Shiseido Research Institute leads an open innovation program called "fibona." One of the pillars of its activities is “Co-Creation with Startups,” which promotes collaboration research with startup companies.

ORPHE Inc. was one of the partners selected during the first startup selection in 2019. As a company that develops technology to analyze gait by using "smart shoes" with built-in sensors and computers , what kind of results are being produced in the fourth year of collaboration with ORPHE Inc.?

Yuriko Saheki, a fibona member, interviewed Tomoki Miyata of ORPHE Inc., Maki Shirato, a researcher at the Brand Value Development Institute and manager of S/PARK Studio, and Akane Yanagihara, who has been promoting the co-creation project as a fibona member.

Research on gait started with "dynamic beauty"

One of our strengths that other companies do not have is the ability to obtain indicators specific to walking and running. We are developing a service that allows users to objectively capture their gait by converting measurement results obtained from sensors, such as landing angle, walking speed, and stride length, into data and display it in an application.

As a project manager, I am responsible for the products across the board, from shoe planning and design to application development.

Yanagihara:
As a member of the R&D Strategy Department, I am usually in charge of planning and executing research strategies and exploring external technologies, but I am also involved in gait (walking pattern) research at fibona.

At Shiseido, Ms. Shirato has been leading research on gait since 2016, but at that time, the main focus was to develop a method to evaluate the beauty of gait, wasn't it?

Shirato:
Yes, I am a senior specialist at the Brand Value Development Institute, researching the effects of exercise on beauty and health, and I can trace my gait research at Shiseido back to the time when Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Olympics.

The hosting of the Tokyo Olympics triggered a trend at Shiseido to study "dynamic," active beauty rather than "static" beauty.

However, Shiseido is primarily a cosmetics company, so the starting point was to think about what kind of beauty dynamic beauty is.

There are various "dynamic" movements, such as standing, sitting, and walking, but through repeated interviews with Japanese dance teachers, ballet dancers, and walking instructors, we have come to the conclusion that walking is the basis of everything.

Therefore, we developed an original scale for a beautiful gait, but since beauty is subjective to begin with, we had to be creative in quantifying it.

Yanagihara:
Until now, Shiseido's experts have evaluated gait according to a beautiful gait scale originally developed by Shiseido, but with ORPHE Inc.'s technology, anyone can easily obtain a gait evaluation, and the concept of "gait beauty" should be more easily spread throughout the world. With this in mind, we selected ORPHE Inc. during the first start-up screening conducted by fibona in 2019, and our joint research began.

New evaluation indicators from Smart Shoes x Beauty

Shirato:
It was amazing how much clearer the indicators became thanks to ORPHE Inc.'s system. In the intervention study, subjects were asked to engage in a two-month movement improvement program, with gait measurements taken before and after. This program is based on the original program from S/PARK Studio (a studio located in the GIC with the theme of "active beauty").

Then, before and after the intervention trial, almost all of the ratings changed positively, including gait speed, stride length, and joint angles. In addition, positive effects on skin tone and psychological state were also observed. The improved walking improved blood circulation, and the skin tone was brighter than at rest. Effects such as a more positive facial expression and psychological state were also confirmed. The results of this research were also presented at a conference last year.

──We have consciously changed our gait, which has also improved our skin and state of mind.

Miyata:
I was involved in the measurements with them and was surprised to see such dramatic changes in the numbers. The strength of our smart shoes and analysis application is the ability to visualize gait data. However, we had not yet reached the point where we could utilize the data and turn it into useful advice for consumers.

I believe that it was thanks to the collaboration with Shiseido's accumulated knowledge that we were able to step forward with our approach to health, beauty, and even positive changes in the mind.

Shirato:
We had developed an original evaluation method, but we were still searching for the best way to implement it, so the joint research with ORPHE Inc. was very timely.

Miyata:
Even if someone says, "The swing width value has increased from 17 cm to 20 cm," general consumers would not understand what has happened, would they? However, by using easy-to-understand indicators developed by Shiseido, such as "lively," "relaxed," and "soft," and showing a before-and-after video of walking at the same time, we are now able to make proposals that are more easily understood by consumers.

The beauty of gait attracts attention during the era of video sharing

Yanagihara:
In the first experiment, we explained the beauty of the consumer's gait based on the numerical data from ORPHE Inc.'s system, but in the second experiment, the consumer was able to see the gait beauty index score using an app developed jointly with ORPHE Inc., and they would say things like "Wow, I walk like that. I can't believe how much I've changed!" You could hear how convinced they were of the results through these kinds of comments.

Furthermore, seeing is believing, and many consumers thought "Oh, I need to fix that," when they saw the video of themselves walking. It seems as if they understood through their own experience that changes in their gait are connected to their health, skin, and psychological state. Since we are now in the age of video sharing, the importance of the "beauty of movement" has great potential. I hope to increase this potential in the future.

──I wore the smart shoes and had my gait analyzed, and it was a totally new experience to have the way I walk converted into data and receive advice such as, "Bend your knees more to improve your gait.”

Shirato:
Most people do not know or are not aware of how they are walking in the first place. Although there may be moments when you look at your reflection in a show window, you rarely have the opportunity to analyze your gait and get advice on how to improve it. I am happy if we were able to show that walking is directly related to beauty and health using ORPHE Inc.'s system and the indicators we developed.

── Other companies are also conducting research and developing "gait analysis" services, but what are the unique aspects of the collaboration between fibona and ORPHE Inc.?

Yanagihara:
The uniqueness of this joint research is that we focused on the "beauty" of gait and scored it.

Shirato:
That's right. Some other companies focus on the gait development of children or the gait of the elderly as their physical strength declines, but our current focus is on the healthy and beautiful gait of the average adult. The key point is that we have focused on a healthy, functional, and beautiful gait, which is different from the walking of a model.

Yanagihara:
I would like to ask Ms. Shirato again, can we assume that biomechanical beauty and the aesthetic evaluation of beauty are linked?

Shirato:
When walking in a kimono, a tight skirt, or heels. The "beauty" of each of these situations varies. Therefore, how to define the "beauty of gait" was the subject of much discussion within the team, but this time we assumed a "healthy adult female gait" and statistically narrowed down the elements, ultimately choosing from the evaluation items of dance.

Wanting to further increase the value of "feet data"

Shirato:
Currently, our target audience is the general Japanese female population, but in the future, we would like to broaden the range of users by expanding the age range and including men and those from various countries. Different countries and cultures have different ways of walking.

Through our co-creation with ORPHE Inc., we want to make people realize the way they are walking, and we hope to convey that the beauty of the way we walk is deeply connected to our health.



(text: Hanae Abe　edit: Kaori Sasagawa photo: fibona, Umihiko Eto, Yuko Kawashima)