Inspiration and creation of Mac Funamizu
I’ve always wanted to do this ‘command F’ in the physical space ’cause I keep losing my stuff..
Yeah I kind of restarted this concept designing too, but the image will be a lot rougher than before.
I’ll be uploading ideas (almost) daily! So stay tuned.
Among so many gadgets that know you, which one of them loves you?
Smartens non-smart items
Ever wished you could do the ‘Search” for your lost item in the real world? Marco sees you and your room, remembers the locations of your belongings where Marco last saw them. Let Marco ‘sniff’ your car key to get him to memorize and trace it. When you lose it, ask him where it is. Marco takes you to the location and lets you know with his laser pointer. Nobody wants to plug everything to the internet. With Marco, you won’t need to.
Make the item you want Marco to memorize close enough for him to ‘sniff’ it.
Marco points out the location of the item with his laser pointer.
Does more than words
Marco loves you. He does more than just ‘shows’ or ‘says’ that he does, but he moves his body to express his feelings. Also with his cute movements, Marco lets you know alerts and notifications. The movements of Marco depend on the types and importance of the alerts and notifications. Getting an email from your girlfriend with many angry exclamation marks, having a squall in 5 minutes, forgetting your meeting appointment, you notice it with Marco trying to tell you are having a situation.
Marco also recognizes your simple gestures and voice commands.
With its self-balancing system, Marco makes smooth and cute movements for 360 degrees.
When you get home after a long absense, Marco will frantically welcome you.
When you are away
Yes, you can see your room through Marco with your smartphone when you are away. But, Marco is not just a moving monitor. He is clever enough to answer your verbal questions, such as “Did I turn off the heater?” Of course he makes a phone call for you right after you leave home, “you forgot to lock the door!”.
You can watch and talk with your kids at home when you are away. How about enjoying chasing your kid by remote-controlling Marco?
Can’t wait to see your little baby at home? You can not only see her, but also play with her.
Apps for characters & skills
Customize the settings to make Marco behave the way you like it, but if you want it to do more tricks, download apps! Hip hop dance, little puppy tricks, snake movements, etc. You can also make settings on how he responds to certain gestures. Based on your choice, Marco will even hide and makes a surprise appearance on your birthday!
Download apps to enjoy AR games. See your Marco through your smartphone and have fun with games both in the digital and physical worlds!
Have more fun by letting Marco move along with your gestures.
The personality of Marco is up to your choice.
When you have something you want to make with paper, you cut/fold paper to make the shape.
I wish however, there were paper and ink that do the ‘folding’ and ‘cutting’ automatically. You send the data of the shape you want to make from your computer/mobile to the printer. The paper you printed out automatically starts to cut and fold itself!
If that really happens, you’d be able to make various complicated paper models with no efforts. It’d be even cool if you could download 3D data from a gallery like Google 3D Warehouse, print it out and you get it in your hand. You download a physical thing!
But wait! If you could even control not only where and how far to fold but also when to fold via bluetooth or wifi, it means you could move paper as you like without touching it. (It’s like embedding Javascript in paper!)
And the shape-shifting concepts like the below one wouldn’t need any complicated mechanisms if such paper technology were available.
I’m hoping to hold a personal exhibition in NY or somewhere else for my future concept designs I’ve made. Although the mock-ups are just non-working prototypes, it must be a lot of fun for people to see, feel and touch very futuristic devices that we dream of. With some 3D movies and cool animations, I believe lots of people will visit the exhibition.
(Photoshopped just a bit)
These are some of the first rough mock-ups I made last year. I was planning to bring them to Re:publica in Berlin for my speech there. However on the very same day when the first mock-ups arrived to my house on March 11th, the earthquake happened (I was miraculously at home waiting for the delivery), which caused catastrophic damages not only in this country but places all around the globe, and my business was also affected from it. So I had to hold the plan for some time. And now I’m restarting to make the dream come true.
They are the very first mock-ups and pretty roughly made, so it’s not the level to show anyone yet, but I hope you can picture what it will be like to hold it in your hand.
I’m now looking for a sponsor to make this dream come true. Contact me if you’re interested.
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/12309496 w=400&h=265]
As I tweeted, I worked on a lot of concept designs for the movies of AGC (Asahi Glass Company) and TOYOTA for Tokyo Motor Show 2011.
[vimeo http://vimeo.com/33200196]
Concept Car
Dashboard UI
Smart House
UI for Glass Fridge / Energy Management Pane
Roll-up Newspaper / Newspaper Graphic
Robot
Car Dashboard Mockup Panel Screens
It was my first time ever to design a car and a robot, but I had lots of fun making them.
Asahi Glass now introduces their great technologies in a booth for “Smart Mobility City 2011” in Tokyo Motor Show.
http://www.agc-smc2011.com/en/
(I’ll post the movie when it’s officially uploaded on YouTube. This is the old version.)
One of my mobile phone concepts “Glassy Glass” was again picked up and used in the movie.
I’m not a cook, but I know what the food should be like for me to eat. I know it shouldn’t be burned or it should be defrosted. I just don’t know exactly how long it should be cooked. I wish there were a microwave oven like this that ‘shows” me what the food will be like after cooking.
But first, I wish a microwave oven was movable so that it could get close to the table when necessary.
Put a dish in it and this oven tells what kinds of foods are in it.
Adjust the ‘look’ of the food displayed on the glass by dragging the button. You can control the cooking time while looking at what it will be like after cooking the adjusted length of time. You’ll know exactly when it boils or burns.
Inspired by a dome tray when I was watching Ratatouille.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
I want an iPhone dock that can change its forms reflecting various kinds of notifications needing attention as well as some simple controls for applications. The feelings you can get with that kind of tangible output & input are what touchscreen lacks.
Koriko is a simple iPhone stand with speakers and a flexible long arm (tail?).
Notifications are represented with the tail forming simple shapes.
When a song is played, it works as music control buttons you can push directly.
It not only changes forms, but also makes certain movements for some time. It waves good-bye when you turn it off.
There are so many possible other applications that would work with Koriko. It would be really fun to see it working.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Von is a mobile phone that is sensitive to sound, especially the knocking sound when it’s hit. It looks like a piece of xylophone. It’s almost as tall as an iPhone, but it’s narrower.
Knock it to check if you have unread emails or new phone messages. If you do, Von knocks back. The knocking sound varies according to the kind of the message (email or phone).
Shake it to see if you have unread RSS feeds or Tweets. The more unread items there are, the more it rattles. Remember when you were a kid, you shook a box of candy to see how many were left. I wanted to bring back that small happy moment with this device.
Keep tapping it on the rhythm of your favorite song. After a few seconds, it detects what song you’re tapping. Then it starts playing the song along the tap.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
I wish there were an iPhone dock that instantly prints out the photo you take.
If you upload the photo to a website, you can add an QR code for the url on the back. For a geo-tagged photo, you can also include the map to show where the photo was taken.
Yes, I’m one of those people who still relish the feel (and smell) of photos.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
This post is to tell all of you that I’m OK.
After the tragic magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit Japan on March 11th, I’ve received many many messages from around the globe asking how I was or even if I was alive. As I tweeted about my situation, I’m doing fine. I truly appreciate all your considerations not only for me but for those who have been badly affected by the earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear power plant issues. I’ll keep tweeting how I’m doing on my Twitter.
Also I wanted to tell you that Japan will get back to its feet for sure. Currently I’m going through many inconveniences that I have never experienced in my life (lack of water, gasoline, vegetables, power etc. etc.), so I’ll be able to think of ideas to overcome those difficulties. But for now, let me show you sketches I’ve been making since before the earthquake. It’s a mobile phone concept named Zimmer. (There’s nothing new or innovative here this time.)
[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/21422181]
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Marco not just waits for you alone at home. See things at home when you are away with his eyes, moving around with his foot.