Designers want Mushin Gacha in arcades, anime specialty shops, and character cafes.
We’re in a gacha capsule toy golden age in Japan right now, with an unprecedented variety of items available to suit just about every interest and aesthetic taste. But while toy designers are constantly coming up with new prizes to stock gacha machines with, the purchasing process has changed very little: toss your coins into the slot, then turn the handle until a capsule drops for you.
But what if instead of turning the handle with your hand, you could turn it with your mind?
That’s the idea behind Mushin Gacha, a new type of capsule toy machine dreamed up by Tokyo-based neurotechnology and AI research/solutions company Araya. “Mushin” has a number of possible meanings, but among them are associations with innocence or desire, and those are aspects of the mental state you must achieve to get their Mushin Gacha prize capsule to drop.
▼ Mushin Gacha demonstration video
Users don an electroencephalograph head sensor which measures their brain’s current level of alpha waves, said to be produced when the mind is in a relaxed state. At the same time, a camera equipped with AI image recognition software will check to see if you’ve got your hands clasped in a “please give me a gacha capsule” pose.
Fulfilling those conditions, showing an unabashed genuine desire, will activate the Mushin Gacha’s motor, causing it to drop your prize capsule.
▼ If you’re wondering why it needs a crank at all, it’s because gacha is the onomatopoeia of the clunking noise it makes as it turns, so it’d be weird to make a gacha machine without that traditional aural factor, even if it’s so cutting-edge you operate it with your brain.
Araya says it hopes to install Mushin Gacha machines at video game arcades, anime/manga specialty stores, shopping center game corners, fan events, popup stores, and themed cafes. The preview images show a “Please insert coin” message on the screen, but it’s not clear what happens if you don’t achieve the right combination of prayer pose and alpha waves right away. Theoretically, operators could set it to so that players have an unlimited amount of time/number of chances to keep trying in, or perhaps could set a time limit after which no prize is won and the player needs to step aside and let someone else have a turn.
Although the unit in the preview video is made out of cardboard, it feels like a safe bet that that’s just a pre-production mockup, and that a more substantial and high-tech housing is in the works, and perhaps something Araya has in the works for its upcoming demonstration for visitors at this year’s Tokyo Game Show in September.
Source: PR Times
Top image: PR Times
Insert images: YouTube/Araya Inc., PR Times
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