Tokyo Times

As the mobile phone is the accessory of choice, Aomori University has hit upon the idea of using everyone’s favourite companion to ensure that students attend classes. Which in Japan is especially important as attendance (or a lack of it) can affect grades.

At the beginning of every class, the students are given a number that they must then send by e-mail to a university administrator. Then (and this is the clever part) the administrator will send a reply to between 5 and 10 students who have claimed to be present, with those receiving the response having to stand up and give their name to the teacher. The random nature of this selection process hopefully deterring students from passing on the necessary number to absent friends.

Despite this process having the potential to eat into class time, and giving students a legitimate excuse to surreptitiously send mail during a class, the university seems very happy about its new system. An administrator said, “We’re probably the first university in the country to introduce a mobile phone-based attendance record system for its students. It prevents loopholes that allow students to claim they’ve attended class when they really haven’t.” And perhaps rather optimistically he added, “We hope it also encourages students to study and deepen their knowledge.”

Robot development firm ZMP Inc unveiled nuvo over a year ago. When at the time it was just another experimental endeavour (although admittedly with claims of future mass production) in an increasingly competitive field.

But ZMP has been true to its word, and nuvo is set to become the first robot launched for home use. And for the princely sum of 588,000 yen (2,940 pound), you can have the pleasure of welcoming nuvo as a new houseguest.

As well as pottering aimlessly around one’s home, the 39-cm-tall robot features remote control technology and can react to human voices. For example, uttering the word “Action” will prompt the little chap to stand up. And if that wasn’t enough, nuvo is equipped with a camera, and can take images of the surrounding area and send them to a mobile phone. Allowing its owner to check that Yes the oven has been turned off, and No the front door hasn’t been left open. Providing of course that the kitchen and entrance aren’t too far apart, as the short-legged sentinel only lasts one and half hours per charge.