Phygments is an attempt to provide unknown creatures and machines appearing in science fiction (SF) stories as actual interactive gadgets alongside the narrative, as part of the format for constructing science fiction.‘Phygment’ is a compound word of ‘physics’ and ‘figment’, meaning “embodied fiction”.
While novels basically express everything in text, just as illustrations supplement areas that are difficult to explain in text, phygments aim to strongly stimulate readers’ imagination as an aid to accepting the world presented in the novel.
So far, we have published a work called “Tangled Tails” featuring fictional creatures.
Tangled Tails are animated plushies that mimic fictional creatures. They have tails that extend and contract synchronously through wireless LAN, and all tangled tails belonging to the same group maintain the same tail length across all individuals.
The tail length is approximately 10cm and can be manually stretched or contracted. The length is measured and this information is transmitted to synchronized individuals. Individuals receiving the information adjust their tail length using motors, accurately conveying the length information.
For more details about Tangled Tails, please see here.