Akihiro Adachi, a 31-year-old audiovisual equipment designer at Panasonic Corp., longed for some personal space during his lengthy train rides from Osaka to Tokyo. So when his company set out to encourage innovation, he joined with some colleagues and came up with Wear Space, a headset that limits noise and peripheral vision.

Many at Panasonic were puzzled.

"Someone said the office full of people wearing this would look weird," said Kang Hwayoung, another member of the 10-person design team.