Some of you may remember Neurowear as the company who made Necomimi, the robotic cat ears that you can control with brainwaves, and their follow up projects Shippo (mind controlled robot tail) and Mico (mind controlled music player).

This time, however, Neurowear won’t be reading our brain waves but will instead try to give some to your fridge or sofa. The latest project called Mononome works with your smartphone to deepen your relationship with a household item of your choice by adding a touch of humanity to it.

Mononome is currently on display for Tokyo Designers Week from 25 October to 3 November. We caught up with Neurowear’s Kana Nakano during the exhibition to learn more about it.

Mononome is a device shaped like a pair eyes and has an adhesive back which allows it to be attached to a cupboard, vacuum cleaner or whatever you’d like. It comes equipped with vibration sensors that records when and how often the object is used in coordination with your smartphone. If you are using it too roughly, frequently, or infrequently it will react by showing emotion or a message in its LED eyes. Here’s Ms. Nakano to tell us more.

Ms. Nakano please tell us more about the Mononome in the exhibit.

“Here is a Mononome attached to a candy jar. If you take some candy two times in a row then it will say “NO.” And the Mononome on this chair will have a lonely expression if no one sits in it in a while. Over time these items will come to have their own existence like family or friends.”

Why do we want these things to become like friends?

“Take a diet app for example. More than coldly telling you to “input your weight” it should make people want to get on the scale who usually dread it. In interacting with humans it is important for a device to have intelligence, but we think having warmth and intimacy are also important. For this you need to have a certain cuteness.”

And so you came up with this design?

“We thought that part of the fun of the eye shape is wondering what thing you’re going to attach it to.”

Tell me the reason you made Mononome.

“We thought it would be good to have things understand the feelings of people. Ideally it would be like the banquet scene from Beauty and the Beast with pots dancing around and items offering their hospitality.”

What would you attach a Mononome to?

“Like in the video we put out, I’d want to try it on a vacuum cleaner or refrigerator. Other than that I think it would be useful for women to use on their sanitary pad cases. The Mononomes at this exhibition are prototypes. We hope the final version will be much smaller so it can be attached to a wider range of things like that.”

Thank you for speaking with us today.

As Ms. Nakano said, these Mononomes are only prototypes, so a full list of what they will do on release has not been completed yet. However, Mononome perhaps should be seen more as a concept of the importance of humanity in technology design rather than simply a product itself. It’s a factor that other designers in the field could benefit from adding to any product.

Source: Mononome, Tokyo Design Week (Japanese)
Top Image: Mononome
Interview and other photos by Toru Imamura

▼ A video demonstration we took at the exhibit

▼ A slightly slicker presentation from Neurowear

▼ And for old times’ sake, here’s Necomimi again

 
[ Read in Japanese ]