Shippo as an communication interface

Here is a brief explanation about my Shippo project :)

0. Initial idea

It would be fun to have a tail! I named it and the project "Shippo" that means tail in Japanese.

1. What is it? What is it for?

It is a knitted tail for us human. Seriously!

It is expected to be an interface to facilitate communication among employees busy working at office or people who meet for the first time at conferences, events and parties.

"Hey, you have a nice tail!", "I like the dots on your tail, can I see it?" and so on.

By having Shippo, we may be more aware of animals.

2. Advanced applications with electronics

A small electronic circuit can be inside Shippo to express emotion of the owner, add movements etc.

Or an IC chip can be inside for touch and go payment or exchange information with other Shippo owners. 

(Image is from Japanese wikipedia page about "ICカード" )

It's not SF. Bio hackers in Sweden implant a microchip in their body and use it as an ID and payment.

Image: Swedish rail company swaps paper tickets for embedded microchips

Implanting a chip might be too radical for many people so why not realizing it with a playful body extension interface, Shippo?

It might make us smile when a business man wearing business suit has Shippo and goes through a busy train station paying ticket with Shippo.

3. What to achieve?

Once prototypes are made and certain number of Shippos are produced, I want to try following things:

• Hosting a Shippo disco party
• Shippo rental pack for offices
• Shippo fashion show
• Shippo party for kids

etc etc ...

For now that's it! This is the brief idea of my Shippo project :)