What will mobile handsets look like in the next twenty years? We were lucky enough to see some futuristic prototypes on display here in Tokyo, and were blown away by the technological progress each one represents. KDDI’s Design Project has long been a forward-thinking experiment in mobile design, and this goes hand-in-hand with that spirit. Otherwise, how could we ever use our phones as drumsticks?
Down at the KDDI Designing Studio in Harajuku there’s a nice display from the design team at Daisan Matsue Elementary School in Edogawa-ku. They set out to make their perfect mobile devices and came up with some ideas that are nicely out of the box.
HIGHLIGHTS: The YS23 Baseball Phone turns into a baseball when you throw it, but that’s nothing compared to the fireproof and stylus-sporting L-109AC that enables you to fly when you push the “Fly” button. The KUMA222 sports more practical functionality with its “Home” button. According to the documentation, after pushing the button you go home. Nice!
The No123 sports a clover lucky charm so you’ll always be happy, and features a “happy camera” that makes you smile in the pictures. The phone in the middle (below) that looks like a smiley house with a cannon on it? It acts as a “warp” to teleport you from place to place.
Sounds like the Japanese kids today have pretty high demands for the future of mobile here, and I hope they aren’t disappointed, but there are a couple of points that stuck with me. First, they all pretty much stuck to the clamshell design that Japanese tend to like, and were pretty button-heavy, but at the same time they didn’t limit their handsets to “phone” features much at all. Mobile to them is about games, flying, teleporting, photos, and being happy. That, and the phones were pretty cute as well, and that might be more important than anything. More KDDI prototypes from the past can be seen HERE.
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