You get up. You open the curtains – and a “Good Morning!” message - one of them which had been exchanged between family members and had been stored in the digital cloud - appears on a wooden panel on the wall. To set the breakfast table, you wipe down the tabletop – the overhead lights gradually turn on. You set a vase with flowers on the table – ambient music starts playing and accompanies you while you set the table. You do not even notice how smartly your home interacts with your morning routine; everything just flows perfectly with your personal rhythm.

–  This is a story where your attention is not interrupted, your life rhythm is not deformed, the technology being alongside human. (see the movie of the Milan Show here.)

At Milan Design Week 2022, mui Lab, Inc., an award-winning Kyoto-based calm technology startup, and Wacom came together for an inspiring dialogue about mui Lab´s vision and their IoT system that turns furniture and other ordinary items into interfaces, using everyday human action as a prompt for digital sequence.

mui Lab’s purpose is to promote calm technology to achieve more humane digital living and in particular, focuses on building a better relationship between digital and people in the home, and continues to present new stories and new life experiences to the world through its own products and joint projects.
 
At the 4^th Milan Design Week, following the "mui Board" that connects families and the "Height Marking in Wood" that accompanies children as they grow up, the area of human-digital interaction was expanded to include spaces, incorporating human body movements and everyday furniture and tools as an interface to present a calm, comfortable, and secure living experience without being conscious of technology's presence.

Comparable to Wacom’s vision of lifelong ink, mui Lab shares the value of creating technology that serves humans. Therefore, to integrate lifelong Ink into family spaces, Wacom and mui lab have been working together for several years already. Wacom's ink technology is behind the handwriting technology used in our flagship products, "mui board" and "Height Marking in Wood".

In the joint video podcast recorded at Milan Design Week 2022, in the middle of mui Lab’s exhibition booth, the startup explains how they interpret and value the concept of calm technology and how they combine the design inspired by Japanese aesthetics and technology focused on the human aspect into their products. Unsurprisingly, mui Lab’s values resonate perfectly with Wacom’s own vision and mission. Wacom is looking forward to presenting more of mui Lab's journey and products in November at this year’s Connected Ink. mui Lab will be joining for the 4^th year in a row and we look forward to sharing more about this exciting topic that holds a massive potential for shaping the future of human-digital-interaction. We will announce this online event via our website and social media channels. Please stay tuned!