WIKITOPIA PROJECT
Future Cities, Built By Citizens
WIKITOPIA — RESEARCH

Below is a list of 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 future version of dédédé enhanced using augmented reality. We also pursue several initiatives with longer-term outlooks, such as the development of "Printable Garden", a 3D printing technology that introduces novel ways to add greenery and nature to cities. Outputs of our research will be deployed through various channels, including commercialization, publication of source code, etc.

dédédé

dédédé is an online platform for citizens to casually share opinions about their neighborhoods. The platform's name is derived from eedé, akandé, and nandé (good, bad, and why in Kansai dialect) — users are invited to describe and upload any positive, negative, or curious aspects of their cities using text, photos, and audio. With dédédé, we hope to create an accessible mechanism that gently fosters people's interest in local urban issues, i.e., a gateway to participatory urbanism. We believe the uploaded data will provide value to local governments as well. The platform will be made public in the near future, so please check it out!

Wikitopia OS

Wikitopia OS is the future version of dédédé, which uses augmented reality to show various information about the city — citizens' opinions and ideas, development plans, speculative visions, etc. — in ways tightly coupled with the actual urban environment. Using real-time image processing, the platform is capable of visualizing the effects of large-scale urban transformations such as introductions of height restrictions, conversions of main streets into pedestrian plazas, etc. In outdoor augmented reality, the lack of precise location tracking often becomes a problem; we solve this through "Ninja Codes", our own localization technology.

Printable Garden

Community gardening, and other efforts to bring nature into the city, are some of the most common forms of participatory urbanism. To further accelerate such activities, we are developing a 3D printing technique that produces "gardens" adorned with various types of plants, using specialized polymer that can act as a soil substitute. Users can create freeform "gardens", whose geometries and plant layouts can be finely specified on software. Although still in the research phase, we believe that the technique can eventually be extended to print 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, sunlight, etc. In a room fully furnished with AnyLight, arbitrary light sources of any form can be made to appear at any location, at any time. We expect the device to initially find use in professional settings (e.g., film studios), and eventually spread to everyday environments. The project began as a less ambitious effort to design a programmable lighting system for public spaces that can be controlled by residents, but its focus has since shifted towards the creation of general-purpose future lighting.

TrueTalk

We are developing a new text-based communication tool that facilitates consensus building and decision making among citizens. The tool is built around a logic-based mechanism — which we call "reinforced discourse" — that naturally steers users toward unambiguous, rational conversations. The tool is equipped with an intuitive user interface inspired by emojis, stickers, and visual programming environments.

Modeling Participatory Cities

In collaboration with researchers at the University of Melbourne and Sony CSL Rome, we are developing a new urban theory (and an accompanying mathematical model) centered around active citizen participation, that can be used to quantitatively analyze and predict the effects of citizen involvement in urban issues. We believe the work will benefit both citizens and governments in promoting participatory urbanism.