I thought the Honda U3-X was weird, but this personal mobility device prototype by Nissan and AIST actually separates into a whacked out pair of motorized skis on stilts. With its unstable seeming controls, I think I'll stick to walking.

With over 40,000 citizens aged over 100 years old, it's no wonder that Japan is pumping out elderly care robot bear nurses, exoskeleton walking aids, and now Taizo, the bizarre clown-faced, spaceman-lookin' physical movement robot.

A Japanese science and engineering team have created this crazy artificial houseplant with high-efficiency organic thin-film solar cells as leaves. Developed by the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, it's got about 9 square inches of power-generating area, and each flexible leaf has a…