As some may know I have just returned from a 4 week trip around Japan. Whilst in Japan I spent a bit of time in different cities browsing through giant electronics stores such as BIC Camera, Yodobashi and Yamada-Denki. One of the great things about the Japanese electronics stores is not only do they stock just about every range in every colour, they also have demo models of nearly everything as well. So I was able to play with some pretty cool gadgets which I would have otherwise probably never used back here in Australia. Below are some of the cool things I got to play with while in Japan.

Sharp Galapagos 3D Android Phone

The screen in this phone was a glasses free 3D screen, it was pretty cool but I don’t think I would be able to use it day to day. Especially since the viewing angle to get the 3D effect is very narrow.

Panasonic SDT-750 3D camcorder

Since the LCD screen on the camera is not 3D, it was hooked up to a big 3D TV which required glasses. The video seemed pretty good. Even though the two lenses are pretty close (which some people claim is a big problem) I dont think it affected the 3D at all.

Fuji W1 3D point and shoot camera

This is a pretty awesome little camera. It is able to shoot 3D video and still and display them in the glasses free 3D screen on the back. The screen on this was much better than the Sharp 3D phone. The photos look great in 3D and I could see how 3D photos could benefit in situations where scale is sometimes lost in photos.

Pentax 645D Medium Format DSLR

This is Pentax’s new medium format DSLR. It is a beast of a camera and takes nice photos, although I could really test it much in-store.

47″ Touchscreen vending machine

Japan has begun deploying it’s next generation of vending machines which are Wi-max enabled, have a 47″ touch screen and a camera to recognise age and gender to suggest drinks. When no one is at the machine it displays ads on screen instead. Pretty awesome as far as vending machines go!