robot magazines

[tempusmaster]

I was wondering Lem if thare is any other books or mags I should buy!

Unless you have extra money to burn, I would suggest starting with one or two of the magazines to see how much you can get out of them first.

[tempusmaster]

Unfortunately, I don't have any background in Japanese. Where might you suggest to begin to learn enough to decipher a Japanese written magazine?

I had a couple of ideas.

First, there are many language translators on the web. This might take a while, but you could type the Japanese text (provided you had the proper keyboard and fonts installed) into one of these translators and whalla, you have the English text. Although a literal translation, which is at times difficult to understand, is much easier to understand than a bunch of characters you can't comprehend. Who knows, if you searched long enough, you might find a translation site that has an actual cabon based life form doing the translating, and you might get a proper translation!

Second, some news stand magazines can be bought in an electronic format. (kind of an e-Magazine) Servo and Nuts & Volts both have this option. If you could obtain these Japanese magazines in an electronic format, all you would have to "copy and paste" the text into one of these translators and once again, whalla, English text! Does anyone know if any of these magazines come in an electronic format?

If you really want to go that route, then a cheap scanner, some OCR software, and some hands-on time piecing the results together will provide you with fairly clean Japanese that can be fed through one of the translation engines.

A lot depends on what information you're looking for. There's a lot of the same info online on the robot builders sites.

As far as the Japanese magazines being available in electronic format, the short answer is no, at least not yet. RoboCon does post some article summaries, and sometimes pdf files containing the first page of a multiple page feature article. They usually contain just enough to make you want to buy the magazine to read the rest... 8O

[srobot]

Hi,

1500 yen is about $12.75 USD.
_________________

At least I was not too far off .

Quote:
Is ￥ and 円 the same thing as yen?


I think what you were seeing was Windows using a default character (in this case a "?") to represent a character that it does not have proper font for. (in this case the "yen" symbol.)
_________________

No I see the first one (￥) as a Y with two dashes through the senter one on top of the other, and the second one (円) as two squares on the top parilel with each other and under the one on the right is a backweds L and on the left side is a lower case l .

srobot wrote:
I was wondering Lem if thare is any other books or mags I should buy!


Unless you have extra money to burn, I would suggest starting with one or two of the magazines to see how much you can get out of them first.

I might have LITTLE BIT more money to burn!

Unfortunately, I don't have any background in Japanese

Same here!

I usually do it the other way around - look up the book on the US site, copy the ISBN, plug it into the Japanese site

Are you talking about http://www.amazon.com becouse I can not find them?

thanks
--srobot

[tempusmaster]

Robocon Magazine on the Amazon Japan site.

[srobot]

Hi,
Here is a magazine found by Humanoido. Thank you Humanoido!

robozak magazine

http://www.de-club.net in JP

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.de%2Dclub.net&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2 in english

thanks
--srobot

[tempusmaster]

Hi,
Here is a magazine found by Humanoido. Thank you Humanoido!

robozak magazine

http://www.de-club.net in JP

http://www.excite.co.jp/world/english/web/?wb_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.de%2Dclub.net&wb_lp=JAEN&wb_dis=2 in english

thanks
--srobot

It's not really a 'magazine', more like a robot on the installment plan. The originator is DeAgostini from Italy.

They typically package a robot kit in a series of biweekly issues - i.e. the head, an arm, another arm, etc., put it in a nice bookbox that's about the size of a hardbound book with some good graphic illustrations and a section of the manual along with some articles/information on robot topics. For this series you start with just the left forearm. By the time you get to issue #9 you've worked your way to the left shoulder. I haven't bothered to figure out how many issues in total you have to buy to compete the robot, but guess it's close to 100.

The first issue is discounted, in this case 790 yen, but then all the subsequent issues are around 2000 yen. To complete the robot you have to keep buying every two weeks.

Have you figured out which robot they licensed for this yet? I'll give you a clue - it's one of the most popular humanoid robots, available almost everywhere, including this website. 8O

[srobot]

Hi,

Have you figured out which robot they licensed for this yet? I'll give you a clue - it's one of the most popular humanoid robots, available almost everywhere, including this website. 8O

Its RN-1!!

So do dose it in clud the servos, controler bord, etc. or is it some thing that the user buys on top of the "magazine" ($6.74 USD for the first issue, $17.07 USD for the second issue, and for 100 issues including the first issue is $1,696.67 USD!)?

The first issue is discounted, in this case 790 yen, but then all the subsequent issues are around 2000 yen.

I guss that is for you buy the first issue and than you want to buy next, and than the next, and than the next....

thanks
--srobot

[tempusmaster]

Hi,

Have you figured out which robot they licensed for this yet? I'll give you a clue - it's one of the most popular humanoid robots, available almost everywhere, including this website. 8O

Its RN-1!!

So do dose it in clud the servos, controler bord, etc. or is it some thing that the user buys on top of the "magazine" ($6.74 USD for the first issue, $17.07 USD for the second issue, and for 100 issues including the first issue is $1,696.67 USD!)?

It might be less. As I mentioned, I don't know exactly how many issues it takes to complete everything. The '100' is just a guess - it might be 80 or 110.

I suspect, but haven't bothered to completely translate the site, that it does include everything in the basic kit but not any of the options.

The first issue is discounted, in this case 790 yen, but then all the subsequent issues are around 2000 yen.

I guss that is for you buy the first issue and than you want to buy next, and than the next, and than the next....

That's their business model. It must work because I've seen some of their other robot 'magazines' in the book stores here and on the 'special orders' shelves behind the clerks there are usually a few of their issues waiting for customer pickup.

[NullARC]

If you really want to go that route, then a cheap scanner, some OCR software, and some hands-on time piecing the results together will provide you with fairly clean Japanese that can be fed through one of the translation engines.

Neat idea Lem... I didn't think of that route. A bit more feasible than my ideas, I think. Like you say though, a lot of work. But I definitely think it would be worth it. I'm dieing for more info. It's very hard to come by here in the States. So by any means necessary I guess!

A lot depends on what information you're looking for. There's a lot of the same info online on the robot builders sites.

Could you please recommend some of the better sites to visit? Since they basically have the same information on their websites, might as well save some money! Though I think I might buy at least one issue just for the cool factor!!

The 2007 book you bought, is that the same one I posted about on Robots Dreams recently? It has a super two page back/front view of Dynamizer with notations inside. Anyway, it's the Robocon components/materials/parts guidebook that covers a whole range of different robot types. They publish and update it every year. This time around Sugiura was the editor for one of the key chapters - the one with the section on Retro's design towards the end.

This sounds like a really good issue! Closeups of Dynamizer and a parts buyers guide! I'm always a sucker for those kinds issues!

As always, many thanks!

[tempusmaster]

Could you please recommend some of the better sites to visit? Since they basically have the same information on their websites, might as well save some money! Though I think I might buy at least one issue just for the cool factor!!

Probably the best places to start are the Robot Watch site and the ROBO-ONE site. Browse through and understand the content there, then follow the links.

[srobot]

Hi,

If you really want to go that route, then a cheap scanner, some OCR software, and some hands-on time piecing the results together will provide you with fairly clean Japanese that can be fed through one of the translation engines.

Which OCR software? Dose any body know of any good translation engines?

thanks
--srobot

[NullARC]

Wow, Amazon Japan is getting quite a bit of business because of this thread!
I just ordered the "Buyers Guide" (the one with the Dynamizer layout) and the issue with the HPI/Futaba robot on the cover.

Now I just wait... are they here yet... how about now... now??

Which OCR software? Dose any body know of any good translation engines?

I'll start searching for the best options and let you know what I come up with.

Probably the best places to start are the Robot Watch site and the ROBO-ONE site. Browse through and understand the content there, then follow the links.

Already surifin' your suggested sites. Thanks again Lem.

[tempusmaster]

Which OCR software? Dose any body know of any good translation engines?

Unfortunately I have't upgraded my OCR software in quite a few years, and the one that I use came with my scanner here in Japan.

As far as translation engines, the quality of the output depends heavily on the input for any of them. Some Japanese writers are difficult to understand, even in Japanese, so the translation engines don't have much luck with them. Others are a breeze. I've had some cases where the translation engine produces very reasonable, easy to understand copy.

Without spending $$$, you can usually do okay using the online translation engines including Google and Babelfish. I have some translation software from a Japanese company that I use primarily for a first pass, but it wouldn't be much use if you don't already understand the language.

I'll start searching for the best options and let you know what I come up with.

Probably the best places to start are the Robot Watch site and the ROBO-ONE site. Browse through and understand the content there, then follow the links.

Already surifin' your suggested sites. Thanks again Lem.

Just a few suggestions for everyone.

If you run across a site where you want to leave a comment, then use one of the translation engines to render it into Japanese. Post both the original English and the translation. They will definitely appreciate it.

Avoid copying images and videos without their permission. If you ask first, they may not respond, but they might (and frequently say it's okay). It's better to ask first. Always avoid hot linking to videos or images.

One friend here that runs a popular site ended up in a panic at 3:00 am when her system suddenly crashed. It turned out that someone (a foreigner) had hotlinked to a video on her site that ended up being extremely popular. She was going crazy trying to figure out what went wrong. It took her days to get everything back up and running correctly. And it cost me several beers and a lot of discussion to convince her that not all foreigners act that way. For a while she was seriously considering blocking all non-Japanese traffic, which would have been a big loss for everyone.

If you like what they are doing, then (using the guidelines above) then tell them. They will usually appreciate the attention and feedback, especially from overseas.

[NullARC]

Thanks for the "heads up" on the etiquette. Useful information. It's easy to accidentally do something that would come across as rude or unkind.

[srobot]

Hi,
Dose any body know if robocon ships direcly to the USA?

Which OCR software? Dose any body know of any good translation engines?

I'll start searching for the best options and let you know what I come up with.

Same here.

thanks
--srobot