ChatGPT: Exploring the future of technology through cats × technology.

Prototyping Fujitsu’s Advanced Technologies through the Theme of “Cats”

Nakahara Nyan Ken is a prototyping project co-created by Inspi-Lab, a team within the Fujitsu Design Center, and Konel. The project aims to reinterpret Fujitsu’s advanced technologies from entirely new perspectives and create fresh points of connection between technology and society. Using cats as a motif, it flexibly explores the future of technology and seeks to embody it as unique and approachable experiences.

Konel is responsible for planning and developing experiential prototypes, while also leveraging its own media platform, Chizai Zukan, to share the project’s outcomes broadly with society. Based in Musashi-Nakahara, Kanagawa Prefecture, home to the Fujitsu Design Center, Nakahara Nyan Ken is an experimental research team where diverse expertise and creativity converge to explore new relationships between emerging technologies and everyday lif
The Understanding Gap Between Technology and Everyday People
In modern society, technology continues to grow more advanced and complex, creating a significant gap in understanding between technological experts and everyday users. To address this issue, Nakahara Nyan Ken was launched with the goal of communicating cutting-edge technology in a friendly and accessible way, using cats—a universally beloved motif—as the medium. By incorporating the theme of cats, the project seeks to promote the social adoption and understanding of new technologies through a different, more relatable approach than conventional technical explanations.

Issue

The Understanding Gap Between Technology and Everyday People
In modern society, technology continues to grow more advanced and complex, creating a significant gap in understanding between technological experts and everyday users. To address this issue, Nakahara Nyan Ken was launched with the goal of communicating cutting-edge technology in a friendly and accessible way, using cats—a universally beloved motif—as the medium. By incorporating the theme of cats, the project seeks to promote the social adoption and understanding of new technologies through a different, more relatable approach than conventional technical explanations.

Creation

First Prototype: “meowave”
meowave is an experiential prototype that presents a new, life-integrated form of caregiving and monitoring. Unlike traditional camera-based systems, it employs a non-contact approach using radio waves and sound, designed to blend naturally into people’s daily lives. The prototype detects a person’s movement and heartbeat within a space, and an imaginary cat responds to these signals with gentle, context-aware feedback.

The cat’s presence is not that of a surveillance device, but rather functions as part of the living environment—like air or water—providing users with natural moments of awareness and communication that maintain a comfortable distance without being intrusive.

For example, when a person remains at their desk for a long time, the cat emits a meow that encourages them to stretch. If it detects a fall or an unusually long period of lying down, it reacts with a concerned meow. These behaviors are thoughtfully designed to align with the user’s state, offering emotional warmth and subtle companionship while respecting personal space.