Sony - FUTURE PROOF : What is the future of movement?
Uplifting music plays. On a blue background, a wipe motion from the top left arcs downward, revealing a Japanese young woman with her straight black hair in a ponytail wearing a pink sweater sitting in front of a bookshelf. Text appears vertically next to her video.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Nao Kondo
Artist & Entrepreneur
NAO
“Hi Diana!”
A wipe motion in the bottom right arcs upward, revealing an African American young woman with curly hair in a top bun, wearing a tie-dye sweatshirt, sitting in front of a fireplace mantle with potted plants on it. Text appears vertically next to the video.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Diana Sinclair
Artist & Activist
DIANA
“Hi Nao!”
Yellow subtitles appear as Nao speaks in Japanese. Diana continues to speak in English.
NAO
“As you may know, I’m working on a robot and I’ve been thinking a lot about the future.”
DIANA
“Oh, right on!”
NAO
“Wouldn’t it be great to have a robot that can become a part of our body to help us move and live together?”
DIANA
“Absolutely! Movement can be super empowering.”
Now the music slows into inspirational music, and the blue screen has a bubble coming in from the left
And as the women disappear, a dark blue semi-circle descends from the top right and a horizontal arc pushes into the blue background from the left side, revealing someone walking in shorts with the left cuff rolled up to show off a robotic limb. A white line extends from the video to white text in the bottom right corner.
ON SCREEN TEXT: What is the future of Movement?
The video in the bubble changes to someone running on a track with a blade prosthetic in place of their right leg.
Now a wall displays different blade attachments for prosthetics at one end of a blue running track under an angular canopy which arcs over the track and is open at the end. A blue bubble rises from the bottom left with white text.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Xiborg Lab
Tokyo, Japan
A sleek logo on a window reads “Xiborg LAB” in modern grey text. Now a clean-shaven, middle aged Japanese man in a grey shirt with a science graphic sits in front of two table drills in a wood-paneled space. A blue bubble in the bottom left introduces him with white text.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Ken Endo
CEO
Xiborg Inc.
Researcher
Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.
Ken speaks in Japanese, and subtitles appear.
KEN ENDO
“In regards to people with disabilities, some hurdles from the past are going away.”
A wooden peg wall holds a few tools and many different blade attachments. Some different logos and Japanese text that says Blade Library are at the top of the wall. The “Xiborg” logo is printed on the inside of one blade.
KEN
“and thanks to technology we’re approaching a time where effort will reap rewards. Ken’s voice continues over a silent video of him holding a long blade as he gestures as he explains its use.”
A fit, clean-shaven caucasian man with cropped brown hair wears a grey t-shirt, black shorts, and a blade prosthetic in place of his right leg. He crouches on a red running track behind the starting blocks. Now he puts his foot and blade with the “Xiborg” logo on the blocks, hands on the ground in front of him, and takes off sprinting, arms pumping as his leg and blade propel him forward. A blue bubble appears from the bottom left with white text.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Athens, GA
USA
JARRYD WALLACE
“Technology plays such a major role in my life.”
Again, he’s at the starting blocks, seen this time from the side where the metal studs on the bottom of the blade can be made out. Now, the man sits in front of some weights and medicine balls on a stand in a wood-paneled room. He is wearing a maroon polo and smiling. A new blue bubble with white text replaces the last one.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Jarryd Wallace
3x Paralympian
3x World Champion
4x World Record Holder
JARRYD
“Until it became something that I needed, it was never really something that I considered or looked at.”
Ken wears safety glasses as he uses one of the table saws. He turns the handle, lifting the drill from a second hole in the end of a blade.
KEN
“I can design a leg in my lab and fine tune how I think it is right, but once the athlete tries it”
Ken tightens a screw into place, attaching something to the blade through the holes he made. Now he sits back in his interview.
KEN
“sometimes it’s not even usable.”
Jarryd walks onto the running track with the blade resting over his shoulder.
KEN
“Something really valuable Jarryd brought is his feedback on how the technology feels.”
At a shaded bench on the side of the track, Jarryd pulls the blade on over his stump. He adds a running show to the end of the blade.
Now, a render on a black computer screen shows a grey skeleton missing its right leg from just above the knee. Colored dots follow its movement, shadowing it past the end of its right leg as the skeleton runs. White text is in the bottom right.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Biomechanics Analysis
JARRYD
“I’m working with an engineer that adapts the technology to allow me to do things that I’ve never been able to do before.”
A side-by-side comparison shows two slightly different blade designs in profile, like upside-down question marks. They are blue but change color from green to yellow at various parts to show the impact of hitting the ground. A key to the left of each blade shows a range of colors from dark blue to bright red, with numbers ranging from zero to eight hundred forty-three point three on the left and zero to five hundred seventy-five point four on the right. White text is in the bottom right.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Finite Element Analysis
The blades bend as though under a weight, and different parts start to turn yellow. The screen fades as a 3D render of a blade on a gray line shows it’s dark blue at the top and the end. It turns from green to yellow around the curve. Now Jarryd sprints with a blade on the red running track.
JARRYD
“It was as simple as one hundred-meter jog on a blade that allowed me to have the ability to dream.”
Jarryd speaks earnestly in his interview.
JARRYD
“Way, way, way beyond anything that maybe was possible.”
On the blue running track, a slight Japanese man bends his right leg to fit his knee into a bionic prosthetic leg. He takes a tentative step with the bionic leg. Now the same man sits in front of the table saws as a blue bubble in the corner appears with text.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Ryusuke Morita
Project Engineer
Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.
Yellow subtitles appear as he speaks in Japanese.
RYUSUKE MORITA
“Non-disabled people have so many choices about how to move their bodies and what to do with them.”
Now an older Japanese man strides with a bionic left leg in an industrial office space, limping slightly.
RYUSUKE
“But for someone disabled the fact that you’re able to make your desired movement a reality is a great benefit for someone using a robotic prosthetic.”
A stand holds a thin bar approximately a foot off the ground and the older man steps over it with his right foot, then hops on his right leg a bit as he pulls his bionic leg over.
RYUSUKE
“I also believe this provides the emotional benefit of having more freedom.”
Ken sits at a desk with one hand on the top piece of a bionic leg while Ryusuke stands nearby. Ken moves the top of the leg around while they watch a laptop screen.
Outside, Jarryd carries starting blocks. On the track, he puts his hands on the ground and places his blade and foot against the blocks.
JARRYD
“It’s not a matter of if people want to run. It’s if people have the opportunity, if people are given the opportunity to run, to retake control of the agency of their lives.”
He lifts his head, his brow creasing as he stares down the track. He bows his head again and straightens his leg, then shoots off. He sprints down the track. In his interview.
JARRYD
“I want people to experience that same amount of joy that I get when I do run and it’s all about finding a way to make that more accessible.”
In Ken’s interview.
KEN
“If I can make someone happy with technology”
On a soccer field, a young man with a black blade prosthetic runs alongside a little girl with a pink blade prosthetic. In an office, Ken and another worker watch the older man climb a set of stairs with his bionic leg.
KEN
“that is also what makes me happy”
The inspirational music fades and the upbeat techno music returns. On a blue background, a wipe motion from the top left arcs downward, revealing Nao. Text appears vertically next to her video.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Nao Kondo
Artist & Entrepreneur
A wipe motion in the bottom right arcs upward, revealing Diana. Text appears vertically next to the video.
ON SCREEN TEXT: Diana Sinclair
Artist & Activist
NAO
“It’s interesting to learn about people who are thinking about robotics in such a different way than I do.”
Diana nods.
NAO
“They’re using technology to fulfill a basic need which makes people really happy.”
DIANA
“Totally! Thinking of it more as a choice, not just for athletes who may have been injured, but for anyone who might need it. Maybe we can use technology to make people even more super.”
NAO
“Absolutely!”
A dark blue screen splits into two bubbles on a blue background. The left bubble has a white logo. ON SCREEN TEXT: FUTURE PROOF
Japanese text is underneath. On the right is a white logo.
ON SCREEN TEXT: SONY
The music fades out. Colors pulse outward with a ding from the center of a dark background where a logo turns white as the background goes black.
ON SCREEN TEXT: SONY