This particular chair is on display at the Digital Contents Expo in Tokyo this week, but since it is on wheels, I am surprised it was not on display last week at the Tokyo Motor Show.

It looks like it would be quite a comfortable chair, doesn’t it? Of course, if you are claustrophobic, you probably don’t want it closing you up. There is a picture of this closed mobile cocoon after the jump.

This is the “Media Vehicle”, a virtual reality chair/capsule created by Iwata-Yano Laboratory at the University of Tsukuba. The purpose of the spherical screen is so that the user can be in a virtual reality environment.

There are various uses of this device, and most of them seem plucked from science fiction. I could easily see this being used as some sort of simulator with today’s technology. I’m not certain if we have the technology to create anything more.

I believe the wheels are for it to move around, but I can’t imagine what for. Unless you want to create a virtual bumper car or something.

I can totally see workplaces of the future putting their workers in these things as some sort of distraction-free cubicle. I can also just see them running Windows 17 with hundreds of applications at work inside this cozy habitat. I’m not certain that I want to see this future come to pass, though.

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