Transcript

Hello and welcome to today’s news from TotemoTech on December 21st, 2023. In today’s news, Meiji University has proposed a method to change the taste of food to the past or future flavors. Professor Yoshiaki Miyashita has conducted research on altering the taste of immature tomatoes and freshly made curry to taste like they have been aged for several days, as well as reverting the taste of ripe tomatoes and curry that have been left overnight to their previous flavors.

Moving on to our next story, MiniStop, a convenience store chain, has temporarily closed its official online shop, MiniStop Online. It was discovered that for a certain period of time, some users were able to view other users’ purchase history from their own account pages. To investigate the issue further, the service has been suspended.

In other news, SenseRobot, a Chinese company, has announced the release of a home-use Go-playing robot called ‘SenseRobot Go.’ This robot is equipped with AI and a robotic arm capable of placing stones, allowing users to play Go against the robot. The SenseRobot Go will be available for purchase starting from January 5th, 2024, at a price of 165,000 yen.

Next up, Osaka University’s Quantum Information and Quantum Life Research Center has announced the operation of the third domestically produced quantum computer. The research team, led by Center Director Katsuhiko Kitagawa, will also launch a cloud service on December 22nd, allowing users to access the computer’s performance remotely.

Moving on, Sony has revealed that their communication robot, ‘poiq,’ will be relaunched on January 23rd, 2024, after completing its ‘training.’ The new version of poiq is expected to evolve into a more multimodal communication device.

In other news, the popular online media platform ‘Daily Portal Z’ is undergoing a transition. Editor-in-Chief Yushi Hayashi will establish a new company, ‘Daily Portal Z Inc.,’ and transfer ownership of the platform to it. Despite currently facing a monthly deficit of one million yen, the future operation of the platform remains uncertain.

Lastly, on December 19th, Coca-Cola Japan released a web application called ‘Create Real Magic,’ which allows users to generate AI-powered Christmas cards. The tool can be used by anyone to create personalized Christmas cards and is also utilized by Coca-Cola for their own advertising production.

That’s all for today’s news. Thank you for listening to TotemoTech. Stay tuned for more tech updates. Visit JapanDailyNews.com for the news, yen exchange rates, and a daily Japanese proverb.

Keywords - japan, tech, news