Lab
What can be hidden inside an object.
These are the mechanisms that go into amulets, keepsakes, and stage pieces. The ones with a demo are live on this page — try them.
Read the labels
Some of these have run in the world. Some are working prototypes that have not shipped. One is designed and coded but not yet tested on assembled hardware. Each item says which, because a capability list that does not distinguish between them is not worth reading.
Rub to reveal
A treated surface that gives way under a fingertip, revealing the text beneath. No battery, no network. It works the day it is received and it works ten years later.
The on-screen demo paints the cover on a canvas and erases along the pointer path. The physical version achieves the same through layered printing.
Built and working, not yet shipped
May this year pass without harm.
A reproduction of the treatment applied to the pouch surface.
Appears at the right angle
Nothing is visible head-on. Turn it, and the text stands up out of the surface. The owner finds it by accident, and the finding is the experience.
The demo overlays fine stripes with text cut at the same period. On phones it reads the device tilt; on desktop it treats pointer position as the viewing angle.
Built and working, not yet shipped
Come back again.
Move slowly left and right
Text hidden inside a printed image
We embed text at an intermediate tone inside a fine stripe pattern, so it surfaces only under specific conditions. Both the text and the stripe pitch can be tuned to the design.
The generator is our own (Python). Printed samples exist.
Run in the real world
A code that opens a specific day
A code travels with the object. Scanning it opens a page tied to the day and the place. It opens the same way at home, and years later.
We ran this end to end: order intake, token issuing, printable codes, and fulfilment. The order webhook is HMAC-verified and idempotent.
Run in the real world
Hold it near, and it opens
A box that unlocks only for the right tag. Useful for festival puzzles and for staged reveals.
Circuit design and firmware are done (Arduino + RC522 + servo). We have not yet verified it on assembled hardware. Saying so plainly seems better than not.
Designed and coded; hardware test pending
Stage devices that move on cue
Devices that light, move, or open on cue. When off-the-shelf lighting cannot do what the piece needs, we design and build the device itself — sized to the grounds and the power available.
Built and working, not yet shipped
A story that unfolds on the visitor's phone
A branching story that runs inside a LINE official account. It adapts well to programmes where visitors walk the grounds while it unfolds.
Branch management, per-visitor state, and AI-driven replies are implemented. We rebuilt the same experience in a second language stack.
Built and working, not yet shipped
The mechanism follows the meaning, not the reverse.
We do not pick a trick and wrap a story around it. Tell us what the object is for and what should be remembered, and we will propose the mechanism that fits — including, sometimes, none.