I am working on turning Ipoku's 1999 idea into something that can be tried in a real room. The product is not meant to give people another reason to stand together while browsing their phones. It should help somebody decide whether saying hello may be worthwhile, then get out of the way.
Most of my work is on that moment: what Ipoku should say, what it should leave unsaid, and when the phone has to stop being part of the conversation. The interesting thing is not the machinery. It is whether the person looks up.