaction. We think that tactile communications like an embrace has a varied effect depending on the relationship with the other party. Thinking along those lines, we wondered what kind of feelings people would have if they could hug themselves, the person they have the closest relationship to, and so we made this.”

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T-Hawk UAV Fails at Fukushima

An Unmanned Aerial Vehicle crash-landed on top of one of the reactor buildings at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant:

The vehicle, known as a T-Hawk, is about 7.9 inches (20 centimeters) in diameter and looks like a small jet pack. It is used primarily by the military for reconnaissance work in dangerous areas. It has been used at Fukushima since mid-April to assist in damage assessment.

The company said that there did not appear to be any damage from the impact of the vehicle, with no fire or smoke observed following the accident. It was not known if the vehicle was damaged.

TEPCO spokesman Junichi Matsumoto said that due to its small size and weight, the drone was “unlikely to crash through the rooftop and damage the reactor.”

The drone had made several successful trips of the reactor in the past. Some images it filmed back in April can be found on YouTube.

Extended footage of the crash can be found here.

And here is a video that explains how the drone works:

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Treadmill Dog

“Nanikore” visits a souvenir shop in Nikko where the owner has built a “running machine” for her dog:

The dog, an American Pit Bull Terrier named Teroru, seems to love the machine. Even after going on an hour-long walk with his master, Teroru wants to be taken to his treadmill to continue exercising. Sometimes he uses it for several hours straight. Because the machine is powered by his own walking, he doesn’t require human supervision. He can stop whenever he gets tired.

Related link: It seems that some companies actually sell motorized dog treadmills.

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