ANS TechGlance

    Metrol is a unique and leading company specialized in manufacturing ultra precision switches used for position detection and dimension discrimination, and owns international patents. Metrol's products are quite unique and structurally different from the conventional limit switches, proximity sensors, and photoelectric sensors.     The company's strength is not only in its products and technologies but also in its global market coverage where Metrol's market share has reached at a 70 percent market.  Achieving the rate is uneasy unless taking a variety of sales methods. Take for instance, Metrol has more than 50 sales partners, while holding a few sales offices outside of Japan.  The company also effectively uses Internet technology such as Email marketing, on-line sales for a limited products, etc.  Metrol is categorized as a technology based SME, but its approaches are quite dynamic while its technologies are, needless to say, supporting the global industries.

Interaction & Communication Design Lab. of Toyohashi University of Technology  is introducing various cute robots on YouTube.  The following two movies give us sense of humor and get us to think of a future robot out of box.  Enjoy the movies with their statement which is really agreeable. "The physical appearances of creatures, artifacts, etc, are not essential for becoming a social partner within the daily lives of humans. We believe that a creature's social cues and behavioral feedback (based on user behavior) are a most indispensable component to inherit their social roles. Our SPC was invented as a social companion for users to create a more enjoyable environment through its verbal and non-verbal cues, for example, shaking its body, displaying an attractive motion and joint attention with the user, etc. SPC is capable of tracing a user's attention and environmental variants (information on the display) to interact and respond toward establishing rapport wi