DAFTCRAFT, inc.
Who we are
HQ : Tokyo
Established : 2018
Employees : 7
https://daftcraft.co.jp/about
DAFTCRAFT is a small development company established in June 2018.
We operate two main business segments:
- Visualization solution development for user experience
- xR content development business
Devoted to “pursuing the potential of the human unconscious and giving back to society“, we are expanding our business around two activities: our own UX visualization solution ‘Owl Vision’, and custom development of xR content, such as VR and AR.
We will put in application our xR contents expertise in our projects, and adopt a circular (sustainable) development style, to bring new experience and values to our society.
Our vision
Making “Omoroi-mon”
Mission: Making “Omoroi-mon”
(A Japanese word which means “funny thing” but also has the nuance of “attractive”, “valuable”, “unique”, “nifty”, etc.)
Vision: Pursuing the potential of humans and giving back to society
Create xReality: Creating a reality that does not exist
We created this company as a place where the creators would shine the most. Below are our four action guidelines, in order to create Omoroi-mon together for as long as possible
- “Core” : Each of us is a creator with a strong core
- “Heat” : We are madly enthusiastic about creation
- “Tie” : We achieve everything as a team
- “Cooperation” : We create a virtuous cycle formed by empathy
We don’t want to become a bunch of dull and boring people.
What we like is getting passioned, be so immersed in our work that we lose track of time.
It doesn’t matter if what we create is too sharp or out there, as long as it reaches the people who really want it.
We wish to continue to create interesting things in a simulating place, where we can devote ourselves purely to creation.
That’s the kind of company we’d like to be.
Our services/products
To pursue the potential of humans and give back to society, you first need to understand humans.
By tracking all human behaviors, we seek out the profundity of humans and their potential, to then turn this knowledge into a product or service.
That is the reason why we are developing “Owl Vision”, a solution that tracks all human behavior in xR space.
If you focus on the position of HMD (Head-mounted display) and the line of sight, “Owl Vision” can visualize the map of what you are watching while moving in an xR space. It could be used in various ways like improving room design by taking into account people’s movement.
Think of a world in the near future, in which the boundaries between the physical world and the cyber world will disappear, and imagine a system in which you can communicate while working on behavioral tracking, visualization, analysis, and study within the cyberspace.
Skills
Our engineering team
What projects/services is your engineering team working on?
1. xR analysis tool (developed in-house)
Collect and analyze user behavioral data in xR app (currently only in VR)
Client side: Developing SDKs for Unity (C#)
Embed in the application, collect user behavior and send the data to server
Server side:
- Construction of infrastructure (GCP)
- Service development (server program, web front end)
- Store and analyze the action data received from the application.
2. Custom (entrusted) development
It is similar to in-house development, but depending on the project, we sometimes use services or devices that are not released to the public.
In most cases, servers are not as large as those for in-house projects.
Since the development schedule and service lifetime are short, we combine withered technologies that focus on speedy implementation, together with challenging technologies that are easy to dispose of.
Client side: Development with Unity (C#)
Server side: Infrastructure, Service Development
What technologies are you using?
Technologies used by Iwaki (engineer)
Device: Vive (including Pro, Pro eye), stand-alone VR (Pico, Oculus Quest)
Programming language: Unity (C#.Net4.x), scala, etc. I usually use UniRx for Unity
Infrastructure: GCP, AWS
Version control: Git, Gitlab for internal hosting
Chat tool: Slack, zoom
Information sharing: notion, miro, Google drive, etc.
Build tool: Unity Cloud Build
Technologies used by Sato (engineer)
- VR analysis tool
- Data is sent using HTTP, from a SDK that is embedded in the VR equipment installed by the user, and the data is collected and saved using a WebAPI.
- We are building a data pipeline to handle big data.
- Due to the nature of the tool being developed, a high throughput and a certain level of stability are required.
- Though we are developing products as a small team, we need to be really quick. These factors are taken into account when deciding which technologies we should use for each project.
- We use the following technologies:
GitLab, Scala, Akka Streams, Play Framework, Elm, Vue.js, GCP(GKE, Pub/Sub, Dataflow, BigQuery), Terraform, Kubernetes
- Custom development
It is basically the same configuration as for VR analysis tools, but fast delivery is requested rather than stability, so we choose technologies accordingly.
We switch from EKS to ECS, or from DDD to MVC for example.
What type of engineers work at your company? What is their job content?
Our engineers are responsible for: client-side and server-side development, infrastructure building, design (Data and service structure), Research and Development.
As we are a small team, each member covers a wide range of responsibilities.
Depending on the project, they are assigned to a project exclusively or may have multiple projects at the same time.
We conduct the whole server operations including technical inspection and verification, program designing, development and deployment, and troubleshooting.
There is no distinction between application or infrastructure engineers, all our engineers are responsible for everything related to server-side.
Do you plan on using any new technologies in the future?
We would like to focus on the following two points
- Data acquisition and analysis using the xR analysis tool
- Human communication in cyberspace
Technologies that interest us:
- Use of MR (mixed reality), e.g. Hololens 2
Support for new tracking devices, e.g. mouth/face tracking, and other sensors
R&D on how to analyze the collected data, and how to put them in use
To handle any new technologies and devices to be released in the future - Speech recognition
Making multilingual transcription of speech to text possible (subtitles and meeting minutes etc.)
Achieving multilingual communication within the VR.
Natural animation of avatars
Correct position and support natural movement within the VR space, using AI.
AI navigator that reacts just like a real human being
Approach based on brain science and psychology
Deep understanding of brain activity and deep psychology (reason behind human actions and behaviour)
Data science and machine learning
Real-time communication such as WebRTC
Finally, as an organization we would like to
- improve our efficiency
- introduce automatic testing
- implement CI/CD
Career step up
We believe that career advancement is self-generated and motivated.
Our company values our members’ ambition, and support them. We do not have a system in place, but we provide the necessary support for one’s growth (books, equipment, development tools, seminar participation, etc.)
Our corporate culture
DaftCraft is a group of creators gathered under the principle “Let’s create omoroi-mon”.
We are lucky to have members with rich skills and experience, as well as diverse characteristics and background.
Each of us is fascinated by the possibilities of xR, and we are working independently to create the future of the company. We are a full-remote organization, which is still rare in Japan.
With low space and time constraints, our members are able to work in a variety of ways, some of them living in rural areas and others freelancing.
We are a team that can flexibly adapt in response to changes in the external environment, and that can enjoy these changes.
