Visitors to SXSW Interactive Festival (SXSWi) (March 13-22, 2015) in Austin should head to the Hakuhodo Group exhibition booth, “Prototyping the Future”.
Hakuhodo will be showcasing several of its futuristic product ideas, including the Memory Clock, a device which shows photos the same date they were taken. If you have more than one Memory Clock, even if you are apart from your loved ones, you can still view the photos at the same time.
The Memory Clock is just one example from the monom innovation lab that advertising agency Hakuhodo has been developing. The name means “mono” (thing) and a series of “m” words: magic, marketing, message, move.
The first product in the series is the iDoll. This mini robotic doll dances, greets you and even jokes around like it has a personality. It reproduces human movements in a realistic way.
Jointly developed by Yukai Engineering, iDoll is controlled by the user’s mobile phone and can acquire movements and speech that you teach it.
It is small enough to sit on your palm and is about 15cm tall. There are three versions currently developed: a plain prototype one, and two female moe character versions.
The iDoll prototype will apparently be available “soon”. For now, head to Austin to check out the SXSWi booth.
