“Magic Calendar” connects to a smart phone

Kosho Tsuboi, a Japanese design studio, has created Magic Calendar, a tactile paper calendar that connects to the Internet. Made from high-resolution electronic paper, the calendar syncs with a Google calendar via a mobile device. The smart calendar is antireflective so it can be viewed from all angles and lasts three months on a single charge due to its low-electricity surface.

Hironao Tsuboi, head of the studio, says the calendar was inspired by the idea of being able to share his schedule with his wife, even when the two were in different places. Picture a mother getting off the train, noticing a poster in the station about an event her children will like. She enters the info on her smartphone’s Google calendar, and moments later the information pops up on the Magic Calendar hanging in her kitchen, so the whole family is aware of the event.

“As technology development progresses, the boundary between analog and digital things will disappear,” says Tsuboi.

What possibility this technology may have for textiles is exactly what Tsuboi points to: disappearing boundaries between the old and new—all down to need, imagination and smart design.