Machine mascot for commuter millions

I just picked up the latest rechargeable Tokyo transit card, introduced this week. Aside from being the first universal card that gets you onto buses, trains and subways in the Japanese capital, it's noteworthy for having a robot character. Which is pink, natch.

Pasmo, as it's called, can be used on services run by some 60 transport firms in the Tokyo area, including East Japan Railway. It's a contactless integrated circuit card and can be charged with up to 20,000 yen ($170). It can also be used as e-money at retailers like department store giant Tokyu Corp.

The smart card cost operators 140 billion yen in installation costs for the electronic readers and took fifteen months to work out and test. A simulation involving 1.23 billion transit connections was also performed.

So why a robot mascot? The card-issuing company says robots aren't dull inorganic matter, they represent "kindness toward humans" and "convenience." It adds that normally the Pasmobot itself commutes with the card in its pocket, but when in a rush it "transforms into a bus or train." Naturally.

No old-school symbols of locomotion like the greyhound for the Japanese. It's the machine or bust.

Smart vac-bot hits Osaka streets

A new cleaning robot with smarts can recognize objects and people with a laser sensor. The Figla Eye, developed by Tokyo-based glass maker Figla Co., has been put on display in Osaka by local industry group Robot Laboratory to showcase its abilities.

Originally developed in 2004, the Eye can automatically clean every nook and cranny of a room by using a variety of ultrasonic distance sensors to find walls and corners. On a single battery charge it can operate for an hour at full capacity or two hours at reduced capacity.

An on-board camera system allows for remote home monitoring through wireless LAN. It can also wax floors.

The latest model can differentiate between people and inanimate objects, within a radius of several meters, based on shape by using a laser sensor that rotates 10 times per second.

The Eye is designed for use in offices, hospitals, hotels and large public facilities. Figla aims to commercialize it within a year, according to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun newspaper.

Panel trumpets housekeeper bots by 2025

Japan's Innovation 25 Strategy Council, a government panel, sees average Japanese families owning housecleaning robots that talk by 2025, according to a new interim report.

Other wonders that await us: electric vehicles will cruise the streets, automatically dodging obstacles and cleaning the air via artificial photosynthesis, while linear-motor cars will cut travel times between Tokyo and Osaka to 50 minutes, compared to the current 2.5 hours for the bullet train. Oh, and there will be robots on the moon too.

The report also features the hypothetical Inobe family of 2025. They are five people plus a robot called Inobee that is 5 years old. The droid does housework during the day, and later gives a verbal report about his activities to the household's telecommuting mom Yumiko. The Inobes' health, meanwhile, is monitored by home computers.

Sounds pretty fanciful. The Nikkei newspaper has criticized the council, created by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, for being too vague and offering only rehashed platitudes about the need for greater innovation in Japan as its population ages. The government's powerful Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, though, is to incorporate the report's visions in its 2007 policy goals.

It's nice to know that Tokyo's bureaucrats are rooting for Inobee. No doubt once he masters the art of making his environment look clean, he'll be ready for public service.