Dentsu Lab Tokyo’s Project Humanity and Dentsu Creative’s Scrolling Therapy selected as SXSW 2024 Innovation Award Finalists

― Project Humanity is the only one selected from Japan ―

Dentsu (Brand: “dentsu”; Headquarters: Dentsu Group Inc.; Head Office: Tokyo; Representative: President & Global CEO Hiroshi Igarashi) announced two Finalist entries for SXSW’s (South by Southwest) 2024^*1 Innovation Awards.

The SXSW Innovation Awards celebrates projects, products and creative endeavors that stand out as the most forward-thinking technological advancements from the year. The annual awards have selected 55 finalists across 11 categories from hundreds of entries, which will be on display at the Award Finalist Showcase during the festival. Held in Austin, Texas from March 8 to 16, 2024, SXSW was established in 1987 to celebrate the convergence of tech, film, music, education and culture and now attracts over 300,000 global professionals.

Project Humanity, a joint project between Dentsu Lab Tokyo^*2, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (hereinafter referred to as “NTT”), and WITH ALS General Incorporated Association (hereinafter referred to as “WITH ALS”), was selected as a finalist in the Interface Design category of the Innovation Awards, and is the only project chosen as a finalist from all of the works/projects submitted from Japan.
Project Humanity will also be introduced in a session entitled 'Beyond Boundaries: Tech and Humanity Converge', where Yasuharu Sasaki, Global Chief Creative Officer of dentsu, will be one of the speakers.
In addition, Scrolling Therapy, from Dentsu Creative^*3, a global creative network of dentsu, was selected as a finalist in the Social Media category.

The outline of each work is as follows.

Work 1: Project Humanity
Project Humanity, with its technology jointly developed by Dentsu Lab Tokyo and NTT, is an initiative in collaboration with WITH ALS which representative, Masatane Muto, is an active artist who is living with a designated intractable disease in Japan, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). By attaching electromyography (electrical signals generated when muscles are moved) sensors to the individual’s body to obtain biological information, and then converting the biological information obtained from their minute muscular activities into data, individuals can freely manipulate physical avatars in the digital space.

<Performance at the Tate Modern in England>

Work 2: Scrolling Therapy
Scrolling Therapy was developed by Dentsu Creative’s teams in Argentina, Brazil, and the United States, for Eurofarma, a major Brazilian pharmaceutical company. The app works as an exercise tool to help improve the early symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, such as stiff facial expressions. Using facial recognition technology, users are encouraged to do their daily facial therapy by using their facial expressions, such as joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure, to scroll their social media feed. Currently being used by 45,128 doctors in ten countries around the world, and Scrolling Therapy was the Pharma Lions Grand Prix winner at Cannes Lions 2023.

<Example of the smartphone app screen and facial expression exercises>

*1: For more information about SXSW, please visit the following official website.
URL: https://www.sxsw.com/　

*2: Dentsu Lab Tokyo is a creative R&D organization that integrates creative research, planning, and development in collaboration with companies both within and outside of dentsu. It is working to develop new experiences and solve social issues through open innovation. For more information about Dentsu Lab Tokyo, please visit the following website.
URL: https://dentsulab.tokyo/en/

*3: For more information about Dentsu Creative and Scrolling Therapy, please visit the following website pages.
URL: https://www.dentsucreative.com/
https://www.dentsucreative.com/cases/scrolling-therapy

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Dentsu Group Inc.
Email： group-cc@dentsu-group.com