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The Future is Emotional.
And It’s Going to be Amazing!

The Evocative Machines Project are a Japan-based group of founders, scientists, hardware engineers, and behavioral psychologists who believe that a world filled with evocative machines will be wonderful place to live.  We are committed to building that world.

Evocative Machines? Blog

Evocative Machines

Evocative machines don’t understand our emotions, but they evoke emotions in us. If you want to understand why our world desperately needs evocative machines, please read The Age of Evocative Machines.

The Project

The Evocative Machines Project is a multidisciplinary team or founders, researchers and creatives who are redefining the human machine interface to communicate on an emotional rather than an intellectual level. 

The Future

If you have a project that could benefit from an evocative interface, if you want to know more about the project, or if you want to help us build this, please sign up for our mailing list or feel free drop us an email.

The Core Team

The Evokative Machines Project is a group of developers, researchers, artists and engineers that have come togeher around a core team.

Tim Romero

Tim Romero

Founder, Disrupting Japan

Tim has started several startups in Japan, works with large firms on their open innovation strategies, hosts the Disrupting Japan podcast and is an active startup investor and mentor.

Shunsuke Aoki

Shunsuke Aoki

CEO, Yukai Engineering

Shunsuke founded Yukai Engineering, Japan’s most innovative consumer robotics startup, to reinvent the way we interact with robots. Their creations such as Nekomimi, Bocco, and Qoobo continue to gather international attention and awards.

Ayako Shimizu

Ayako Shimizu

CEO, Hikari Lab

Ayako earned her masters in Clinical Psychology from The University of Tokyo and upon graduation founded Hikari Lab, which focuses on integrating cognitive behavior therapy into video games, chatbots and other technology to improve mental health and well being.

Blog

How Disappearing Micro-Relationships Make You Feel Lonely

How Disappearing Micro-Relationships Make You Feel Lonely

As social media replaces much of our social life and automation streamlines business, human contact is increasingly becoming a luxury good. Automation has given us a lot¥. Automation allows us to make more with less. It brings down the cost and goods and services, and...

The cute Japanese cuckoo clock that might cure loneliness

The cute Japanese cuckoo clock that might cure loneliness

Last year OQTA introduced that Hato, an evocative machine that is now slowly starting to receive the attention it deserves. Pressing a button in the app causes the cuckoo in the clock to sound, thereby letting the owner know that you are thinking about them. That's...

The Horstmann Experiment: It’s OK to Care about Robots

The Horstmann Experiment: It’s OK to Care about Robots

Earlier this year, Aike Horstmann and his team  had subjects interact with a robot and then turn it off. In some of the cases, the robot pleaded not to be shut off, and Horstmann observed that subjects had a much harder time deactivating a robot that was begging for...