Toyota and teamLab Help Children Explore Colourful World of Making Things with New Mobilmo™ App
Making things is one of the great joys of childhood, the kind of fun and games that can also inspire the engineers and designers of the future. Toyota is opening up a world of creativity for youngsters, working with partner teamLab to produce Mobilmo™, a mobile app that lets children use their boundless imagination in a colourful world of virtual craft and adventure.
https://youtu.be/D6Lradracdg
What is Mobilmo™
Mobilmo’s name reflects its three main elements: Move (moving things), Build (creating things) and More (making more friends). The app can be downloaded on smartphones and tablets* so children can create their own 3D Mobilmo contraptions to explore the imaginary planet Cosmobi.
Each player can design their own unique Mobilmo from more than 100 different 3D parts and programme it with movements – run, fly, dance – that can be stored and remembered for the next time they use the app, all with the touch of a finger.
When a Mobilmo has been designed and uploaded, it leaves a “footprint” on Cosmobi, making it visible to other players, who can then meet, exchange parts they have discovered on the giant planet and explore different places together.
Cool features
Mobilmo™ has many more cool features, including mini games such as Time Attack and Banana Jump, where players can boost their individual ranking.
The 9 Worlds of Wonder lets players adapt their Mobilmo to blend in with a fantasy landscape and there emblems to be won if your Mobilmo is popular with other players, or if you do well in the games. Interacting with other players earns experience points and there is a radar function you can use to scan for new arrivals on Cosmobi.
The app provides two modes to suit beginners and more experienced users. Mobilmo Creation Mode helps with the selection and combination of action and normal parts to build a Mobilmo; Action Parts Creation Mode is more advanced, helping you select and programme movements to create action parts so your Mobilmo can move even more freely.
Toyota’s role
Toyota is keen to encourage children to express their creativity and imagination and has hosted the annual Toyota Dream Car Art Contest since 2004, so far drawing more than 4.6 million entries from youngsters in more than 100 countries around the world.
It also wants to connect with children who have grown up familiar with the internet and the digital environment – “digital natives” – giving them a chance to express their creativity. This inspired development of the Mobilmo™ app to open up a new path of discovery and a new way for children to communicate with each other.
About teamLab
teamLab is an art collective, founded in 2001, that brings together “ultratechnologists” – professionals from different digital fields, including artists, programmers, engineers, CG animators, mathematicians, architects, web and print graphics designers and editors. The collective plans and operate teamLab Island, a futuristic amusement park where children can learn and play (www.teamlab.art)
More screenshots of the app can be downloaded from here.
https://youtu.be/FX0TzgRy3_U
*User with iOS devices can download Mobilmo™ from the App store; an Android version will be available at a later date from Google Play.
