Mission

The world's first product Photosynth brought into being was Akerun — a smart lock that retrofits onto an existing door, with no construction work required.

What Akerun made possible was far more than moving keys to the cloud.

It replaced the mechanism of authentication itself — who may enter which space, and when — shifting it from a physical key to a digital ID in the cloud. Beginning with something as familiar as a physical key, we set out on a challenge to transform physical space itself.

Today, Japan is entering an era of population decline unlike anything it has known. By 2045, the working-age population is projected to fall by approximately 23.4 million compared with 2010.*

Offices, hotels, schools, and shops on the street corner— every place that has quietly supported our daily lives is now confronting the same social challenge: a critical shortage of people.

This is precisely why we are determined to build a world of autonomous physical spaces that do not depend on human hands — automating physical space to liberate society.

To make that world real, Photosynth has researched and developed, in house, the technologies that connect the physical and digital worlds: mechanical and electronic design, embedded software, wireless communications, edge computing, security, the cloud, and AI. Bringing hardware, software, cloud, and AI together as one, and delivering them to society as products — this is the technology we have refined since our founding.

And now, that technology is reaching far beyond the "keys in the cloud" that Akerun pioneered. Starting from authentication and data, it extends into security, payments, and spaces that operate with fewer people — or none at all. And further still, into physical AI, where AI and robots perceive the real world, make decisions, and act within it.

The challenge that began with a physical key has evolved into a challenge to make physical space itself autonomous.

"Bringing impressive experiences to the future through connected manufacturing."

No need to carry a physical key.
The place you want to go, open at the hour you want to go there.
Services that continue to be delivered as a matter of course, even when there are not enough people to deliver them.
Technology embedded seamlessly into physical spaces—connecting people to the places and services they need, without ever having to think about it.

One by one, we will build this new normal into society through the power of technology.

That is the challenge Photosynth has taken on.

Kodai Kawase
CEO, Photosynth inc.

* By 2045, Japan will lose a working-age population equal to the combined 2025 totals of Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama, and Chiba.