2025.04.25
Panasonic Group People
Discover the Earth Area at The Land of NOMO
Biosensory Dome (Spatial Design)—Digitally Expressing the Healing Powers of Nature
At the Panasonic Group’s pavilion The Land of NOMO at the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan, the Unlock area, designed to unleash the hidden power of children, is complemented by the Earth area, which showcases five unique technological innovations. In this issue, we spoke with the team that took on the challenge of recreating the soothing effects of nature inside the Biosensory Dome by employing sensory stimuli such as light, wind, fog, and temperature.
Mikako Miura
Solution Development Division,
Electric Works Company,
Panasonic Corporation
Yoshiteru Hara
Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai,
Japan Promotion Committee,
Panasonic Holdings Corporation
Nariaki Iwatani
anno lab Inc.
Ippo Hayashida
anno lab Inc.
Masahiro Ihara
anno lab Inc.
Co-creation as the First Step of a Slightly Lofty Challenge
Hara: This is the second time Panasonic collaborated with anno lab. The first was an exhibit with biophilia* as the overarching theme.
＊Biophilia: A concept emphasizing connectivity with nature and being in harmony with it.
Miura: Biophilia and the concept of the Earth area, a “720° cycle,” are tightly linked. That’s why we wanted to ask for anno lab’s support again in designing the Biosensory Dome.
Ihara: We usually create digital content for exhibitions in science and other museums. Although we are quite familiar with exhibits leveraging digital technology, the abstract theme of digitally recreating nature posed a rather formidable challenge.
Hara: The breadth and depth of the theme were precisely what made designing this exhibit so difficult. The other exhibits in the Earth area had a clear starting point: “How can we express the 720° cycle with this technology?” On the other hand, there were no requirements regarding technologies to be used for the Biosensory Dome.
Miura: Instead of installing real natural elements like houseplants, we were tasked to digitally reproduce nature with whatever means available. Because we had absolutely no limitations, it took us a long time to find a solution.
Hayashida: Once we found the direction to take, we received increasingly challenging requests, which communicated to me that these people are 120% serious about the exhibit. That invigorated us and made us want to reciprocate.
Iwatani: For people like us who are used to creating digital content, we can see the feasibility of a project, whether for good or for bad, at the ideation stage. If anno lab had taken on this challenge alone, we would not have been able to deliver as bold an exhibit as this one. But Panasonic pushed us outside of our comfort zone, and we watched the exhibit evolve. I could see the true value of co-creation by how the number of possibilities ballooned.
Hara: This project was initially a little above everyone’s pay grade. But I think our handiwork exceeded our expectations because we dared to challenge ourselves beyond our skill levels.
Digitally Reproducing Fog, Sunlight Filtered Through Trees, Breath, and Warmth
Ihara: After countless discussions and some failures, we finally settled on the themes of “fog and airflow” and “light and breath,” under which we are now creating exhibits.
Hayashida: I was put in charge of creating the device producing the mist. We use a machine resembling a water basin to generate mist, which we then illuminate. The result is that you can enjoy drifting mist similar to a morning fog or a sea of clouds.
Miura: Visitors can interact with the exhibit in many ways. The experience is not only visual but also tactile: they can stick their hand into the mist and stir it or blow on it. What were the challenges in creating and adjusting the device?
Hayashida: Because mist is fluffy and elusive, it was tough to make it move the way we wanted it to. Particularly difficult was striking the optimal balance between retention and diffusion. If the wind were too weak, the mist would not move, and then...nothing. On the other hand, if it were too strong, the mist would look too “busy.” It took me a very long time to configure the device so that the mist would stay inside it but continue to drift around.
A device that controls the amount of mist and airflow to create an illusory drifting of fog
The Breathing Sphere expresses lifelike softness and warmth
Hara: Originally, we were only planning to control the amount of mist, but ultimately, we needed to control the airflow as well. Thanks to anno lab’s innovative solution to this difficult request, I believe we succeeded in creating an exhibit that is both natural and entertaining for visitors. The Breathing Sphere in the other dome was designed by Mr. Ihara.
Ihara: I considered the soothing effects of nature from various angles and decided on the theme of “the breathing of a child sleeping in the shade of a tree with sun rays shining through it.” The Breathing Sphere was born out of trial and error in an effort to somehow express the up-and-down motion of a child’s chest while napping in the warm sunlight.
Miura: The Breathing Sphere is a large ball with a soft texture. It is also slightly warm to the touch and expands and shrinks. It’s kind of magical, like touching a living thing or lying in the shade on a sunny day.
Ihara: In actually building the exhibit, I realized how difficult it was to create something unprecedented or with no correct answer. Our goal was to make the Breathing Sphere feel natural and comfortable to the people who saw it, and thus this goal was essentially unquantifiable. We did everything possible to design the exhibit in such a way with digital technology.
Hara: We basically experimented with many ideas, and the team members would make a decision on the best one based on their intuition. We would then find a path that might work, proceed that way, and then repeat the process.
Iwatani: My mission was to quantify the comfortable state that Mr. Ihara, Mr. Hayashida, and the other team members discovered with their senses so that we could reproduce this state digitally. I was put in charge of setting comfort parameters and controlling the equipment and programs.
Ihara: Mr. Iwatani was also responsible for controlling the lighting in the dome.
Iwatani: We are using Panasonic’s new lighting technology leveraging micro LEDs. Light usually travels in only one direction; however, the novelty of this technology is its ability to control light so that you can illuminate multiple directions with a single light source or create dynamic lighting effects. Since it is not yet on the market, we held numerous discussions with the developers to find the most effective way to use it.
Miura: We explored the comfort of nature through a very hands-on approach—depending on people’s senses. Once we had a clue, we digitally reproduced the state and then observed it again with our senses. We switched back and forth between analog and digital approaches every day as we sought the best way to fashion the exhibit.
Ihara: We simply “arrived” at the current design through trial and error, rather than moving forward with a clear goal in mind.
How Do You Play with This and What Do You Feel? Leaving the Answers to Children
Hara: Because we focused on how it would resonate with people’s intuition or feelings, the exhibit was not designed with an agenda like “This is how we want you to feel” or “That is how you should experience it.”
Miura: Of course, we offer sensory stimuli that most people would find comfortable and pleasant, but some kids may dislike the sensations, and that’s okay. What’s more important is that children be connected to how they feel, whether it’s pleasant or uncomfortable.
Hara: When I visited the Biosensory Dome, I got a pleasant feeling from seeing Ms. Miura grinning as she touched the Breathing Sphere. I newly discovered that we can enjoy multisensory stimulation through not only touching the Breathing Sphere and mist but also watching people having fun with them.
Miura: I want children to freely explore without worrying about rules or guidelines when interacting with the Biosensory Dome. If I can convey through this exhibit the notion that there are a thousand different ways to have fun, and experiences vary from person to person, then I will have achieved my goal.
Ihara: To me, the Biosensory Dome is like a sandbox. You can build a castle, dig a river, or just listen to the whisper-like sound of sand falling. It would be great if everyone could freely explore like that. But if it’s too free, some kids start wondering, “Where can I start?” That is why we wanted to provide some gimmicks to stimulate their curiosity. They can at least start from stirring the mist or touching the Breathing Sphere.
Iwatani: It’s only adults who try to manipulate certain feelings in children, whether it be through exhibits, interactive experiences, or play. Children don’t look back on every fun and new experience, or try to put into words their accomplishments or events that lead to their growth, right? We want children to play like children. Having said that, it would be nice if kids could sense that somebody behind the scenes created these natural experiences. For example, you get comforted by the sight of sunshine penetrating tree leaves or sitting around a fire. But behind those natural experiences, there was someone who planted the tree or lit the fire. It is my hope that children can sense that, even if only vaguely.
Hayashida: I would be happy if the Biosensory Dome struck a chord not only with small children but also with teenagers. Naturally, I want them to experience the beauty and comfort in what we created, but it is also my hope that they would take it a step further and see the ingenuity in reproducing nature with digital technology, or ask questions like “How did they do it?” “Who are the people that made this?” It would be wonderful if both their senses and their intellect were stimulated, and that some would be inspired to choose engineering or manufacturing as their career.
Hara: I really look forward to seeing how children let their imagination run free in this unrestricted space.
The content in this website is accurate at the time of publication but may be subject to change without notice.
Please note therefore that these documents may not always contain the most up-to-date information.
Please note that German, French and Chinese versions are machine translations, so the quality and accuracy may vary.
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