The Brief

Our mission is to utilize the three keywords “Idea” “Technology” and “Entrepreneurship” to realize its corporate philosophy of Good Innovation within the communication space. When we look at Japan and its people, we see that many are very shy and have trouble expressing their bare feelings to others. As a result, we feel that the Japanese people face a challenge in communication itself. As a company that is responsible for cultivating the future form of communication, we decided to develop a new communication device that enables people, namely the Japanese, to express their emotions more directly. Something that is faster than Twitter and more intimate than Facebook. We have identified the human “brainwave” as being a unique, but not yet thoroughly utilized way of tapping into the human mind to extract emotions. “Brainwaves” refer to the change in potential when the human brain is active, and expresses mood such as “focus” and “relax” states. It has recently been the center of attention as a method of clarifying the human mind to gain insight into what people think.

We created a new augmented human organ that utilizes brainwaves for a new way of communication. It is called “necomimi” which stands for “cat ears” and have launched the commercial version worldwide in collaboration with NeuroSky, a Silicon Valley based venture. Since there was a need to attach the brainwave sensor to the forehead, we used the cat ear motif frequently used in Japanese manga and fashion items to make it fun for everyone to wear. necomimi utilizes a specially made brainwave sensor that senses the status of the human brain and emotions. When the user is “focused”, the ears will stand up, and when the user is “relaxed”, the ears lie down. If the user is simultaneously “focused” and “relaxed”, as seen with many professional athletes, the ears move rapidly. By visualizing the brain activities, we will be able to see the various characteristics of the human being. This also means that users will be able to express their emotions straight from the brain, and enable users to communicate with anyone, regardless of language, age, gender and race.

necomimi has greatly helped the Japanese to communicate better with each other, and has been an enormous hit. The concept video on YouTube was played more than 3 million times, and has generated a phenomenon amongst its fans that posted their own necomimi video’s. Over 200 sales reps have shown interest, and more than 100 media outlets around the world such as TIME, BBC, NY Times, TF1, Globo and NHK have written about the device. It was also selected as one of TIME Magazine’s “BEST 50 INNOVATION OF THE YEAR” in 2011. This has helped us to not only build on its reputation as an innovative communication company but also find a new business model where they gain royalties from building devices based on “brainwaves”. We are also venturing into the development of new “brainwave” products and marketing research. For example, our prototype products include “shippo” which is a device that represents an animal tail that communicates like our cat ears, and a music service that connects the user brainwaves with a music database. We see a future where all living creatures will be able to communicate through this technology and also communicate with electronics, cars and the city too.