Robots

Unlike the U.S., where the icons of a dawning era of robots tend to be either the faceless, Frisbee-shaped, floor-scrubbing Roomba or the killing machines of the "Terminator" movies, the consensus on the other side of the Pacific tends toward cuddly animals and small children. It was Japan, after all, that gave the world the puppylike Aibo, the toddler-size Asimo and the cartoon figure of Astro Boy.

No discussion of cool tech in Japan would be complete without robots. Japanese researchers are leading the world in robot technology, and humanoid bots like Honda’s Asimo are especially impressive. The latest version of Asimo can serve drinks on a tray and has gained the ability to work intelligently with other Asimo robots in the vicinity to get jobs done faster. iRobot tendencies? Not quite. Two of the robots are already a permanent fixture and novelty at Honda’s Tokyo offices, bringing tea or coffee to guests and almost certainly entertaining the visitors at the same time.

Not to be at the losing end, Toyota has a clutch of robots including one unveiled last December that plays the violin. The company also has Robina, which is intended to serve as a guide in a public space. Toyota put it into use last year at a public hall in Japan and expects robots like Robina will be commercially realistic in the middle of the next decade. Taking on a much more serious role is Twendy One, a home-help robot developed by Tokyo’s Waseda University. It can do many of the basic tasks that a frail person may need help with, like assisting people out of bed and serving up toast and drinks.

Have you ever wanted to do number 2 and not have to wash yourself with your bare hands? Or ever want to have cold or warm water to wash away the remnants of your last seafood heavy meal? In Japan, that’s not a problem. Everything is automated that even washing your behind can be done by a robot, well, at least by a talking toilet seat equipped with jet sprayed water and liquid soap that asks you for your water temperature preference or how strong you want your tush sprayed.

Japanese sanitary ware outfit Toto has produced what must be the last word in toilet seats. Named, the Apricot it has besides all the usual features the Japanese consumer expects (bum-warming facility, bidet action, automated lid, etc, etc), boasts an MP3 player with detachable remote. The MP3s are loaded on an SD card which slips into a wall-mounted unit. The remote appears to allow the user to simultaneously edit his or her playlist while opting for a post-evacuation arse rinse. Or something like that.

Tokyo’s cafeterias are equipped with vendo machines that issue meal tickets that you can show to a restaurant so you can be served quickly and save you the hassle and time consuming task of ordering from a waiter who may very well mix up your order with somebody else’s, especially if you don’t speak any Japanese. Just choose from a wide selection of push-button menus at the entrance, slip in the required moolah and voila! a meal ticket slips out and you can show that to your waiter so he can serve your dish quicker than a ray of light.

If New York and Manila have reputations for having some of the worst cabs in the world in terms of service, Tokyo may very well have the best there is. Not only are the drivers courteous and honest, they even issue receipts and their taxicabs actually open robotically. If you are hailing a cab and open the cab doors before the automatic door opens, drivers consider it very rude and you risk a brawl. That’s how techie their cabs are!

Once upon a time all these examples of technological advances were just figments of someone’s imagination, which made its way into some comic book and eventually into our very own local TV channels. Thing is, it didn’t stop with the boob tube. Japanese technology has actually started becoming real objects in our way of life keeping true to the real driving force for scientists and other experts to keep on developing technology and improving our way of life.