A German company called Festo has engineered a fleet of robotic jellyfish, incredibly realistic in movement and programmed to track down electricity to keep itself charged. Not only did they make slightly larger than life ocean going models, but also a gigantic floating model that soars in the air. Soon we’ll have the entire animal kingdom represented in robotic form! Hit the jump for a pair of videos to see these magnificent things in action.

Kidrobot NY is going places! Actually, they’re just moving down the street to 118 Prince St. Distance aside, the relocation is still a major upgrade. The new store will be two floors of designer toy and clothing madness. The grand opening is Thursday (May 1st) from 6-8 pm…but get there early! The place will be packed, judging from past KRNY events, and you might miss out on some exclusive giveaways.

For those who can’t make it, Kidrobot is going to have a live online broadcast of the event starting at 5:30pm EST. Just hit up kidrobot.com to join the fun.

The ever busy Nakanari, who recently had a show at myplasticheart, gave us word that he will have a 20-inch custom dunny on display at the KRNY opening. The dunny features his signature yeti spiki character and is 100% brush painted with acrylic paint. His right ear looks like it was dipped in neopolitan ice cream, very yummy!

By Aaron Young

Manga Artist Shigeru Mizuki, famous for his GeGeGe no Kitaro comic, has a rather unique exhibit coming to the Kinokuniya Book Store in midtown NYC. Starting on May 10th, his “Fifty-Three Stations of the Yokaido Road” exhibition will be on display in the store, juxtaposing his famed manga character infiltrating classic Ukiyo-e style woodblock prints. More info after the jump.

So apparently some of Osaka University’s researchers are working on methods that would allow robotic body parts to be directly controlled by the brain. Sure, this will undoubtedly cause for some dramatic leaps in the areas of rehabilitation and recovery, but I think the real question one everyone’s mind here is: “How long now until we can effectively have a soldier on the battlefield who’s decked out like Radd Spencer in Bionic Commando?”

This kind of research is incredibly exciting in a “The Future Is Now!” sort of way. I realize that I make a lot of jokes whenever reporting on this kind of stuff, but it’s almost hard not to given that ideas like this have normally only been possible in video games, movies and comics. It’s honestly a bit surreal to see research like this actually happening but genuinely thrilling none the less.

Cyborg Research Enters The Skull (via Pink Tentacle)

By Stewart Smith

The long wait until the July 18th premiere of The Dark Knight is excruciating, but thankfully fans will get a little relief a week or so prior with the release of Batman: Gotham Knight. However, thanks to a new trailer that has debuted, the wait for it has now become almost as maddening. And how could it not be? Gotham Knight has some of the best American comics scribes teaming up with some of Japan’s best animators creating original stories, all with Batman voiced by the iconic Kevin Conroy. Bat-fans rejoice.

Batman: Gotham Knight trailer (via Yahoo! Movies)

Batman: Gotham Knight info (via ComicBookMovie.com)

By Stewart Smith

Tenori-On is a musical instrument for live electronic music performance, being developed by Yamaha and Japanese artist Toshio Iwai, known for his Nintendo DS game Elektroplankton. When we dreamed about the kinds of instruments we’d be using to make electronic music in the 21st century, this is what many of us most likely conjured up in our minds. A sequence is looped by the machine, and the player uses its 256 dots to activate points on the sequencer, turned on and off by the touch of a finger. To truly understand how awesome this is just watch the video above.

The Tenori-On website claims that “The Tenori-on is both a serious instrument for advanced users and a gateway for people who want to compose electronic music, but have little or no previous experience.” Somehow I doubt the claim that this thing could really be considered a “serious instrument,” but it still looks freaking cool. It will be available in extremely limited release on May 1st, for a rather steep $1200.

Tenori-On: Create – Control – Connect (via Tenori-On website)

By Jesse Mann