離れた場所と人とを繋げる新技術ー生き方も働き方も選べる未来ー

（日本語のFAQは近日中に公開いたします）

 

Hi, this is Taj Campbell, Product Lead for Continuum. Since our announcement of Continuum and during the course of our campaign, we’ve received a lot of questions from our friends and supporters, so I want to take a moment to share some of the most Frequently Asked Questions and our responses.

 

If you have other questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out via email or social media. And if you’re in Tokyo, please come visit us and ask your questions in person at the Social Innovation Forum on November 17-19!

 

• What is the actual product or solution? Is it a hardware device, or a software application, or…?
• How will this feel different from using Skype or other existing video communications tools?
• In what kinds of environments and scenarios do you envision Continuum being used?
• Why is this a “Social Innovation” project? What is the potential social impact of Continuum?
• What does it mean for Continuum to be a “social enterprise?”
• What benefits will I receive as a backer of your crowdfunding campaign?
• What will you do with the money you raise through crowdfunding?
• What will happen if you don’t win additional funding from Nippon Zaidan?
• Do you plan to seek additional investment from VCs or other partners?
• When can I try it?
• When will it be available to install in my organization / company / home?
• What will it cost to install Continuum in a space? How can it be made affordable and accessible to everyday people?
• How will you overcome problems with internet connectivity? What are some other technical challenges or risks?

 

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Due to the character limitation, this post covers only the first two questions. The full version to all the questions above can be found at our website.

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What is the actual product or solution? Is it a hardware device, or a software application, or…?

 

Continuum is both software and hardware, and is designed as a holistic communication platform that can be experienced through multiple devices, including portals (specialized video communication devices), mobile applications, web interfaces, and smart watches.

 

Continuum’s products are designed around four concepts:

• Portals: high-fidelity video communication devices that virtually connect spaces
• Presence: the ability to see or sense when someone remote is available to talk
• Stories: tools that make it easy to catch up when working across different schedules
• Assistance: tools that automate the capture, synthesis, and sharing of information

As a product, Continuum is most often experienced through portals. These are large, high-fidelity floor-to-ceiling displays with high-definition audio, designed and installed architecturally into spaces with the goal of becoming a unique spaces for remote conversation and collaboration. Try to imagine something like a video chat that covers an entire wall of a room, so large that people and objects are true to scale, and so visually and acoustically immersive that you may feel as if you are in the same room with the person on the other side.

 

Other parts of Continuum are experienced through software applications that run on your phone, laptop, or smart watch. These are communication tools similar to Slack or Messenger, but designed with an emphasis towards connecting people to communicate through portals rather than online, and with additional features that make it easier to see when remote people are available to talk (what we call “presence”). Continuum’s communication tools also have features that simplify remote work, making it easier to catch up through stories, and stay informed with the help of machine-learning-based assistance that automates tasks like note-taking, project management updates, and sharing information within teams.

 

Our team’s core focus is to design and develop the underlying software platform and services that powers these experiences, along with hardware prototypes that can be ultimately developed with hardware partners to be productionised, sold, and installed in locations worldwide. In 2018, we’ll begin testing initial versions of our products with trusted groups and partners in a variety of enterprise, co-working, and community settings, and refine our solutions through longitudinal user testing in real-world scenarios. In late 2018, we hope to shift from R&D to production, and begin working with strategic partners to develop a scalable and commercially viable product suite for enterprise customers and large organizations. Over time, Continuum will also become more scalable and less costly to be usable by smaller organizations, local businesses, and homes.

 

How will this feel different from using Skype or other existing video communications tools?

 

Most online communication tools today -- including email, chat, Slack, Skype, or Hangouts -- require us to adapt our style of communication to the limits of the technology. We are inhibited from communicating naturally, the way we would if we were in the same location. The friction of these tools and the difficulties of communicating nuance mean that even simple questions can result in long and complex conversations, back-and-forth email and chat threads, or waiting long periods to talk due to the pains of scheduling and setting up video calls.

 

Moreover, these tools don’t convey the nuances natural communication that are necessary to build trust and improve relationships. Even with modern video communication tools, it’s difficult to make eye contact or convey gestures, our view is shrunken and restricted to a small frame, and poor video and sound quality frequently degrade our experience.

Continuum strives to combine technology, design, and architecture to create the experience of being in the same room with others in remote locations. Portals are always on and thoughtfully integrated into the architecture of a room, so that they are not necessarily perceived to be devices that require interaction or setup to be used, but instead simply become seamless and transparent windows that combine two spaces into one.

 

The scale, simplicity, and realism of portals make it possible to communicate and collaborate naturally and face-to-face between locations, without the fuss of scheduling appointments, setting up tools, or switching between browser tabs and applications. And because they are designed architecturally, they fit into the consideration of how a space is already used: portals connecting two mini-kitchens in a corporate office would allow remote co-workers to casually chat while having a coffee or snack; portals connecting two breakout spaces with digital whiteboards would enable two or more colleagues to draw together and collaborate as if they were standing in front of the same whiteboard.

 

Through these advances, we hope Continuum will enable new kinds of casual and spontaneous remote interaction that aren’t possible through existing tools, enabling individuals and teams to work more efficiently and build trusting relationships as if they were in the same location.
 

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For other questions, please refer to our website.