Oni no Kisei" Tile Present! Find what you are looking for with sound! The charm of collaboration discovered by "Tile", the tracker for finding things in the collaboration of "Blade of Oni-Enmisu", "Sanrio", and "Evangelion" [Gemba of Collaboration No.19].

Today, with the increasing collaboration between various industries and subcultures such as anime and voice acting, there are many people who say, "Whoa, they're doing it! You're doing it," "What? You did it! and "Oh, you're doing it!" and "What? Akiba Research Institute is going to visit the sites where these "collaborations" are being planned and ask about the appeal of the projects, interesting episodes, hardships, and other behind-the-scenes stories about the production! The 20th issue of "Gemba of Collaboration" is a series of articles on "Collaboration".

In this 20th installment of "Gemba of Collaboration," we will talk about the "Tile," a sound-based tracker for finding what you are looking for. This time, we interviewed Eiichi Tsuji, who belongs to the Tracker Business Promotion Office of the IoT & Service Business Division at SB C&S Co. The collaboration project was undertaken in order to increase awareness of "Tile," a tracker for finding items that is popular overseas, in Japan. We asked him to tell us how the "Tile" x "Demon Slayer" collaboration came about, the response to the collaboration project, the story behind the production of the "Sanrio" and "Evangelion" collaborations, as well as future developments.

Tatsuya: Could you please explain about the "Tile" product?

Tsuji: It is a product that contains Bluetooth and batteries, and is used by connecting it to a smartphone app. The usage scenario is for familiar searches. For example, when you attach Tile to your house key and say, "I can't find my keys! you can ring the Tile attached to the key from your smartphone to check the location of the key. On the other hand, if you forget your phone, you can press the Tile button twice to make your phone ring. Since this uses sound, it is useful when looking for something close at hand, such as in the house.

─ It is very convenient to be able to search for your phone as well as the things you wear the Tile on. I think there are many people who look for their smartphones in their daily lives.

Tsuji: The impetus for the birth of Tile came from the founder's wife, who often forgot or misplaced things. When the wife's cherished ring was missing and all hell broke loose, the founder started thinking about how he could do something about it from his position as an engineer, and Tile was born. The founder of the company, who is an engineer, started to think about how he could do something about it, and the product was born. It is said that people spend about 146 days of their lives looking for things, so he developed this product to reduce the time wasted and the sadness of losing lost items.

T : What happens when the phone is in silent mode?

Tsuji: The sound will sound even if the phone is in silent mode, so there is no need to change the setting. In addition to the sound notification, the device also records the location of the last time it was connected via Bluetooth, so you can check, for example, if you left the device at home when you thought you had taken it out. Since the last location information is available, you can see where you dropped or left it.

Using the "Tile Network," the location of your Tile is transmitted to the cloud as other users' Tile apps pick up the signal when they pass near your Tile. Other users will not know whose Tile information is being used, but by picking up the radio waves, the Tile Network users can cooperate in the search for lost items.

TMZ: So this is a system that will help people find lost items.

Tsuji: We can't promise that we will be able to find the lost item, but we are currently installing this system in the "MoT Rear Seat Tablet" in about 30,000 cabs operated by Mobility Technologies, Inc. The system is now in operation as a moving Tile access point. This is an image of the system operating as a moving Tile access point. In addition to the "MoT Rear Seat Tablet Mounted Taxis," "Tile Access Points" that pick up dedicated Bluetooth radio waves have been installed at the Tokyu railway lines and at the Lost and Found at Iidabashi Station, so that when a lost and found item with a Tile attached reaches a station or a "Lost and Found When a lost-and-found item with a Tile attached arrives at a station or "lost-and-found" office, the owner is notified of the location of the lost-and-found item and a message is sent to the owner.

We are expanding Tile's functionality through partnerships with manufacturers of a variety of products that incorporate Bluetooth functionality. One such product, a Sumitomo Mitsui Card credit card with Tile functionality, was announced last December. Sumitomo Mitsui Card, which has taken the lead in the industry in promoting credit card safety and security, was very positive about this groundbreaking initiative, and although it took some time to develop the product, it was the first credit card in the world to incorporate the Tile tracker function, and thankfully, it became quite a topic of conversation. Thankfully, it became quite a topic of conversation.

Tile is the first credit card in the world to have a tracker function, and thankfully it was quite a hit. I am very much looking forward to seeing what kind of products will be born in the future. Next, please tell us how the collaboration with "Demon Slayer" came about.

Tsuji: Tile is used mainly by men in their 40s and 50s, but we wanted to make our products known to a wider range of people, so we started thinking about collaborating with a character. We sold our regular models at FamilyMart and Lawson, and had a good track record of sales. Convenience stores frequently hold events, and Seven-Eleven was the first to propose a character event at the time of the "Evangelion the Movie" DVD release. As for "Demon Slayer," LAWSON had been developing many collaborations, and we were connected to Aniplex from there. We are very grateful that we were able to proceed with the project rather smoothly, even though it was a collaboration with a very popular work like "Demon Slayer", because Tile had a track record of sales even without the character design, and we had already decided where to sell the product.

What was the most difficult part of the collaboration project?

Tsuji: The design. We learned a lot about how to present the characters. We chose the "Mate," which is a popular entry-level model, as the Tile product for the collaboration.

TMZ: With the Tile logo in the middle, it looks like it would be difficult to design.

Tsuji That's right. Since we can't change the location of the logo, I think the designers had a hard time deciding how much to make each character attractive. Our designers played a central role in the "Demon Slayer" project, while Sanrio (for the "Sanrio" collaboration) and Movic (for the "Evangelion" collaboration) created several designs and repeatedly selected the most appropriate design for the world of the work. Next to the design, the most difficult part is choosing the characters. Next to the design, the most difficult part was choosing the characters. Especially for the "Sanrio" collaboration, we had a lot of discussions about which character to choose.

T: Do you have any new collaboration projects planned for the future?

Tsuji: The response to the collaboration project was very positive, not only among our customers but also within the company, so we would like to continue it in the future. I feel that our collaboration projects have raised awareness of our products, but we would like to make them known to a wider range of people. We would like to consider collaborating with characters, artworks, and brands. I felt that the appeal of collaboration projects is that they are fun to do, even though they can be a challenge.

T: When you say "fun to do," it makes me look forward to future developments.

Tsuji: We want people to know about our products because they are good. Selling products and making a profit is important, but the management philosophy of the SOFTBANK Group is "to make people happy through the information revolution," so I want to bring happiness to people through Tile. I myself have lost a lot of frustration when I lose things. When I go out with my family and find my keys, wallet, or phone missing, I get quite frustrated (laughs). Even after finding them and getting in the car, there are still lingering feelings of frustration, which can create a strange atmosphere. If you can eliminate unnecessary irritation and maintain family peace, ...... is such a convenient and reasonable item (laughs).

(Interview and text by Shinobu Tanaka)

Outline of Present Campaign

<Prize
One winner will receive a set of all five types of "Demon Slayer Tile Mate Book Vol. 2!

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Entry period: May 2, 2022 (Monday) - May 9, 2022 (Monday) 23:59
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