I woke up today feeling a little down. There was some gap in my life, nay, a hole in the world that needed filling for the good of mankind. Something, some goal that civilisation, mankind collected, hadn't achieved yet.

I couldn't put my finger on it until I saw the above video. And then the "Eureka" moment; we had yet to perfect robotic arses.

Thank the heavens then for Nobuhiro Takahashi and the University of Electro-Communications, whose Shiri robot is making up for years of stagnation in the cyborg-arse development field.

Described as a "buttocks humanoid that represents emotions with visual and tactual transformation of the muscles," Shiri uses a complex system of electronics, sensors and pressure sensitive pistons to express the "various emotions with organic movement of the artificial muscles".

Amazing. Not sure whether to tag this video as "NSFW" or not; the guy demoing Shiri seems to be enjoying his job maybe a little too much...

Via: Gizmodo Japan

Obiwan Kenobi has been arrested.

That's Obiwan Kenobi of Roseville, California, not Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi of Tatooine, "A Galaxy Far, Far Away".

It seems Mr Kenobi is responsible for a mini-pile up involving four cars last week. The wannabe padawan was trying to...ahem...Force his way through a traffic jam, hitting two cars and causing a four-car pile up as he tried to make the jump to lightspeed...er...speed away.

He's been charged with hit-and-run causing injury, and has now made bail. His excuse that he was evading Imperial Order 66 just wont cut it here on Earth though we bet.

The authorities need to be careful with this one; If you strike Obiwan down, he shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine.

Star Wars puns aside, THE GUY IS CALLED OBIWAN KENOBI?! FOR REAL! Anyone who legally gets their name changed to that shouldn't be allowed anywhere near a car, let alone a starfighter.

Via: Kotaku

While we're twiddling our thumbs in the West waiting for the iPhone 5 to be inevitably revealed, tech fans in China are already twiddling something else around the next Jesus Phone; their tongues.

OK, so a little explanation is needed here. Chinese tech fans haven't actually got their hands on Apple's new iPhone earlier than anywhere else. Instead, they've the pleasure of eating an iPhone 5 ice cream. It's shaped like the Apple logo, but tastes like a mango. Go figure.

You see, whereas in the UK, US and plenty of other territories Apple's lawyers would be slapping a cease and desist order on iPhone branded ice creams before the chilly treats even have a chance to melt, in China Apple failed to register its trademarks across a number of industries.

Therefore, Apple and iPhone branding is popping up in the most unlikely of places, and Apple are can do very little about it. China's the place to be if you want iPhone hiking boots and iPad concrete, to use Kotaku's examples.

Still, we can't help but think a range of MacBook Air diet shakes wouldn't be a terrible idea...

Via: Kotaku / Rocket News

Mmmm, nothing like waking up in the morning, having an invigorating shower and pampering yourself with a few drops of Eau de...MacBook Pro?

Yep, the ultimate Apple fanboy nerdgasm gift has just been bottled; the scent of MacBook Pro. Australian artists Gavin Bell, Jarrah de Kuijer and Simon McGlinn and Air Aroma have teamed up to capture that (admittedly satisfying) smell of a freshly unwrapped Apple laptop. They sent a brand new machine to a French fragrance lab who mixed together a whole bunch of smells to get that Foxconn smell just right.

However, we wouldn't encourage Apple fans to start putting the Pro perfume at the top of their wishlists. It appears the scent was a one-off bottle for an exhibition, and the chances of Tim Cook licensing a premium Pro smell is slim to none.

Via: 9to5Mac

We've seen both Game of Thrones and Battlestar Galactica get the 16-bit RPG makeover treatment from the folks over at College Humour, but they've taken the biscuit with their latest effort.

AMC's Breaking Bad has been turned into a cute, sprite based RPG. Well, as cute as an RPG about a cancer-ridden chemistry teacher-turned meth cook ever could be.

Take a look at it in the video above, but NOTE THAT NEARLY EVERY SCENE HAS A SHOW SPOILER IN IT.

Just so you know.

As if the constantly-looming threat of death by execution and imprisonment in hard labour camps wasn't enough, North Koreans have a new strictly punishable rule that must be adhered to. Those caught using a mobile phone will now be branded a war criminal by the dictatorial state which, we'd imagine, is an offence punishable with imprisonment in a hard labour camp and/or execution too.

That's because the totalitarian government believe that all citizen's excess energies, when not working to the bone for little or no reward, should be spent mourning the late "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il II. The no-mobiles rule is part of the 100-day state-imposed "mourning period" for the bespectacled one with a love of looking at things.

In a somewhat cruel irony, it's unlikely that the new law will affect all that many North Koreans. As The Next Web point out, less than 5% of the poverty-stricken population own a mobile phone anyway.

Via: The Telegraph

Introducing the Intelligent Cheese Counter, a new retail innovation that lets you buy cheese from an in-store seller, just by pointing at it through the display glass.

No this isn't a joke, and we're a couple of months early for April Fools' Day yet. This is a new in-store retail concept from the German Innovative Retail Laboratory, part of the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.

Designed to make the cheese buying process a little easier (an admittedly daunting task for cheese amateurs) it negates the slightly embarrassing problem of being unable to pronounce the name of a cheese, not knowing how it my taste, and what other foods or drinks it would go well with.

Using a 3D mounted camera just above the counter, the user simply points at their desired cheese, with the camera hooked up to a computer system that can pinpoint the direction of their finger within an accuracy range of two centimetres. Using two screens (one for the store clerk and one for the customer) the seller can then easily identify which cheese the customer is inquiring about, while the customer is shown a list of details about the cheese in question.

"It's a common problem. That soft, golden-yellow stuff at the back of the cheese counter looks so delicious and inviting, but you're too scared to order some because you don't know its name. And even if you do, you may not know how to pronounce it correctly. All you can do is point and hope for the best," reads the CeBit tradeshow listing.

"The intelligent cheese counter recognizes what product the customer is pointing at and displays it on screen for the customer and sales staff to see. It even provides additional information, such as the origin of the cheese or wines that go well with it."

Due to be revealed at this year's CeBit conference, there are no images available at the time of writing, but we envision a Minority Report-style future crammed full of these things. Preferably with some sort of virtual smell-masking app built in too.

For more info, check out the Innovative Retail Laboratory website.

For blokes, toilet games of pee-pee marksmanship are as old as Thomas Crapper's throne itself. Pick your target, aim your stream and let nature take its course.

Apart perhaps from the advent of the flush, it's a pastime that hasn't ever had any meaningful technological accompaniment brought to it. It is, after all, merely a trip to the loo and one (particularly in public places) that we usually want to get over and done with as quickly as possible.

That may all be set to change though thanks to a new product from Captive Media. They've been trialling the UK's first "hands-free urinal videogame", set for installation in bars and clubs up and down the country in 2012.

Featuring a 12-inch LCD screen with an Atom-dual core microprocessor running Windows 7 embedded, Captive Media's urinal game features a patented contact-less sensor unit that tracks the heat and movement of a user's urine stream. It's a bit like a Wii motion-sensor for wee.

The gaming element comes from a user's ability to aim their stream to control onscreen action. A number of games (with wry names like "On the Piste" for a downhill skiing slalom and "Clever Dicks" for a quiz challenge) require the user to aim their urine left or right into the urinal bowl to take down targets or select answers to questions. Everything is controlled via motion; from walking up to the urinal to start the game to taking part in the challenges, it's a hands-free experience that's as sanitary as taking a whizz ever can be (providing you wash your hands, of course).

The whole system is "retrofitable" too; as the unit sits above the urinal bowl, no extra plumbing is required, and can be fitted into a bar's existing toilet area within a few hours without much disruption.

It's silly fun for toilet-bound bar customers, with online leaderboards, optional Twitter integration and the potential for promotional competitions for high scorers, but also encourages cleanliness.

"The origins you can trace back to the fly in the urinal at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam," revealed Mark Melford, Captive Media director.

"It's been there for a long time, specifically for the purpose of helping men aim, and it works. The company that make them published research stating that washrooms employing their fly-printed urinals are 85% cleaner. Our idea asks wouldn't it be even better if that fly moved around, to design a machine where you can play a game that's genuinely interactive?"

But there's also a tightly crafted business element too. According to ADMEDIA, the average male toilet break is 55 seconds, enough time for two decent-length advertisements, or (slightly worryingly) 9 months worth of adverts across the course of a man's life. Captive Media's screens are perfectly placed to capitalise on these loo breaks with advertising. And just because ladies may not have quite the same interest in the competitive possibilities of peeing, the length of time women often have to queue to use club loos makes the screen tech just as valuable to advertisers in their stalls too.

It's also good news for bar owners. A trial run in the Ta Bouche bar in Cambridge saw 45% of the venue's customers state they would definitely stay longer or return because of the system, while a Corona beer promotion advertised through the units saw sales rise 47%.

"We expect any bar that installs [the units] to re-coup their costs in less than a year of installation because they have an impact on sales," explained Melford.

"Firstly because of the promotional punch, and secondly because they cause a buzz around the bar, and improve footfall to the venue."

"We already had a huge amount of interest in the units from bars, pubs, exhibition centres and retail outlets across the country and overseas - even though we've been trying to keep a lid on it," added Captive Media co-founder Gordon MacSween.

"It's a tough time for bars and pubs currently. This product offers customers something fun, and unlike anything they've seen before. Those are two good reasons to go out for a drink at a time when so many are opting to stay in."

For more info, visit www.captive-media.co.uk.

Mrs Branson, Mrs Gates, Mrs Buffet; this Christmas Gift Guide is tailor-made for you. Christmas is just around the corner, your mega-rich spouse is expecting something extra-special, but he's already snagged that island, the custom built jet with swimming pool and solid gold golf set that you planned on getting him.

Just don't forget to slip a tenner (or ten thousand) in the post to us for all our hard work once you've browsed our suggestions.

When you're done here, be sure to check out the rest of Tech Digest's 2011 Christmas wishlists too.

Yes thats right! The South Korean government has taken control of people's online gaming by enforcing a Shutdown Law by switching off all online services from midnight to 6am for all gamers sixteen or under.

Originally only meant to affect PC gaming, Sony and Microsoft Korea have now confirmed that all accounts for under sixteens will be shut off for the night in compliance with the law. This is a very drastic measure to combat Korea's late night gaming addiction and making sure that the youth of the country get six hours of sleep a night.

Sony and Microsoft will now also not allow players under the age of sixteen to make new PSN or Xbox Live accounts. Both companies have said it will be difficult to implement the shutdown laws in such a short space of time and they are unsure when their own systems will be in place.

Microsoft are going to find this a much harder system to implement, as Xbox Live does not register age data when signing in, so Microsoft are actually considering shutting down the whole Xbox Live system for all players no matter what their age during the time period! Nintendo is yet to comment on how they will handle the situation.

However there are a few flaws to this new law we feel. For starters, this is only shutting down online capabilities, not the consoles themselves. Players could quite easily (I'm not sure about happily) switch over to single player games when the shutdown begins. Just because the PSN network has shut down doesn't mean all teenage gamers are automatically going to think, "oh well its time for bed now", and toddle off to get tucked in.

Also many critics have said that the law does little to nothing about addressing why children are staying up late to play games, and there is no concrete evidence to suggest that late night online gaming is harmful to people.

Source

Taiwan's biggest media group, the United Daily News has partnered up with a revolutionary augmented browser firm called Aurasma to create the worlds first augmented national daily newspaper. Images, editorials and advertising are all interactive by simply placing your mobile device's camera over the piece.

United Daily News have around one million readers daily and all will now be able to use Aurasma to create multimedia experiences from their newspaper. Launched in July this year, Aurasma has had over two million downloads to date on both Apple devices and high-powered Android phones. The technology works by using cutting edge image and pattern recognition technology to recognise real world images and objects.

Users of the service can access interactive content such as videos and animations by simply pointing their camera towards the image. Such symbols that I have tried out so far are a Diet Coke logo, 'The Who' album cover and even a Tottenham Hotspurs football shirt.

Martina King, Managing Director of Aurasma, said, "Look at any newspaper today and chances are advertising inside will be carrying the 'A' logo - identifying to readers that it is Aurasma enabled. It is an incredible achievement just fourth months after our launch.'

The Application is available for free on both Android market and the App store as a lite version. It features different features that can be used on logos as well as global locations which include the Empire State Building and Big Ben.

This technology is really interesting and can be used as a bit of light hearted fun but it could also have a lot of real world implications. Using it in Educational purposes, for medical students, in mechanical or engineering situations. There are so many opportunities for one piece of technology.