A little vinegar for your choke?

How to get noticed in 2007 if you're an old-timey Japanese condiment maker: build a robot that puts Darth Vader to shame.

What was the Tamanoi Vinegar Corporation thinking when it asked Tokyo-based entertainment firm buildup Co. to construct a Sith-like pitchman?

Well, it seems the robot's appearance was inspired by the company's "black vinegar" products. It will do presentations about them through prerecorded voice and gestures.

Nearly 6 feet tall, the "Tamanoi Vinegar Robot" runs on an air-servo system and has 24 joints. The dusky droid will be hawking Tamanoi's sour stuff at a theater in its Osaka head office starting in July, the 100th anniversary of the firm's establishment.

There's a video of Darth Vinegar here.

Try one with wasabi

I'd like to see this doing the rounds at a kaitenzushi counter.

Its purpose is mysterious, but a fuel cell-powered robot fish has been developed by Osaka City University professor Tomoyuki Wakisaka, Nikkei Net reports.

The prototype moves by swishing its tail with power produced by mixing oxygen with hydrogen in an internal system that makes use of powdered calcium.

The novel approach would allow the little minnow to swim much longer than robot fish powered by ordinary batteries. The professor is also experimenting with magnesium to produce hydrogen to allow it to swim for three hours straight. A practical fuel-cell fish may be ready in two or three years.

Best served fresh.