Advancements in robotics are being made at a rapid pace. From machines that carry out tedious domestic tasks to highly specialized devices, we’ve gathered a selection of innovative robots from Japan.

Old cameras are becoming a stylish accessory, and in Japan the youth eagerly show off their retro cameras to the Tokyo Camera Style blog.

Bijin-tokei is a Japanese website that photographs girls on the street in real-time and with non-stop updates. Every minute of the hour, cute girls are featured holding up a blackboard with the time written in a white marker.

Behance is a company that organizes the creative world to make ideas happen. Every Wednesday, Behance shares 5 fresh art and design projects from their network with PSFK.

To reach Hong Kong’s hip urban demographic Coke Zero is teaming up with Japanese streetwear brand Neighborhood Denim.

Once again, the Japanese have pushed the envelope of technology and creative implementation.  Electronic paper is increasingly popular and we already see it in e-books and a few low budget cell phones, but recently someone spotted an advertisement on a train that allows a paper poster to change.
The advertisement for a vibrating mascara brush is limited to black and white images, but data from Japan’s Toppan Printing revealed that commuters were approximately 50% more likely to look at electronic paper with a moving image when compared to their static equivalents.  Another advantage of electronic paper is that the images can [...]

Muji art director Kenya Hara, who says he doesn’t design things, but rather happiness, talks about the concept of emptiness.

[via Influx Insights]

The race to make invisibility technology is on.  Invisibility, mostly known as a plot device in fiction, may soon become a reality and through some interesting implementations, could actually serve as a useful feature in product design.
Japanese researchers are utilizing advanced camera and projection technology to make obstacles appear invisible.  By simply projecting the background image onto a highly reflective surface, the researches can effectively turn something invisible.  The researchers have already created a coat that utilizes this technology, but a more useful application has been their prototype car door and dashboard that reveals the road behind the surfaces.  This [...]