tonari

In our widespread and deeply interwoven society, technology has to play a role in expanding natural human connection. We urgently need to explore and build ways to reduce the heavy environmental costs of air travel, and the time and stress of commuting, to be kinder to ourselves and our planet. We also need ways to increase emotional connectivity among families, colleagues, or classmates when we are forced to be physically apart, as so many of us have experienced during this pandemic. tonari is a unified installation that seamlessly connects two spaces as if you are in the same room. Unlike video calls, it provides an immersive, life-sized experience that brings you face-to-face with true eye contact, complete presence, no lag, and no learning curve. In businesses and workplaces, it enables distributed teams and management to be flatter, more trusting and collaborative, more time and human-resource efficient, and more environmentally sustainable. In schools, it enables educatio...