・Human n + Technology = Human n+1, by Ken Endo

Human_(n) + Technology = Human_(n+1), by Ken Endo

This exhibit introduces a project on artificial legs worked on by former bipedal robot researcher Ken Endo.

If, even without legs, people could walk and run normally using technology that moves like legs, perhaps not having legs would not be a disability. Items on display will include the real robotic artificial legs actually used in the OTOTAKE PROJECT, which aims for evolution of the human body through robotics along with Hirotada Ototake, author of No One's Perfect.

Visitors will also see artificial legs for competition that came forth through application of the knowledge gained in research and development of robotic artificial legs. If athletes with artificial legs for competition could run at record speeds faster than able-bodied people, the way of understanding people with disabilities would change.

Technology might merely remove disabilities, or it might become a way of augmenting intrinsic human abilities in themselves. Would you like to imagine a future in which all of us diversify and can go forth in pursuit of our own happiness?

・Theory of Play, by Alexis André

toio™ is a robot toy from Sony Interactive Entertainment that allows users to enjoy free play by installing whatever they like on a small cube.

Sensors scan the cube's position and orientation, and the cube operates based on configured rules. The robot toy toio leads children to all kinds of ingenuity with these simple concepts. It is also a product that makes it easy for children to study programming at home.

Researcher Alexis André, who proposed the initial concept for toio and is also known as "Dr. toio," will combine toio with everyday items to unveil creativity-expanding media art focused on "drawing" play.

・Superception, by Shunichi Kasahara

This exhibit features one of the Superception research projects, "Morphing Identity." Superception is a research framework that engineers, augments, and transforms perception and cognition with engineering by using computer technologies to intervene in the human senses and connect to human perception.

This hands-on work explores how the self that you think you are and the self that others think you are can be transformed. Images projected by cameras in two booths show the movements of both your body and another person's. Before long, your face gradually fuses with the face of the other person. Based on the human perceptual characteristics of visual changes, computationally created, smooth changes are applied to the facial images and composited in real-time, causing the faces to change without you perceiving the change.

The exhibit approaches human identity through the experience of imperceptibly transforming the face you were sure was your own into the face of another.

・What Is a "Rich" Future?" by the Kyoto Laboratory

The hands-on "What is a 'Rich' Future?" exhibit asks visitors to the Park to share their own thoughts about questions written on the wall.

What kind of future did you envision after seeing several "Research for Future of Humanity" projects on global agendas and human augmentation? How about leaving a brief comment on a sticky note?

The exhibit content lets visitors think about the real meaning of "richness" and their relationships with the people around them in this current age in which efficiency and automation provide convenience and benefit to people's lives.

This is a collaborative project between Sony Global Education (SGED) and the Kids "Power" Project, which operates with the goals of cultivating childrens' zest for life through encounters and connections as well as implementing the skills children naturally have in society.

A workshop for elementary school students will be held on the topic "Making Play: Turning Cleaning into Fun" (provisional). What is the idea process for researcher Alexis André, the originator of new games including toio? The workshop lets children vicariously experience viewpoints that conceive of fun things, with content designed by SGED's education evangelist Akihiro Shimizu and researcher André taking the stage.

Children will consider why games like tag, freeze tag, and red light, green light are fun. Based on their realizations and discoveries, they will think of how to make things they dislike or find bothersome fun. They will present the games they made to everyone, share points of difficulty, and be aware of different perspectives and opinions. The content will raise children's interest in STEAM education.