Marco – Cleverest Digital Pet (Concept) That Loves You
Among so many gadgets that know you, which one of them loves you?
Knows stuff around 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.
Motion User Interface
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.
Monitor Your House
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?
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.
Can’t wait to see your little baby at home? You can not only see her, but also play with her.
Behaves Like a Pet & More
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.
Dial to Unlock (Concept)
Please email me if there’s anybody who wants to develop this app.
I have other more practical ideas waiting to be developed!
Dial to unlock by Mac Funamizu is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at petitinvention.wordpress.com.
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See also the similar previous post.
Mobile Phone Sketch: Von
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.
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Slide to …
I was really impressed with the idea of the New MIUI Lockscreen. So I thought of something fun myself. Note that this is a concept.
Polaroid iPhone Dock Concept
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.
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Mobile Phone Sketch: Zimmer
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.)
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Thru –Lucent Mobile Phone Concept
Just like some of my previous mobile phone concepts, the transparent body would be pretty attractive.
What’s different this time though is that this Thru has a function to show 3D images behind the screen. It looks as if there were another world behind it because the images are made to look natural on the floor behind the screen.
So the email notification would be made like a game, which sounds fun.
There could be a fierce battle on your desk. In any case, I’m pretty sure it would be so fun that you couldn’t stop watching it.
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TOYOTA Smart Center 20XX
It’s such an honor that one of my future mobile phone concepts “Glassy Glassy” is in the TOTOTA official near future mobility life short movie!
It was aired on January 1st 2011 and you can see the movie on YouTube and GAZOO.
It depicts a smart life of a middle aged man in the near future.
I worked on this project last year and have been really excited to be able to get involved. Initially I was planning to design many other objects and gadgets in the movie (including the car), but this and that happened and the mobile phone was finally left in the end. But I’m really happy to see my concept ‘alive’ in a movie like this.
It’s been such a pleasure to be involved in projects of big-name brands such as TOYOTA and SOFTBANK. I’m hoping to have more chances to work as “concept artist”.
Frostie – Digital Music Player Concept
Have you ever tapped a table with your fingers as if you were playing the piano? Or drums? Air guitar? Yes I have and I wish there were real sound made according to the movements of my fingers.
So what about a digital music player that not only plays music like iPods, but also actually plays sounds in your mind?
If it could listen to your song and adjust the tone, it would be more fun. Auto cord sounds would be exciting.
I love music, but I’m not satisfied with a digital music player I can only carry with me. I want something that can be part of me; something that is with me all the time, gives me what I want and creates what I imagine. You know, music is not only for listening.
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Dew – Future Wearable Mobile Device Concept
Like one of my previous posts (Cobalto), I was picturing sci-fi movies when I thought of this wearable mobile phone. It’s something I want to see used in a futuristic scene.
The ball works as a controller and an indicator changing colors. It can slide anywhere on the surface.
Of course it’d be fun to watch 3D hologram on it.
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Animation Video Chat
Now that we have Google’s automatic captioning on videos on YouTube, which I like very much, what about speech balloons around the captions? It’d be more helpful if the location of the voice source could be indicated by an arrow from the balloon and the voice tone could be expressed with different balloon shapes.
If your gestures could bring motion characters that can be manipulated on both sides, video chatting would become like a fun video game.
When your girlfriend throws a kiss when video-chatting, many hearts appear moving towards the thrown direction. You can touch and move the characters on your side.
Wink and get stars. (Can characters go beyond the chat window like this?)
You might think of lots of other gestures and fun characters.
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Mobile Phone Concepts “Floater”
About 80% of the day time, my mobile phone sits on my desk. I have it in my hand or in my pocket for the other 20%. I was just wondering why not make it look better on a table if it’s in the idling mode most of the time. Just sitting flat on the desk is not fun to look at.
Floater A
Wouldn’t it be fun if your cell phone sits up by itself (or tilt up a little) when put on the desk and starts moving when there’s a phone call or an incoming message? The curved bottom allows itself to tilt up a little bit when put on a flat surface and left idle for some time. It starts nodding or rotating when it receives a phone call or an email etc.
Floater B
This one doesn’t move by itself, but it has a supporter on its back to make the round body stand on a flat surface. You slide the supporter the other way and you can use it as a physical keypad.
“Floater” comes from a surfing technique. Both look like a surfboard, don’t they?
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Cobalto & Zafiro
This is something a little different from my usual posts. This time I tried to design gadgets that I want to see in a Sci-Fi movie like “Minority Report”. I love the futuristic computer and the UX in the movie, but I was wondering what it would be like if I designed those stuff. So this time I just focused on look and feel of the devices.
“Cobalto”
I don’t remember what the mobile phone is like that is used in the movie, but the glass computer screen remains vividly in my mind and I tried to use as much lucent stuff as possible.
With this deformable metal, you can have either the usual number buttons or an iPod like dial.
LIke one of my previous posts “3D Desktop PC Concept“, it would be fun if this could create 3D objects in the air. With this device, you could see 3D holography on top of a 2D screen, so it would be really exciting.
I happened to be talked to by a Russian TV program, who wanted to feature my 3D desktop concept, so I also gave them this mobile phone concept images and 3D animation. Check out the animation too!
“Zafiro”
The desktop is also made of a glass screen and a round rim. This is not the one that Tom Cruise makes that hand (or body) gesture to use. This is a desktop PC.
Remember that transparent disk used in Minority Report? It can be also inserted on the screen.
The keyboard has the deformable metal and the keys get flattened when not in use.
I mentioned that I wanted to try a new career on Twitter and I’ve been thinking of becoming a concept designer for movies. I’m finding a way to be one. Do you think I can be a Hollywood concept artist?
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By the way, I’ll be out of Japan next week to attend the red dot award ceremony in Singapore, so I won’t be able to post for FFFFOUND! during the week. But I’ll upload some Singapore photos in my Flickr. Oh of course I’ll be tweeting while I’m in Singapore, too.
PHYDI – Physical and Digital Message
This is one of two ideas I submitted for a future mobile design competition held last month. The theme was “Design the mobile phone of 2020”.
We all know how great a touch screen is and the reason doesn’t have to be mentioned. But have you ever thought that a touch screen is a nightmare for the blind? You never know what you’re touching because everything is flat. All the information and status are on the screen, so a user has to take the device up from a pocket, touch the necessary buttons and see with his eyes even when he just wants to know if he’s got a single email or not. In the future, information is told in 3D or with something that a user can FEEL by touching or just seeing so that the above problems can be solved.
This PHYDI mobile phone is just that. The front face and the sides of a PHYDI transforms the shapes according to what information or status is expressed. It makes concavity and convexity on the surface. For example, the face can be customized with contoured graphics. It could be dressed up with a kimono-like graphic or it could have a concave clock so that a blind user can know the time.
The status is shown on its sides.
A convexity means a “+” notice, for example there’s an unread email message and unanswered phone call. For a negative status, for example, the battery running out soon or having a bad reception, a concavity appears at a certain location. With this function, you can know without even touching or looking at the phone if your current location has a good reception to talk on the phone, if the battery has to be charged and if you have unread emails or unanswered calls. You wouldn’t have to travel around a place to find a good spot to talk on the phone, taking a look at the small icon on the screen many times.
PHYDI’s front face (left) and back (right)
customized front look
an email notice
poor reception status (top) and running out battery status (below)
unread email message (top) and unanswered phone calls (below)
When a PHYDI is making a continuous movement, it means you have an imminent status to take action. For instance, when its surface is moving like a wave, you’re getting a phone call. The movement can be customized freely.
wave movement on the face for an incoming phone call
With its flexible surface, the information on the screen could be dramatically expressed. Even an email message could be on a protruded paper.
Your file management could be done in 3D. Open a folder to take out movies and photos in it just like you do in the physical world.
an email message
file management control in 3D
The biggest merit with this feature could be a 3D map. you can get a much greater feeling of locations with “heights” because in most cases, a landmark is something very high, which can be difficult to be expressed in 2D. Can you imagine how easy it would become to search where you are and which way to go with this function?
3D map
When you want to make your email message stand out, you can put an embossed present box on the screen. A calculator will be much easier to use if you can feel the keys. An RSS feed could be read on a book-like shaped surface. The curl on the bottom right corner means you have a next page to read, A flipping gesture takes you to the next page. A physical keyboard of course makes your texting faster!
email with a graphic image
calculator with embossed keys
RSS feed on a book-like surface
of course, keyboard
For advanced functions, there are limitless ideas to be realized that could never have been done with a conventional flat screen. For example, you can leave a hickey mark and handwritten message to send your love to someone! Text information could be rendered in braille for the blind. This might make even copy-and-paste possible for the blind people.
hickey mark with a handwritten message
text in braille
Touch&feel Tetris you want try? The control would be much more instinctively done.
An idle screen could be customized in dramatic ways. If you like gentle ripples on the water, just put it with heights. Try other textures such as fur, chocolate or even tatami mat!
tetris with embossed blocks to turn and move with your fingers directly
various customized idle screens
I’ll make a post of the other mobile phone design later.
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National Geographic Channel!
One more thing I said I was going to tell is that some of the images of my mobile phone concept were on National Geographic Channel!
It’s “Super Diamonds” of Naked Science series.
By the way, I just bought a bag online that I fell in love at the first sight and it arrived yesterday! It’s a GORGEOUS BAG!
I’m planning to get a macbook air and carry it in the bag, but I wasn’t sure about the size. If you’re interested, please visit my Flickr page, where I (just started to) upload my everyday scene photos.
Sign Language Interpreter
The camera captures the motion image of the speaker’s hand gesture. It translates it into an oral language and gives out the translated words.
(the camera capturing the image)
You can pre-choose what kind of voice you’d like it to speak in. I’ll pick up tat of George Clooney’s. 🙂
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Future Mobile Music Concept
Connect yourself with the outside world
Perfect music on the perfect spot at the perfect time
Body
Wear it around your wrist, just like a watch. It also works as a watch.
By default, it’s transparent, but when you want to make it stand out, just change the colors/patterns or use your favorite photo on the background.
The lucent screens are flexible to be transformed to a device you can put in your pocket.
Earphones
It changes your ears a concert hall.
Built-in microphone detects your voice (and humming).
Hear beat can also be detected with the built-in censor.
Sync with your mobile phone when you talk to someone on the phone
(Humming search technology is already available, I guess.)
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Lupa
“Lupa” is loupe in Spanish, Czech, etc.
It’s fun to design a mobile phone based on a certain concept.
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Wild Fold
With Samsung Flexible OLED, how we fold a mobile phone could be limitless especially if it could work as a touch screen.
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Glassy Glassy
The previous mobile phone concept seems popular, so I made a few more designs with double glassy layers. Your fingerprints would have to be cleaned off so often, but I want to have one like these.
It was used in the TOTOTA official near future mobility life short movie!
Just a Sketch: Mobile Phone
Tired of the boring design of my mobile phone, just drew one like Nokia Aeon that I wanna have.
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