WIKITOPIA PROJECT
Future Cities, Built By Citizens
WIKITOPIA — RESEARCH

This page lists our current research initiatives. Presently, our efforts are centered around the development and operation of the "dédédé" online platform, and the development of "Wikitopia OS", a next-generation urban platform incorporating augmented reality, artificial intelligence, and other cutting-edge technologies. In addition, we pursue several initiatives with the collective goal of empowering citizens to dynamically modify ("edit") cities in a DIY manner, such as the development of "Printable Garden", a 3D printing technology that introduces new ways to add greenery and nature to cities. Our research output will be deployed in the real world through multiple channels, including commercialization, publication of source code, etc.

dédédé

dédédé is an online platform that invites citizens to casually share the various positives, negatives, oddities, etc. they find in urban spaces. (The platform's name derives from eedé, akandé, and nandé, which translates to good, bad, and why in Kansai dialect.) The platform is intended to serve as an open forum that fosters public interest in urban design, gently steering people toward active participation in local urbanism. We expect the uploaded data to provide value to municipal governments, urban designers, researchers, etc. as well. The platform is free to use, so please check it out!

Wikitopia OS

Wikitopia OS is a next-generation urban platform, which uses augmented reality to show various information about the city — citizens' opinions and ideas, development plans, speculative future visions, etc. — in ways tightly coupled with the actual urban environment. Using real-time image processing, the platform will be able to visualize the effects of large-scale urban transformations such as introductions of building height restrictions, conversions of roadways into pedestrian plazas, etc. The platform will also incorporate artificial intelligence to facilitate urban design and collective decision making.

Ninja Codes

Ninja Codes are neurally-generated fiducial markers that can be made to naturally blend into real-world environments. An encoder network converts arbitrary images into Ninja Codes by applying visually modest alterations; the resulting codes, printed and pasted onto surfaces, can be used to provide stealthy location tracking in situations where conventional fiducial markers (e.g., ARTags) are unsuitable for aesthetic or other reasons. Though originally developed as a technical component of Wikitopia OS, we believe the technology can be used for various applications including robotics and motion-based user interfaces.

Printable Garden

Community gardening, and other efforts to bring nature into the city, are some of the most common forms of citizen-led urbanism. To further accelerate such activities, we are developing a 3D printing technology that produces "gardens" topped with various types of plants, using specialized polymer that acts as a soil substitute. Users can create freeform "gardens", whose geometries and plant layouts can be finely specified through software. Although still in research stage, we believe that the technology can be extended to fabricate complex ecosystems supporting diverse flora and fauna, e.g., rooftop sanctuaries for fireflies.

AnyLight

AnyLight is a panel-shaped lighting device that can mimic the illumination effects of various light sources, such as spotlight, chandelier, etc. In a room where AnyLight panels are installed across the ceiling, arbitrary light sources can be made to appear at any overhead position. The project began as an effort to design a programmable lighting system for outdoor spaces that can be controlled by the public, but our focus has since shifted to creating a general-purpose future lighting technology with broad applications; in the near term, we expect the device to find use mainly in professional settings, e.g., film studios.