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Smart billboards will identify car models and target ads to drivers

Some day in the not-too-distant future ads you see on billboards will be there simply because of the make, model, and year of the vehicle you’re driving. Smart data storage company Cloudian and Japanese advertising company Dentsu are launching just such a program in Japan this fall, as reported by CNN Money.

Cloudian and Dentsu tested smart billboard vehicle recognition earlier this year with impressive results. Combining big data and deep learning, the test identified vehicles in traffic correctly 94 percent of the time.

131 women who signed up for a Self-Defense Force “Talking Festival,” a social gathering to promote matchmaking between Maritime SDF personnel and women interested in dating, and maybe even marrying, men in uniform.

61 couples claim to have gotten married as a result of linking up at the events

The number of applicants seeking to attend each event rose to around 300 from 200 or so previously.

Humanoid robots are now being introduced into nursing homes, and as therapists, for example. The new Hello Barbie toy will be a "friend" to children, holding conversations with young boys and girls. Robots are even getting married in Japan.

A perfect example of the backlash against human-like machines happened last Friday, when Adrian David Cheok and David Levy were forced to cancel their second annual Congress on Love and Sex with Robots, set to be held in Malaysia next month.

The case of the cancelled conference is just the beginning of the kind of obstacles intellectuals and researchers may encounter in the pursuit of academic study of humanoid robotics—an increasingly controversial field as the line between fantasy and reality gets blurred

Amazon is launching its new Amazon Video Direct service today to let video creators share any content and receive a cut of the revenue.

Amazon is offering a variety of ways for creators to earn money, including royalties through streaming by Prime members, and revenue sharing through rentals, purchases, subscriptions, and ad impressions.

Amazon has a variety of launch partners, including How Stuff Works, Mattel, The Guardian, and independent titles from Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Last week, Japan’s ominously named robotics company Cyberdyne announced new technologies it’ll start rolling out at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in September: Two robots, one exoskeleton. One robot shuttles unwieldy luggage, another cleans the facility, and the exo assists with heavy lifting.

Japan’s government actively funds robotics R&D, with aims to triple the nation’s robotics market to $22 billion in the next six years, and is keen on showing off some impressive technology at Tokyo’s Summer Olympics in 2020

A company in Japan is building an indoor lettuce farm that will be completely tended by robots and computers.

The company, named Spread, expects the factory to open in 2017, and the fully automated farming process could make the lettuce cheaper and better for the environment.

The plants can be grown hydroponically without exhausting soil resources.

A newly-discovered bacterium that feeds on plastic could help develop new recycling methods.

The discovery was made by researchers from Japan, who say that the microorganism is remarkable for its ability to breakdown completely a common type of plastic known as PET. This digestive process is slow, and the short-term implications of the discovery are uncertain, but studying the bacterium — which has been given the name Ideonella sakaiensis — could lead to new ways to safely get rid of junk material.

It's thought that plastic bottles take 450 years to break down, and although some plastics do degrade quicker in the ocean, this just leads to more chemical pollution.

Russia tops the list of countries with the highest number of female board members

45 percent of senior management positions are held by women

Japan ranks lowest with only 7 percent of business executive roles held by females