My favorite saying has always been "Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking outward in the same direction." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery-
When you look in the same direction, you are able to feel the warmth and the love of the person next to you. It is different from merely seeing that person visually. Takawa is our dream of creating a world where we can share experiences with people we love and want to connect with together through virtual reality. In this world, you can take virtual hikes by beautiful Lake Tahoe with your loved next to you. In this world, you can go on virtual walks by a beach in Hawaii with your friends and family, talking about how we share love without judging each other. It is not just seeing them, but walking and running together in a world, side-by-side, as we look and travel toward the same direction.
Most importantly, I want easy access to this world, whenever and wherever I want - whether it's when I need a loved one to talk to, or whether it's just me at night alone on that virtual beach below the stars, thinking to myself. We invented a hardware and software VR platform that allows one to easily move across to and from this virtual world that doesn't require the bulky wearables that virtual systems today require.
The opportunity of this project is to reach to the many people in similar situations as I am - people who cannot readily connect with loved ones in reality. Takawa's dream is to give them more chances to share these special experiences with their loves ones in a virtual world and spread a way to love, reconnect, and rebuild the relationships that make us whole. An elderly grandmother living far away from her children, given an opportunity to take weekly night walks with her grandson; a disabled veteran given an opportunity to walk through Muir woods on their own; or simply a friend who lost touch with a close childhood friend given an opportunity to visit their favorite childhood candy shop together - all by simply stepping onto my hardware platform without the hassle of putting on heavy wearables and sensors that are used to track your movement.
FaceTime might help, but I think if we all had more time looking in the same direction together within this experience, we would reconnect stronger and deeper.
Hope we can create that world together.