mui Lab

Promoting calm technology to achieve more humane digital living

Esthetics: Achieving harmonized beauty, both inside and outside of our products

Integrity: Uncompromising pursuit of truly calm digital living

Collaboration: Collaborating with different stakeholders to together foster calm digital lifestyles

mui Lab was founded to promote societal adoption of “calm technology” – the technology that fits in with natural human behaviors and environment. Designed with users’ comfort and happiness in mind, calm interfaces can further bring out the humanness of human life. Taking inspiration from the successful blending of traditions and technology in our home city of Kyoto, we draw upon our designing and engineering expertise to put forth novel visions for the next generation digital lifestyle that enhance our total well-being.

mui Lab integrates digital technology into systems and devices in such a way that it feels like an innate part of natural human behaviors as well as our environment. mui Lab envisions digital living in which technology performs in a perfect harmony with humans. To make this a reality, we tap into the design concept of Calm Technology, first proposed by American scientist Mark Weiser, in combination with the Japanese sense of beauty to create systems and devices that turn technology into seemingly innate part of our lives and environment.

“mui Platform” is a vehicle with which to achieve calm digital living. It consists of mui’s patented wood display panel – our flagship “calm UI,” or a peaceful touchpoint between humans and technology – and our proprietary IoT cloud system. The use of natural wood as the material of the interface provides users with a sense of beauty and comfort. Because the calm UI is designed to blend into users’ surroundings, it enables distraction-free communication and easy access to your most important information only.

mui Lab holds a number of patented technologies that turn natural materials into touch-sensitive display panels. These technologies, together with mui’s proprietary Design Principles based on the Calm Technology & Design concept, serve as the foundation of all our product development.

Design Principles

Intellectual Property

Awards

As the name suggests, our business began as the calm technology “lab” where our flagship interface, the mui board, was born. While we continue to create our own products, we are now also focused on developing calm IoT systems for our clients to help them solve their problems with the use of calm devices. These systems – all of which are built on our “mui Platform” – are designed to provide peaceful digital experiences for users. We draw upon our expertise in the designing of system architecture, applications and UIUX, as well as product design, and business development, to provide total solutions, from suggesting new service products to real-world implementations of solutions.

Customer Experience Creation

Customer Experience

Laboratory

Laboratory

We are a diverse team of professionals whose collective expertise – ranging from system architecture to designing to business enterprise – enables us to provide a broad array of services to help you live a calm digital life. We believe the technology of the future is one that fits in seamlessly with our natural human behaviors and environment, making users happier by further bringing out the humanness of human life. We are committed to provide “truly calm” technology and systems that focus on users’ emotional well-being.

Careers

CEO

Kazunori Oki

CXO

Munehiko Sato

Creative Director

Nobuyasu Hirobe

: CTO
Takuya Kubota

VP of Marketing

Sayaka Ishimaru

EVP Operations

Toru Okada

: UI/UX Design Manager
Nahori Kawase

PR & Branding Manager

Akiko Moriguchi

: Chief Software Architect
Yutaka Kobayashi

: Software Engineering Manager
Masahiro Takahashi

Director Business Development Europe

Klaus Seibold

Business Designer

Robin Moreau

Executive Advisers

: Yoshiaki Sakito
Former VP of Marketing of Apple Inc. (USA) and CEO of Apple in Japan. Steve Jobs appointed Sakito – who founded Livedoor, and gained work experience at Sony, Bain & Company, Walt Disney, and AOL – to the positions that entrusted him with Apple’s Japanese market. He is known for his unique marketing approach that turned the iPod into a hit product, which ultimately helped Apple turn around its business. He is currently involved in the development of the “WONDER LEARNING” platform as the CEO of Realdear.

: Don Lindsay
An executive leader who has delivered industry-defining platforms while building world-class product design organizations, Lindsay was engaged by the CEOs of Apple and BlackBerry to execute “bet the business” product evolutions in MacOS X and BlackBerry 10, respectively. A recognized innovator with over 300 patents, he currently serves on the boards of startups striving to achieve truly world class products.

: Amber Case
Case is an internationally recognized design advocate and speaker, and the author of four books, including “Calm Technology” and “A Kids Book About Technology.” She spent two years as a fellow at MIT’s Center for Civic Media and at Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. She was the co-founder and CEO of Geoloqi, a location-based software company acquired by Esri.

Company name: mui Lab, Inc. (Corporate ID: 4130001060852)

Founded on: Oct. 27, 2017 (Spinoff from NISSHA completed through MBO in May 2019)

CEO: Kazunori Oki (Co-founder)

Executive Officers: Munehiko Sato, Toru Okada

Outside directors: Tetsu Nishikawa, Rui He

Staff members: 18

Global Headquarters: 295-1 Tawaraya-Cho, Nakagyo-Ku, Kyoto, 604-0966, Japan

Regional Offices: Yokohama, Nagano, Frankfurt (Germany)

Major shareholders: mui Lab founders, Energy & Environment Investment, Inc., NISSHA Co., Ltd., Monozukuri Ventures, Kyoto Bank, City of Kyoto, and FVC

Main business: UX/UI design, SaaS software development, Original product development, Sales, Consulting

Patents: Seven (7) technology patents granted (including overseas); 11 patents pending

Certification

January 2022

Selected as one of 14 Japanese startups for Amazon Alexa Startups program.
Unveiled company’s Matter-ready mui Platform at CES 2022.

September 2021

Joined Connectivity Standard Alliance as creator of Matter-ready device

March 2021

Opened new office in Frankfurt, Germany

January 2021

Selected for Japanese Cabinet Office’s Global Accelerator Program

October 2020

Formed business alliance with Jibun House

January 2020

Launched “M1”

October 2019

Raised $2 million in funding

April 2019

Completed management buyout (MBO) from NISSHA and became independent company

December 2018

Raised $115,000 on Kickstarter (15% above $10K goal)

October 2017

Established mui Lab, Inc. from Nissha Co., Ltd.’s corporate venture program.
Developed “mui 1,” world’s first smart home interface made with natural wood.
Obtained patent for company’s own “IoT display panel system,” which enables information to appear on wood surface when in “on” mode and to disappear in “off” mode.

mui Lab founding story

Award history

2018

Best of Kickstarter Award

2019

CES Innovation Award 2019, Smart home category
IFA Next Smart Home Pitch Contest (Top winner)

2020

House Beautiful Best of CES 2020

2021

Archiproducts Design Award 2021

2022

CES Innovation Award 2022, Smart home category
"Height Marking in Wood" Wins Grand Prize and Special Award at BabyTech® Awards 2022

Other

2022

Amazon “Works with Alexa” Certification

“Ebisugawa Salone” is a third place that we opened in July 2020 on Kyoto’s historic furniture district, Ebisugawa Dori, to demonstrate our vision for new lifestyles. The venue has since hosted many different types of events, including art exhibits and live performances, serving as a gathering place for local residents and artists who feel isolated due to the pandemic. We hope that people will be able to feel the richness of calm digital living when they visit Ebisugawa Salone.