Las Vegas – At this year’s CES Japan-based Mui Lab premiered ‘mui’, a technology-enabled wooden interface designed as a control pad for the home’s Internet of Things (IoT) devices. More closely resembling a piece of wall-mounted furniture than a screen, mui is able to display weather information, control the interior temperature, adjust the lighting, display Spotify music playback and open smart doors.

Citing the fact that mobile phones, which have traditionally been used to control smart appliances, are designed to be used individually and therefore encourage a sense of disconnection from one’s surroundings, the brand’s founder, Kaz Oki, explained that mui encourages people to forego their phone screens in favour of interacting with one another.

‘What is important to people hasn’t changed; preparing a meal, talking to someone or playing with kids,’ Oki tells LS:N Global. ‘But when you’re using a mobile phone at home you’re distancing yourself from people. It looks like you’re not focusing on your family.’ In our attention-based economy, in which our devices are constantly vying for our attention, designing for digital resistance is becoming an increasingly important way to help people regain focus.

Poland – Saatchi & Saatchi Poland and Huawei have created an app that allows blind people to 'see' the expressions and emotions of people they are speaking to.

The Facing Emotions app uses artificial intelligence (AI) and the camera of the Huawei Mate 20 Pro smartphone to translate seven universal emotions into seven unique sounds. Developed in collaboration with the Polish Blind Association, the app has been created to give blind and visually impaired people a richer experience when communicating with others.

Using the phone’s back camera during conversation, the app analyses the facial expressions of the person the user is talking to. As the AI identifies their emotions, the corresponding sound plays on the phone to add greater context to the moment. Blind composer Tomasz Bilecki designed the sounds to be short, simple and non-invasive. ‘The sounds I wanted to create needed to be specific for each emotion, and not distract users from their conversations,’ he explains.

Increasingly, brands are using technology to respond to the needs of disabled consumers. Instagram, for example, recently introduced new features to assist visually impaired users.

A rapidly growing middle class and a powerful manufacturing sector mean that India will soon be one of the most attractive consumer markets in the world, according to a new study by Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Co.

The Indian middle class is forecast to expand by 19.4% a year between 2018 and 2022, outpacing China, Mexico and Brazil. By 2022, India’s apparel market will be worth £46.6bn ($59.3bn, €51.8bn), making it comparable to the UK (£51bn, $65bn, €57bn) and Germany (£49.5bn, $63.1bn, €55bn). The study cites Sanjay Kapoor, founder of Indian retail conglomerate Genesis Luxury, who believes there is a new demographic emerging in the country: ‘We are moving on towards the ‘gold collar’ worker. It’s a term that defines the well paid, highly paid professionals, who are happy to look good, happy to feel good and are expanding the consumption of today.’

For more on why India’s high-end retail market must not be underestimated, read our report The State of Luxury: India.