| Title | HANDS ON SEARCH |
| Brand | YAHOO! JAPAN |
| Product / Service | YAHOO! JAPAN |
| Entrant | HAKUHODO KETTLE Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Entrant Company | HAKUHODO KETTLE Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Advertising Agency | HAKUHODO KETTLE Tokyo, JAPAN |
| Production Company | AID-DCC Osaka, JAPAN |
| Name | Company | Position |
|---|---|---|
| Kazuaki Hashida | HAKUHODO Kettle Inc. | Creative Director |
| Kyosuke Taniguchi | Dot By Dot Inc. | Creative Director |
| Shota Hatanaka | HAKUHODO Kettle Inc. | Planner |
| Yusuke Tominaga | Dot By Dot Inc. | Planner |
| Chiharu Shimizu | HAKUHODO Kettle Inc. | Planner |
| Saqoosha | Dot By Dot Inc. | Technical Director |
| Takayuki Kitai | Katamari Inc. | 3d Printing Director |
| Yuichi Takatani | Katamari Inc. | Art Director |
| Kenjiro Nakayama | Katamari Inc. | Designer |
| You Tanaka | Katamari Inc. | Design Engineer |
| Kenji Mori/Yuka Hatae/Kiki Hasegawa | Katamari Inc. | Developer |
| Takanobu Izukawa | Katamari Inc. | System Engineer |
| Masashi Ohashi | Katamari Inc. | Sound Designer |
| Kenichi Seki/Keitaro Kamijo/Kojiro Matsumoto | AID/DCC Inc. | Producer |
| Hiroshi Kondo | Movie Director | |
| Toshiyuki Takei | TOKYO/TAIYO KIKAKU Co./Ltd. | Movie Producer |
| Ryosuke Toyama/Takahide Uchibori/Hiroshi Kondo | Camera | |
| Akari Tatsumi | TOKYO/TAIYO KIKAKU Co./Ltd. | Mixer |
| Audio Force | AUDIO FORCE | Music |
| Hiroaki Sakai/Takashi Uno/Saeko Kawano | TOW/P/Point | Event/Pr Director |
What is the future of search? To answer this question is our challenge. Yes, big data predicting what we want might be convenient, but our vision involves a more rudimentary sensation – a search system with the human touch. What if a spoken word turns into a physical object? The search could be more exiting. We invented Hands On Search that makes imagination real and gives us inspirational and tangible realities, not just informational results. It was developed by combining the idea of human touch with common 3D printing technology. We offered it first to those who need it most – children with sight impairments. Without vision, these kids “view” the world through their hands, recognizing objects via touch. Through the search technologies, Yahoo! JAPAN wants to bring more innovation to the education field.
At our suggestion, Yahoo! released Hands On Search as an open source application. Yahoo’s passion moved the government enough to get involved. Led by Tsukuba University, the Ministry of Education agreed to provide funds to convert the 3D data into official study material. Now, what started as an internet innovation has become an educational one. We might have created a single service, but it’s quickly taking on the role of a vital piece of social infrastructure that is very much the essence of Yahoo!. Support results are as follows. *3D database now contains over 100,000 entries *More than $ 1,000,000 in publicity in Japan. No figures for worldwide publicity but project reported on in several media. *According to research, 92% of people who engaged with this project have increased loyalty to Yahoo! JAPAN.
This project was carried out with three schools for the blind over six months. Many people kept an eye on related activities through PR events and the website. On the website, things the children touched were reported on with comments, and things they wanted to touch but were not saved in the search database were uploaded. The things not in the database were turned into Yahoo advertisements, allowing many people, organizations and companies to upload the data. This means the website also functioned as an aggregator of 3D data for the children. Also through videos on YouTube, press releases and other PR activity, the project gained lots of publicity and recognition in both Japan and the rest of the world.