Freedom of mobility for everyone to enjoy.
Toyota has a new project called "Society Where Everyone Can Move Freely Without Restrictions," as part of their leap into the mobility company. Toyota supported the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and highlighted three core values. The first of these was 'Mobility for All,' emphasizing the significance of enabling equal freedom of movement for everyone, including those marginalized in transportation like people with disabilities and the elderly.
https://mobility-contest.jp/
"We're moving forward with our preparations for the second round after being selected in the first round!
The Toyota Mobility Foundation (TMF) has kicked off the 'Mobility for All 2023' Idea Contest. The goal of this contest is to create a future where mobility is enjoyed in diverse ways, ranging from ideas that allow various people to watch car racing events to those that raise awareness about traffic safety while enjoying the races.
You might be curious about what our Dot team's project is all about. It's called the 'Tactile Display for Car Racing' using 'Dot Pad' of course. Its main purpose is to enable visually impaired individuals to freely watch motorsports races through a tactile display. Furthermore, we convert race data into tactile graphics and provide live broadcasting services. Our ultimate goal is to create an environment where visually impaired individuals with a keen interest in motorsports can enjoy a more immersive race viewing experience compared to just audio commentary.
Would you like to take a quick look at our Dot team's interview video?
What is Dot's mission toward 'Mobility For All'?
In September, there was a Super Taikyu race at Japan's Motegi Circuit. It's considered one of the biggest races in Japan, with an average race distance of over 300km and a total duration of more than 2 hours. Each team consists of 3-4 amateur and professional players, selecting one of the nine classes for roughly 50 vehicles.
With the Dot Pad, the Dot Team recreated the experience of car racing at the Motegi Circuit. It was such a special moment meeting visually impaired students from the University of Tsukuba and other visually impaired race fans who joined us to watch the event. They could experience the look of the racing cars and get a sense of the race track. They even had the option to confirm it using braille, touch, and sound whenever the cars revved up.
When watching the game, they got to fully immerse themselves in the racing experience by feeling every twist and turn, and hearing the action, lit up even more!
Yasushi Iwashita, a visually impaired individual in Japan and a writer for Mainichi Shimbun, mentioned, "Last year, when I watched the Motegi race, just relying on voice narration made it hard to picture how the track was. Now, with the Dot Pad, I can actually touch and feel the racing track's layout. It's really brought the experience to life for me! I'm looking forward to using the Dot Pad to enjoy even more racing events in the future." 😊
After this successful demo at Motegi Circuit, the Dot team is all fired up, brainstorming for the next round! Our next big aim? Letting them feel the excitement of races in real-time through touchable graphics, especially when multiple teams are in action.
What's even more intriguing is we're working on a wide range of sports events! It might be soccer, volleyball, pocketball, baseball, and much more gradually. Eventually, you can enjoy a bunch of sports events through our real-time tactile displays!
The news for the second round of selection will be announced this coming December. Until then, we'd love your cheers and interest in spreading the word about the project! 🚀