Japanese public TV broadcaster NHK launched an online video library[J] on Saturday.

It consists of several thousands of video and sound clips collected from the broadcaster's program archives, and any clips can be reproduced for amateur video shooters in creating their works. Wildlife pictures, sound effect items and computer graphics are available in .mp4 or .m4a format for free of charge for non-commercial use. No user registration required to download, but you're not allowed to remove NHK's logo superimposed in the clips for your reproduction. (Kindly note that all clips are reproduction-free but not copyright-free.)

The service is intended for teenagers, and the broadcaster expects it put creativity, visual literacy and copyright awareness in their minds before being adults. All videos reproduced from the service are completely allowed to be put on your blog and video sharing sites, and the library site also has a feature allowing you to share reproduced videos with your friends online.

"Any video and sound clips were developed since our viewers kindly have paid for, that's why we should set our assets free for the public benefits.", NHK says. The broadcaster is often accused of scandal probe by Japanese nationals/viewers because every household is obliged to pay TV license fee as defined in a law, as though it were tax payment.

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Nov. 4th Update:

Due to the system heavy load that a higher-than-expected number of user browsing requests has caused, NHK Creative Library is currently down for system upgrade.   Re-opening date is not announced so far.

Tags: Japan, New Service by Masaru IKEDA
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Continued from the previous blog post on Digital Content Expo 2009.

Pull-Navi (The head mount device to navigate a holder by pulling his ears)
(Developed by Kajimoto Laboratory, the University of Electro-Communications)

That motion reminds us of a rider controlling a horse by pulling a lead rope on his back. When a controller moves a yoke on his remote control device, the head-mount device will pull its holder by the closer ear to the direction ordered. The concept of the device is highly inspired by the 40-year running popular TV animation series of Japanese sweetheart Sazae-san[YouTube, J] who pulls his younger brother by the ears when scolding him for his bad behavior.

Picture: Engadget Japanese

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Foldy (The laundry folding robot)
(Developed by Design UI Project, ERATO, Japan Science and Technology Agency)

First, choose a laundry clothing to be folded and capture an image of it with a camera. Then the system defines how it should be folded and sets a moving path to do so.

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Photoelastic Search (The rubbery force-sensing interactive display)
(Developed by Koike Lab., the University of Electro-Communications)

By using an LCD and photo-elasticity, the lab team has developed a pressure-sensitive two and half-dimension interactive surface. If you press a certain point of the transparent gel, that part will be depressed. A overhead camera detects the change of refracted ray caused by the depression, and then the system changes the face emotion projected on the gel.

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Bloxels (Illuminating blocks change color depending on the distance from the light source)
(Developed by Yasuaki Kakehi Lab.[J], Keio Univ. and Naemura Lab.[J], Univ. of Tokyo)

Every cube has a photodiode on the bottom. That semiconductor measures the strength of the ray to find the distance from the light source, and will let the cube's illumination change color depending on the distance.

Double-click the movie above to play.

via 4Gamer.net[J], Phile-Web[J], Ikuya Takamori's column on Wired Vision[J], Weekly Ascii[J], and Mainichi.jp[J]

Tags: Event Report, Japan, Technology by Masaru IKEDA
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