Japanese Innovators Entering ASEAN: Palan

Palan, a digital creative agency based in Tokyo, is on a mission to democratize Augmented Reality (AR). They envision a world where everyone can experience and interact with AR technology seamlessly. By harnessing the power of both design and system development, palan transforms creative ideas into tangible AR products. Their expertise extends beyond just AR – they offer a comprehensive suite of digital development services, including system development, mobile app creation, website building, and even development for web-based AR (WebAR) experiences. plan focuses specifically on crafting engaging WebAR experiences accessible through any web browser, eliminating the need for additional app downloads. With that, why don’t you join me in learning more about palan with its Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer, Ayaka Ohata.

Could you elaborate more about your role in palan? 

I am the co-founder of palan. We were founded back in 2016. As of now, I am also the Chief Design Officer. Since we’re a startup, this also means that I do other tasks. For instance, I also work on corporate partnerships including technical partnerships. Recently, we had a partnership with Immersal, under Hexagon. We’ve been working with their spatial mapping technologies. We try to work with companies that have exciting technologies and applications for XR. I also work with partnerships in Japan, but more of a sales kind of partnership. I talk with a lot of agencies in different sectors like printing agencies and 3D modeling agencies where we come together and think of how we spread AR to our clients. I also work as the lead of the customer success team and work closely with companies and customers that use palanAR and who would like to start an AR business.

What differentiates palan from other companies offering AR development services in the Japanese market?

Our vision is to empower people with AR. When we say empower people with AR, we mean everyone. They can be a student, a teacher, a baker, or anyone and everyone in between. I think one of our biggest differentiations is that we try to offer AR to all literacy groups. Because we think this is something that we offer as a service and that's how we can get more AR content that will make the world a more exciting and better place. The biggest differentiation in terms of technicalities would be that we are a company that specializes in WebAR. This is a type of AR that works with web browsers. A lot of people think that AR is just like Pokemon Go or AR games. But it has advanced so much that you can actually just visit a website. This will trigger an AR camera within the website and you can experience AR without the need to download an app. This is what we specialize in.

Another thing that ties into our vision is that we have our own no-code AR creation platform which is called palanAR. This is something that we open to the public. Anyone can sign up to palanAR for free and can even create up to three ARs. We actually leverage this product ourselves to develop WebAR experiences for our clients. This is a fast and cost effective way for us to leverage, but it's also open to the public for people to try out. One last thing that I would like to highlight is that we have partnerships with strong AR companies. We have partnerships with Niantic, which is the development company of Pokemon Go. We actually have a partnership with their WebAR engine, 8th Wall. We have integrated the 8th Wall engine into our platform, which allows one to create high quality AR without the need of any code. That is something that's really special about our product. 

With the constant evolution of AR technology, how does palan stay ahead of the curve and integrate new functionalities into its solutions?

We have a team of experts that research these new functionalities. Our CEO and my Co-Founder is an engineer. He has an interest in new technologies and we're constantly looking for new technologies to integrate them with AR. Our team creates small sample demos using these new technologies. For example, recently we created a simple demo combining AR experiences and generative AI technology. This was an experience where you can create an “AR portal”, a door where you can go into a new dimension. And what is special about this portal is that you can type in wherever you want to go and the generative AI creates the landscape and image of the portal.

We also created something where one can create an AR picture book using generative AI. One can type in a story that they’re interested in. Once they scan a marker, it gives them the first page of the storybook and then when they scan the second page, this gives them the second page. 

We also actively collaborate with other companies. For example, we collaborated with Lenslist. They are a firm that has a lot of AR project databases. We’ve been having webinars with them to see how we can leverage how the AR field will grow in the future and maybe how AI will change the AR landscape.

Looking ahead, how do you see the role of AR technology evolving in the coming years? How is palan preparing to adapt its services to these future trends?

AR is definitely evolving. It's becoming a more and more mature technology that a lot of people can leverage. In terms of what we think AR is perceived currently, we think that AR is seen as a spot technology, meaning it can be used in certain situations. For example, one goes to an event and there's one AR execution that they experience there and it's just for that event within that particular spot. That’s what spot technology is. But I think that with the evolution of AR, I see that AR is opening up to more city scale executions. It is also something that can be used more on a daily basis. With spot executions, only one person is experiencing something. But with shared experiences, more than one person can experience this at the same time. I see it expanding in scale and also in terms of interactions.

We are actually building a map of AR executions. We're trying to bring a lot of AR experiences into the city by creating an AR map. This is something that we've recently launched and is a new platform that we’re creating. What we're trying to achieve there is a situation where people can freely create AR and position their AR in certain locations. Anyone and everyone can join in that platform to see and experience AR within that platform. What we would like to do is to start off with having an immersive experience that shows the history of the location. Really, what AR can do is it can give meaning to that location. That’s what we're trying to achieve with AR Maps. At first, we want to begin with a sightseeing kind of touch to it. But we want to bring this to a more daily life kind of experience so that people can enjoy AR and the meaning of that location daily.

Does palan have plans to expand its services beyond the Japanese market and offer its AR expertise to clients in other countries?

We plan to expand our services beyond the Japanese market. The need for AR is not only limited to Japan or the Japanese market. We have already had strong interest in our product, palanAR, from countries like South Korea, Taiwan, China and the Philippines. We are looking to bring our product overseas. We’re actively looking for partners that can localize and bring our product to the overseas market because this isn’t something that we can do by ourselves. One specific example will be our recent partnership with a very strong digital strategy consulting firm called David & Goliath. We’re working with them to bring our services to the overseas market and for them specifically to target the Filipino market.

Our vision is to empower people with AR and work with companies of all kinds. It doesn't have to be a digital firm, it can be a printing agency or a very creative individual.

Ayaka is the Co-Founder and Chief Design Officer of Palan. She is an imperative figure in leading the company's creative vision and ensuring its AR experiences are not only functional but also visually appealing and user-friendly. She is responsible for setting creative direction, partnerships, client communication, and business development among many others. As seen in her, Ayaka is set on making AR accessible to anyone and everyone.

Visit www.techshake.asia if you would like to know and connect more with palan.