Joichi Ito Collaboration with KMD “Everyone’s Mindscapes” exhibit

In September 2023, about 30,000 people gathered in Takeshiba, Tokyo, for “Change Tomorrow,” a largescale event which allowed attendees to experience futuristic technology. This was the third iteration of this event, with attendees enjoying a variety of exhibits, one of which incorporated audience participation called “Everyone’s Mindscapes: Neurodiversity Exhibition 2023.” This “Everyone’s Mindscapes” exhibit marks the first step in the Neurodiversity Project led by Professor Nanako Ishido. “Neurodiversity” refers to the understanding that all people are diverse due to neurological differences.” The exhibit, which was based on this concept, aimed to create a society in which anyone can express their skills and abilities.

One of the core members of the exhibition is the president of the Chiba Institute of Technology, Joichi Ito. He has been instrumental in promoting a better public understanding and acceptance of neurodiversity, primarily through his work in the United States. In his words, “Up until recently, developmental disorders were treated as something that needed to be cured, and people were drilled to become more ‘normal.’ Looking forward, we must try to make a society in which everyone is able to live happily as their authentic selves. Neurodiversity, a concept which, in its broadest sense, even includes dementia, is relevant to every single person out there.”

Yabu City Collaboration with KMD “The Yabu Model”

Yabu City has the smallest population of any municipality of its kind in Hyogo Prefecture. To curb population decline, the city has enacted a variety of ambitious initiatives as a part of its comprehensive community development plan. One such initiative is its collaboration with the Keio Graduate School of Media Design (KMD). This collaboration is an experiment designed to demonstrate how to introduce and implement digital infrastructures by utilizing the latest technology that KMD has in its possession as well as cutting-edge educational resources and academic research.

The initiative that Professor Kazunori Sugiura is working on in Yabu City is called the “WAFU” project. The first thing the project focused on was creating a “Parent-Child Workshop” that meets either once or twice a month where elementary and junior high students who live in Yabu City and their guardians can learn together about internet technology and computer science. For these workshops, the organizers designed programs for parents and children where they could get hands-on experience learning about how computers and internet devices are assembled using electronic circuits and other parts. Other workshops allowed participants to use specialized software to make VTuber (virtual YouTuber) content. These workshops are conducted using an educational approach called the “Shared XP Method” that is based on sharing experiences in order to fill in the gaps in different people’s levels of understanding. According to Professor Sugiura, “There are huge environmental disparities in learning about advanced technology when comparing major cities with rural areas. These discrepancies can even contribute to depopulation. I think that the true value of my specialty in networking is constructing environments that overcome our traditional understandings of ‘city’ and ‘countryside.’ That’s what we’re trying to bring about through these workshops.”

Ory Laboratory Inc. × KMD “Cybernetic Avatar Technology and Social System Design for Harmonious Co-experience and Collective Ability”

KMD and Ory Laboratory Inc. are currently working on “Cybernetic Avatar Technology and Social System Design for Harmonious Co-experience and Collective Ability,” a research project conducted as part of the Moonshot R&D Program promoted by the Cabinet Office and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). Professor Kouta Minamizawa describes the ultimate goals of the project as, “First, to enable new ways of living and working using the novel physicality embodied in avatar technology. Second, to explore the possibility of creating infrastructures that can share human experiences and sensations in a digital environment.”

In 2010, the Ory Laboratory created the OriHime avatar robot based on CEO Kentaro Yoshifuji’s own personal experiences with hikikomori, acute social withdrawal. His thought process when making OriHime was, “To create a way of living that was true to the experiences I and others had during that time.” Since the company’s inception, it has worked to provide opportunities for those who have difficulty leaving their homes due to disabilities or illness, enabling them to work and participate in social spaces. In 2020, they opened Avatar Robot Cafe DAWN ver.β in Nihonbashi. This cafe has “pilots” who work remotely throughout Japan operating the OriHime robots that serve customers. This approach has helped it thrive with a consistent and large fanbase of regular customers.

Kunigami Village, Okinawa Prefecture × KMD “Yambaru Pineapple hills Aha Roadside Station”

Kunigami Village sits on the northernmost tip of Okinawa’s main island. It boasts rich natural scenery that has been registered as a World Heritage Site. However, the town continues to be impacted by its low birthrate and rapid aging, and its once flourishing pineapple production is now facing a shortage of people to carry on the work. Against this backdrop, in November 2022, KMD formed a collaborative project with Kunigami Village and the Kunigami Chamber of Commerce spanning academia, industry, and government to start a new initiative aimed towards the sixth industrialization of production through the newly created the “Yambaru Pineapple hills Aha” roadside station as its base. The designated administrator of the roadside station, OKTS inc. CEO and KMD researcher Takashi Oe explains, “I wish to reinvigorate the local community by interweaving primary industries such as agriculture with retail and service industries. By working on-site for this project, we’re able to troubleshoot real-world problems. We don’t want to see what works on paper, we want to test things through hands-on experiences.”

ZOZO × KMD: Development of Fashion-specialized IoT Nodes

At the KMD Real Projects “Future Crafts,” researchers study new interfaces and methods of invention with a keen eye for what makes various materials special. Junichi Yamaoka, Project Director and Senior Assistant Professor, has zeroed in on “fashion technology” as a part of his practical research on the necessities of life (food, clothing, housing, etc.). “While computers have infiltrated nearly every aspect of our lives, their implementation in fashion remains limited. I want to envision a future where ordinary people and fashion designers can create functional clothing more easily,” he says.

Their co-creation partner is ZOZO NEXT, a company which aims to change the world of fashion using AI, 3D tech, and novel materials. Utilizing connections that they have cultivated with diverse brands through e-commerce; they are conducting research on fashion technology from a design perspective. This project included workshops that used a combination of the company’s removable sensors, conductive resin, and thread to print circuits directly on fabric and embed 3D printed sensors into clothing.

Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. × KMD “New Mobility Services for Shopping Mall in Community”

In Real Project ITOMA (“leisure”), KMD students conduct fieldwork on the current state of diverse economic activities in modern society and culture, and engage with service design to realize enriched lifestyles. Under Project Director/Senior Assistant Professor Chihiro Sato, ITOMA aims to design services that are more aligned in the field through the iterative processes of ethnography, analysis, design, and prototyping.

KMD conducted a joint research project with Daiwa House Industry Co., Ltd. towards the operational launch of new mobility service at “iias Kasugai,” a shopping mall which opened in Kasugai City, Aichi Prefecture in 2021 autumn. Jun Murata from Daiwa explains the rationale behind the design of this project: “Reflecting the aging society and challenges for post-COVID era, we wanted to provide an opportunity to contemplate the flow of people and commodities in shopping malls.” Project Professor Keiko Ihara(CEO, Future Inc.), the mobility expert at KMD supervised the development of electric vehicles and cloud-based systems from the perspectives of regional revitalization, decarbonization, and the digital transformation of localities, alongside the residents of Kasugai City and those from commerce and industry. In advance of the mall’s opening, KMD students conducted a service demonstration experiment which focused on food delivery and mobility sharing.

Mademoiselle Cinema × KMD “Boiling Mind”

In March 2020, an experimental dance performance was conducted by the dance company Mademoiselle Cinema and KMD. This involved sensors being attached to around 120 audience members to acquire data on heart rates and perspiration, with this data converted to a visual format and projected on the stage. Red images indicate states of tension, with blue showing relaxation. The psychological states of the audience, which were initially static, are revealed, and the music, lighting, and dance movements are adjusted in response to this. Naoko Ito, who was in charge of the stage direction and choreography for the performance, says that “This was an unprecedented experiment in which the dancers performed in response to information acquired by monitoring the hearts of the audience rather than those of the dancers.”

This project was led by Moe Sugawa, who was a KMD student at the time. “I am also a dancer, and my research concerned the use of technology to visualize what happens inside the body. I devised this performance in consultation with Professor Kouta Minamizawa as part of my Master’s thesis.”

There are various other examples of the fusion of technology and dance. Professor Minamizawa explains that, “Rather than direct communion of the senses between dancers and audience members, their mutual emotions are perceived in an altered form, with a relationship created as this information is fed back to the other party. That this cycle is shared in the space of the theater is the important concept.”

Ms. Sugawa was positioned between the dance group to which she belonged and the research group who would take charge of the technological aspects, acting as an intermediary to help combine the ideas of both sides into a single performance. Professor Kai Kunze was in charge of the technical aspects within the research group and indicates that the data to be extracted will change depending on the scene, with the story driven by the images produced. “I took part in this project because the idea of attuning the dancers and the audience members was congruent with my own interests and investigations as a researcher.” Many other KMD students cooperated in the visuals, lighting, music, and other aspects of the performance.

And then on to the actual performance. “The ad-lib sessions are created by the audience, the dancers, and the research team. This ‘conspiratorial relationship’ was a resounding success” says Ms. Ito, recalling her impressions as she surveyed the proceedings from side stage. It seems that Ms. Sugawa too was inspired, saying “The dancers trust towards the audience members deepened and their perspectives also changed. I would like to continue to explore the fusion of physical expression and technology.”

With this as the prompt a team engaged with expanding expressive domains using technology within Embodied Media was born, with enthusiastic students in fields such as architecture and music now coming together.

Chair of “Mademoisellse Cinema”
Naoko Ito

(This article was written in March 2021.)

KOKUYO × KMD "Classroom of the Future"

Since its establishment, KMD has done away with the typical divisions of traditional laboratories, and worked to create a culture and environment which will inspire faculty and students alike.e Now, KMD is reinventing the very concept of the educational space of the classroom.

T "We wanted to create a space unlike what we conceive as a classroom. A space that changes human thought and behavior patterns," says Professor Masa Inakage. It is with this desire in mind that Prof. Inakage approached the world-renown stationery company KOKUYO. “We are concerned with all aspects of the environments in which human bodies interact with, such as the stationery and furnishings,” recalls Takahiro Ishizaki at the KOKUYO TCM Head Office. “We believe that working and learning styles are important in these contexts, so this talk of creating the classrooms of the future really resonated with us.”

According to Atsuko Saito of the KOKUYO Workstyle Innovation Department, in the last 10 years corporate office spaces have gotten the jump on educational institutionss. She says that the aim to create spaces where you “wish to spend time and have fun” is not confined to IT or venture companies, but is now embraced by all kinds of businesses.

A discussion on what the classroom of 2030 will bring, while sharing innovative case studies of such endeavors.

In this era where remote learning is a reality, we have reassessed the significance of congregating in one place to learn. We have concluded that what is important for the classrooms of the future is an environment in which both educators and students can collaborate and innovatey. To that end, our focus turned to the effects of relaxation and physical movement. The concept of such spaces is "biophilia," the innate human tendency to seek connections with nature and other forms of life. In natural ecosystems the same colors and shapes do not repeat themselves, so by incorporating this concept we conceived of an environment that doesn't dictate where people stand or sit which facilitates discussions of a non-hierarchical nature.

Seeing the luscious sketches of Mr. Hiroshi Tokuyama from the KOKUYO Furniture Business Head Office was a true eureka moment. There is no pre-defined front of the classroom, and you can enter and exit from any side. The entire wall is a whiteboard, and you can use two sides for projection. The furnishings are placed on carpeting which evokes landscapes, and these can easily be moved to allow infinite combinations of standing and seating positions. Even the heights of seating can be adjusted. Care has been taken to ensure that surfaces retain the natural appearance and textures of wood.

Early returns are getting positive feedback from botht faculties and students, as they acclimate to using the space. However, we are far from finished – we will continue to listen to feedback and make improvements to the space, including finding new ways of incorporating digital and media technology.

KOKUYO Co., Ltd.
TCM Marketing Department, TCM Head Office
Takahiro Ishizaki

Workstyle Innovation Department, KOKUYO Co., Ltd.
Atsuko Saito

Furniture Business Head Office, KOKUYO Co., Ltd.
Product design group, Innovation Center, MONOZUKURI Division,
Hiroshi Tokuyama

(This article was written in March 2021.)

People Design Institute and KMD — “Super Welfare Expo”

The “Super Welfare Expo” has been held each year since 2014 to encourage the banishment of “mental barriers” toward minority groups, including persons with disabilities, as well as people’s essential conception of welfare itself. The official title of this year’s event was: “2020 Shibuya Exposition — Experiencing the Everyday of Super Welfare.” The NPO People Design Institute plays a central role in unveiling workshops and symposiums open to all along with exhibits of cool technologies and designs which inspire admiring responses in all those who encounter them in the setting of an energetic city that embraces cultural diversity. Institute Trustee Kazuhisa Matsuoka and Director Masahiro Tanaka explain, “Going even beyond current notions of diversity and inclusion, we wish to broadcast from Shibuya on super welfare in daily life, which can transform what was previously considered an object of sympathy into something that is regarded as being cool.” The expo attracts younger generations by strongly promoting elements of art, fashion, and technology, and by 2019, it had grown into a major event visited by 75,000 people. Large corporations also actively exhibit at the expo, and there are now over 100 corporate sponsors at events across 11 venues in Shibuya ward.

The KMD Real Projects “Superhuman Sports” and “Embodied Media” have played a major part in the Super Welfare Expo since its launch. Professor Kota Minamizawa says, “Both Real Projects grapple with inclusive design to ‘create a society that anyone can enjoy,’ and the concept of super welfare is especially exciting. The expo has become an opportunity for those at KMD to promote new projects based on the ideas they are exposed to at the event.” For example, the “Musiarm” born from research on prosthetic limbs is a prosthetic hand that has the function of a musical instrument. By perceiving disabilities not as obstacles but as blank pages to be filled, something like a prosthetic hand can be freely customized as an instrument. Additionally, “Sli-de-lift” is a power-assist wheelchair that makes drift locomotion possible. Not only will this be used at sites of care provision but through the creation of, for example, performance arts in which this wheelchair is conceived of as a new body, it is giving everyone the opportunity to confidently express themselves based on how they actually feel.

2020 is also a decisive year for the Super Welfare Expo as it will be held for the last time. Additionally, KMD is planning to co-host with the British Council the “Disability Innovation Summit Tokyo 2020,” an international conference on welfare and innovation, in Shibuya on the day before the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games, and this will further enhance the city’s role as a platform to circulate the latest information on welfare. Matsuoka and Tanaka both add, “The Super Welfare Expo has established itself as a hub both for innovation and connecting people. With each hosting of the event, new projects and technologies have emerged one after the other. We hope to maintain this momentum to further expand going forward.” It seems the day when the mental barriers that clearly existed five years ago will finally dissolve is not far off.

Tokyo Gas x KMD “RAIKI”

In June 2019, students of the Real Project SAMCARA, led by Professor Matthew Waldman, gave presentations as finalists at the international biodesign contest, “Biodesign Challenge 2019,” held in New York, U.S.A.

The “RAIKI” project focuses on the phenomenon of triboelectric charging; specifically, the electricity that is generated as the leaves of plants rub together when shaken by the wind, for use in cities and remote areas with no access to other forms of clean energy generation. Applying perspectives from synthetic biology that combines biology with engineering, the students studied the forms of leaves that more easily catch the wind, going on to design new leaves capable of generating greater amounts of electricity.

This project was assisted by Tokyo Gas. Mr. Hiroto Taguchi of the company’s Digital Innovation Strategy Department explains, “Our department is engaged with the development of services that enrich the lives of our customers and new energy services that primarily use digital technologies. Our current participation was motivated by the conviction that there was real merit in approaches from a design rather than technology perspective.” Specifically, a team researching the flow patterns of gas heat and combustion reactions at the Tokyo Gas Fundamental Technology Research Institute cooperated in the project, creating data on the movement of leaves when blown by the wind through conducting fluid simulations using the forms designed by the students. From these results, the forms that most efficiently capture the wind were selected from among the multiple candidates.

The students of SAMCARA are all invested in social and environmental problems. Although this biodesign conceived on the ideal of “realizing a future in which electricity can be generated using plants” unfortunately missed out on a prize, it did leave a big impression on many of those present at the summit. Mr. Taguchi says, “We were able to propose an option for energy supply that allows for low electric capacities. For Tokyo Gas, the reward from collaborating was what we learned in terms of approach rather than the technological feasibility of the project itself.”

Biodesign is attracting a lot of attention in Europe and the U.S.A. Professor Waldman remarks, “As it stands, very few Japanese universities are engaged in this area.” He continues, “As it is said that various occupations will be lost with the spread of AI, I believe the next generation of designers will need to work on biotechnology and material sciences.” At SAMCARA, biodesign projects will be an ongoing priority.

Mizuho Information and Research Institute and KMD,
“Joint Creation of Superhuman Sports” Project

Superhuman sports are various games played by augmenting the human body through technological means. They have undergone major developments even in the short time since details were first shared at the KMD Forum in 2014. In addition to an increase in the numbers of competitors, “Hackathon” events to develop new types of sports have been held throughout Japan. As a result, somewhere in the region of 50 new sports have been created to date.

Of late, superhuman sports have also caught the attention of governmental and corporate entities. Kouta Minamizawa, at the time an associate professor at KMD, explains that: “This is a world in which anything has the potential to become a superhuman sport, and where everyone is a potential competitor. It is thought that a new industry involving people coming together to create new sports (co-creation) rather than the conventional model of just playing, spectating and supporting them is in its inception.”

In this context, Mizuho Information and Research Institute Inc. (MHIR) and KMD are jointly implementing surveys and research on the co-creation of sports. MHIR’s Hideharu Miyachi says: “As the thinktank for a financial group engaged with bringing new businesses and industries into being, we hope to demonstrate the link between the creation of new sports and the creation of new values, while involving various corporations in these endeavors.”

In 2017, we created the Hackathon, a platform to develop and experience new sporting events, on the basis of a survey of the history of how new sports have traditionally begun, while in 2018 we held an event to raise awareness of superhuman sports among people in various fields. A workshop to propose new sports themed on the social welfare, for example, saw the participation of people from a variety of industries, including advertising, manufacturing, real estate, construction, and education. “The limitless potential of superhuman sports mean that there is great merit in looking at them from a variety of perspectives. Sports involving augmenting the human body might, for example, change existing conceptions of the welfare.” (Associate Professor Minamizawa)

The challenge is to show people, especially those who have till now had no personal interest or investment in sports, the fun of creating new sports.

Mr Miyachi expands by saying “It is clear that people who do try these sports enjoy them immensely. If we can proceed on the two fronts of leveraging both cutting-edge technologies and those already at hand, I believe that interest in superhuman sports and the number of people wanting to take part will increase, further expanding the co-creation of sports.”

Forthcoming events such as the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics and the Osaka World Fair represent ideal opportunities to spread the message on superhuman sports to the world. We will continue to roll out experimental initiatives while seeking to elucidate the optimum form that these new sports and the industry which will grow around them should take as part of this project.

KMD × Be-i × Keio-NUS CUTE Center
“Infrastructure for Collaboration and Experience Sharing (ICES)”

Every day we create posts and share details of our personal lives on internet-enabled (network) terminals such as smartphones. While these networks are a current means of sharing information, in the forthcoming generation there is a high likelihood that environments will come into being to allow us to share things other than information. This may include sharing actual experiences or the feeling of being in a particular space. This prompts one to consider what will become of the relationship between the outside world (the real) and this networked world (the virtual) when this comes to pass. Infrastructure for Collaboration and Experience Sharing (ICES) is a project promoted by Kazunori Sugiura, at the time an associate professor at KMD, in association with, among others, the software development company Be-i Co., Ltd. To examine this relationship while both creating mechanisms that integrate the real and the virtual and ensuring their social implementation.

Be-i are charged with the task of developing software to expand activities from the real world, such as employment interviews and certification exams, into the virtual realm. “As it stands, we are engaged with recreating the sensation of being in a particular place by means of interfaces involving, for example, CG and photographs. As part of ICES, we are endeavoring to make it possible to give expression to actual environments in the real world in real time by integrating sensor technologies with this visual base.” (Mr. Isobe)

The testing field for the social implementation of this mechanism is the Keio research hub Keio-NUS CUTE Center located in Singapore.　We are now engaged with creating a system to allow users to confirm the state of congestion of the food courts where many tens of thousands of students of the National University of Singapore gather and the sales status of currently popular menu items at these locations on their smartphones.

Sensors can be used to get a handle on both the precise movements of each individual and the larger flows of people. By then linking information generated by human activities in a particular location such as “words searched” or “what has been tweeted on twitter,” we are aiming for a support environment whereby we can clearly appreciate the atmosphere, or the bustle and excitement, of a particular space. “For example, might it not be fun if we made the user interface resemble Dragon Quest? I would like to consider how this information should be best expressed going forward,” says Associate Professor Sugiura.

TX inc and KMD — “Evolution of Telexistence Industry”

In 2017, a startup company that will shoulder the future took its first tentative steps from KMD. It is called Telexistence Inc. and is working on commercialization of robotics grounded research in the field of telexistence. The business is being advanced by its founder and chief technology officer Project Senior Assistant Professor Charith Fernando, who received his Ph.D. from KMD in 2013. Telexistence refers to the concept of being able to freely act in a place other than to where one is physically located and the technological systems to realize this. Research in the field utilizes virtual reality (VR) technology to generate something called an avatar, which is like one’s “other self.” For example, try imagining a future where limitless and instant travel, or an elderly person is able to hug his or her grandchild who lives far away, or one in which you could travel to space without boarding a rocket. Telexistence is drawing attention as a big topic among the next-generation technologies that will follow the Internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI), and movements are underway toward its full deployment in society. This includes investment in telexistence from large corporations in various sectors such as transportation, logistics, and telecommunications.

Professor Susumu Tachi, who first proposed the idea of telexistence in 1980, became a Project Professor at KMD in 2009. It was while undertaking practical tests at disaster scenes and sites providing nursing care of the latest telexistence robot “Telesar V,” the product of forty years of research, that a craze for VR and augmented reality (AR) sprang to life. “Without a doubt, the age of telexistence is about to have its turn.” With this conviction in mind, Professor Tachi determined to explore the possibility of starting a business with Associate Professor Kouta Minamizawa and Project Senior Assistant Professor Fernando. Further momentum was provided when it was decided that the next international prize money race sponsored by All Nippon Airways (ANA) ANA Avatar XPRIZE (https://avatar.xprize.org/) would be one using avatars. A few years from now, an array of startup companies with their sights on this prize will assemble from around the world, thus laying the business foundations for the commercialization of telexistence. Being one of the first business organizations in the field and the “progenitor” of telexistence, TX inc is surely set to become a presence that, armed with years of research experience and achievements, will make a social impact.

According to Project Senior Assistant Professor Fernando, TX inc is now making rapid progress in developing a commercial telexistence robot, an operations cockpit, and cloud infrastructure to experience Telexistence anywhere. While advancing discussions on topics such as factory automation, logistics, retail, travel, and aviation with interested companies, including those in the space industry, TX inc will focus on businesses with concepts including “teleportation” for people with physical disabilities and the elderly, gaming, entertainment, and remote operations, and it expects to announce its first product around mid 2019.

“Although TX inc will push for the commercialization of telexistence as a startup company from here on out, we would be pleased if it manages to further its future-orientated research activities in collaboration with KMD. For example, KMD is engaged in research on medical treatments in remote regions and the field of bodily extensions which is focused on the “pre-seed” stage that anticipates the conceptualization of the technologies and products that are the “seeds” themselves. It would be ideal if a seamless process emerged whereby TX inc could take on the fruits of this research and work toward its commercialization” (Associate Professor Minamizawa).

Such collaboration is only possible because TX inc has inherited KMD’s DNA and the strength to “create through viewing things from multiple perspectives like business and technology.”

NKC and KMD — “Agbee”

“Agbee” is a moving cart and related application service that was developed based on the concept of a “partner robot for farmers.” The name “agbee” is a combination of the first syllables of the Japanese pronunciation for the English words “agriculture” and “vehicle.” The cart follows after its user whom it supports with the loading, transportation, and unloading of tools and equipment, reducing his or her physical burden. Furthermore, it is equipped with numerous sensors that assess the status of cultivated land and quantify harvest yields. This data is managed using an app and can help with the planning of harvests.

Agbee originates from the “NKC Innovation Project” of KMD and Nakanishi Metal Works (NKC). NKC holds the largest share of the Japanese market for bearing retainers. This relationship came about after managers of NKC attended a lecture on design thinking given by Professor Naoto Okude as part of a study group held in Osaka in 2011, and we have conducted a joint industry-academia project since 2014. In this project, we have continuously repeated the process of first visiting farmers to observe and survey their work, developing concepts and producing prototypes at the innovation studio of NKC, and then monitoring the responses of users and manufacturers at exhibitions. According to the project leader Mr. Kouki Kimura, “Forming a team made up of people from a university and various company divisions with no previous connections in order to create something new was a really enjoyable and illuminating experience.” Professor Okude also recalls, “It was a great experience for the students to temporarily live in Osaka and gain a firsthand appreciation of what it is like to make things in an actual factory while putting design thinking into practice.”

The project’s bywords are the “farmer’s upcoming year.” This phrase encapsulates the outlook for the year ahead expressed in the wishes of farmers which we heard during our fieldwork to “increase the harvest yield” or to “try new varieties” by next year. Mr. Kimura continues, “I enjoy the actual trial and error process. Rather than automatizing everything, I just want to reduce time-consuming and physically demanding tasks, while keeping all of the things that make farming fun.” This sentiment of the project members was reflected in the development of agbee, and expectations toward the final product have risen, especially among farmers. The full commercialization of the agbee project will begin from April 2018, and trials with farmers will commence from the Fall. Mr. Kimura, who has already set his sights on the “next stage,” says he wants “to promote the rich farming lifestyle that is realized through using agbee.” Targeting a broad market that includes not only professionals but part-time farmers and those with household vegetable patches, we want to popularize the positive aspects of farming. The agbee project, which Mr. Kimura enthusiastically touts as something he hopes will be his life’s work, is finally being launched as a business independent of the collaboration with KMD.

Nakanishi Metal Works Co., Ltd.
Agri-innovation Team
Mr. Kouki Kimura

Fujimigaoka High School for Girls + KMD“Global Workshop”

As globalization accelerates, it is becoming imperative to foster a global mindset for the future workforce in Japan from the stage of secondary education. Fujimigaoka High School for Girls (designated by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology as a Super Global High School) established a curriculum in 2014 to foster global perspectives among students with the theme of sustainability. Since 2015, the Basic Sustain- ability class for first-year students has integrated a program that collaborates with the Global Education Project led by Professor Keiko Okawa of KMD. Environmental and international social situations are covered in a workshop format in which students submit issues and derive solutions on their own. They address two themes per year, four times each, for a total of eight times. “Amid a modern society that lacks clear answers, just how do students discuss and discover issues and their solutions? As students confront realistic themes, they develop skills such as communication, collaboration, and critical thinking.” (Professor Okawa) In the workshop, students start by studying communication in a game format and then address a specific issue such as “localizing a Japanese snack to sell abroad.” An important part of this process is to draw upon digital tools, such as using a tablet to conduct research, produce videos for presentation, or video chat with high school students in other countries. Communication is mostly in English. Norio Oshima, a Senior adviser at the school, sees progress: “As a result of these workshops, an increasing number of students are choosing sustainability classes and concentrating more on English from their second year onward.” KMD students offer support to the high school students in conceiving tasks and selecting digital tools, and to serve as facilitators in the classroom. “We get a group of students who are interested in education,” says Professor Okawa. “They seem to gain a sense of fulfillment in helping the children who will lead the next generation.” A benefit of this project is that KMD students can research their own themes while collaborating onsite at a Japanese high school.

(This article was written in March 2017.)

Project Professor Tetsuya Mizuguchi + Rhizomatiks + KMD “Synesthesia Suit”

As part of the Embodied Media Project, Associate Professor Kouta Minamizawa’s team utilized haptic (tactile sensation) research in their creation of the “Synesthesia Suit” to amplify the experience of the VR (virtual reality) video game “Rez Infinite.” Project Professor Tetsuya Mizuguchi, creator of “Rez Infinite,” set the project in motion by proposing that Associate Professor Minamizawa’s team, which researches haptics (tactile sensation technology) at KMD, and Rhizomatiks, a media arts creative group, jointly develop a suit to enhance synesthesia.

TactileHaptic sense is set to grow in significance, as realistic 3D renderings, which owe their higher visual and auditory resolu tions to advancements in technologies such as VR and AR (augmented reality), become the norm. Inside the “Synesthesia Suit,” 26 actuators vibrate against the body to a rhythm, such as the “boom-tss” of a bass drum and hi-hat cymbals, when synchronizing with music, or each actuator vibrates with time variance so the wearer feels a sensation running through the arms and body. Furthermore, the LEDs mounted on the Suit’s exterior light up in sync with the vibrations, extending the VR worldview not only to the wearer, but to the people around, as well.

When the background music and sound effects of the VR work are relayed as trembling, music is not only heard through the ears, but as the completely new experience of full-body tactilehaptic sensation. The subtle trembling created as a result of repeated trial and error sets this apart from simple vibration. This type of haptic design is thought to be the first experiment of its kind in the world.

The Synesthesia Suit was first unveiled in December 2015 on the PlayStation Experience 2015 stage in San Francisco. All project members traveled to see Project Professor Mizuguchi don the Suit to demonstrate playing Rez Infinite as part of his stage presentation. In Japan, the Suit made its public debut during Media Ambition Tokyo 2016 at Roppongi Hills in February and March 2016, followed by other events, including Tokyo Game Show 2016, SIGGRAPH 2016, and the Sundance Film Festival in January 2017 in the U.S. The Synesthesia Suit continues to evolve as more people experience it.

“With this project, we fully established the new field of haptics design. Synesthesia as experienced with the Synesthesia Suit may become commonplace in the near future. One of KMD’s ideals as media innovator is to break ground in new fields and become the first creator.” (Associate Professor Kouta Minamizawa)

(This article was written in March 2017.)

Sabae and KMD “Traditional Crafts’ Future Project”

A team led by Professor Hiroyuki Kishi is collaborating with the city of Sabae, Fukui on the “Traditional Crafts’ Future Project, ”which seeks to combine design, advanced technology, and interactions with consumers to leverage traditional crafts for regional revitalization. Launched in 2015, the project focuses on Echizen Urushi lacquerware, a traditional craft from Sabae. It has studied the innovative local initiatives already in place and validated the hypotheses behind them. During Phase 1, a new design competition called the “Sabae Urushi Award” was estab- lished to identify works suitable for commercialization. A 3D printer and cutting machine were also installed in the city’s “Urushi-no-Sato Kaikan (Sabae echizen lacquerware tradi- tional industry building)” to create a digital studio in which craftspeople can apply lacquer to new objects, develop new products, and open new markets. In October 2015, as part of an effort to validate an industrial tourism model, KMD brought exchange students from the Pratt Institute in New York to Sabae for hands-on experience with lacquer painting. Their experiences provided fresh perspectives that helped to identify new ways to attract tourists to the city. There is now a plan to develop Sabae as a tourist destination, formulate standard itineraries, and promote them through tourist information websites geared toward international travelers. Sabae City Mayor Hyakuo Makino has high hopes for the project. “The traditional craftspeople in Sabae have a long history of using specialization to improve technology levels, and are known for their innovative approaches. Our goal is to transform the traditional craft into a new industry by leveraging new technology. I think our collaboration with KMD will be a major component in these efforts,” he says. The project will continue to develop products and marketing channels as it refines the industrial tourism model. In the second phase, it plans to leverage 3D printing to innovate production technologies and to strengthen the common “Echizen lacquerware” appellation as a brand of origin. All of this will be done in collaboration with a tourism campaign that aims to improve recognition of the Sabae/ Tannan area within Japan and to establish it as a destination that can compete internationally. In the future, the project aims to bring in traditional crafts with other key attractions in Sabae, such as the cuisine, natural environment, and interesting neighborhoods, offer them as new perspectives for tourism, and merge them in a domestic and interna- tional media strategy.

(This article was written in March 2016.)

KMD and Other Organizations “Information Bank”

Today, our Internet activity̶including our searches and purchases̶is readily exchanged and accumulated by both vendor sites and SNS services. Ideally, each of us would be able to monitor this personal information that had been collected without us knowing, decide which institution to entrust this information to for safe management, and choose what we want to make public in a way that benefits us when we use the Internet. Professor Hideki Sunahara’s “Information Bank” Real Project explores the mechanisms to do so.

In July 2014, a consortium was established as an industry- academia partnership to bring research institutes, such as KMD and the University of Tokyo, together with companies including NEC, Fujitsu, Dentsu and Dai Nippon Printing to begin creating an institution for safe, secure information management as a public good. The word “bank” in the name highlights the fact that this will be a public service provided by the private sector. Just as the Internet was conceived and developed by non-profit organizations in the private sector, the project wants to develop a neutral, public infrastructure that is led by the private sector rather than government. The aim is to allow the individual to view the information that has been collected about them and make dynamic decisions about which to keep confidential and which to publish. Eventually, the project envisions multiple information banks, among which users can choose the balance of protecting and of utilizing their information that most suits them.

The project reaches beyond computer security to examine other facets of data utilization, including social designs, legal and policy frameworks, and its impact on society. Dr. Kazue Sako, Senior Engineer at the NEC Cloud System Research Laboratories and a participant in the Information Bank Consortium, is ambitious about what the collaboration can achieve. “There is a passion at KMD for improving the networked society. The professors experienced the early years of the Internet and can provide advice not only on technology, but also on the legal and social requirements. I look forward to working together to create an approach that will demonstrate to society the wonderful future we can create with these mechanisms,” she says.

The spread of smartphones will continue to expand services that are based on the information they collect. Likewise, big data will also become more important to corporate activi- ties. The information bank will be crucial infrastructure in the future; it’s a way to alleviate the fear of personal information being collected without one’s knowledge, which allows people to live with greater security and peace of mind. The Information Bank Real Project is an excellent fit with KMD due to our focus on innovation that combines these four components; technology, design, policy and management.

(This article was written in March 2016.)

Nabtesco and KMD “Projection Door”

The “Projection Doors” Project is a collaboration project with automatic door manufacturer Nabtesco under the leadership of Professor Masa Inakage, Project Assistant Professor Daisuke Uriu, and Project Assistant Professor Chihiro Sato, which researched on ways of augmenting existing automatic doors from two and a half years ago.

Automatic doors are the first artifact the visitors encounter upon arrivals of buildings, but hardly any of them are noticed. This project was brought on the hypothesis that we can create new values such as bringing fun and happiness to the passerby, and explored the meanings as well as functions of the doors; thus the “Projection Doors” were born.

Projection Doors have a specific screen pasted the transparent glass panels, which images are projected the projectors. This alone is very similar to typical digital signages, but the Projection Doors show content images coordinated as they open and close due to the coordination with the motor unit controller of doors. In addition to this function, it is also possible to show creative contents utilizing the door movements.

With Projection Doors, existing buildings can flexibly change the external appearance and provide passerby a new impres- sion and experience of the building itself. It can also become a new medium of expression for various creators. Project is challenging to seek for the variety of contents the doors can provide, in collaboration with programmers, video animators, and illustrators.

In October 2015, Projection Doors were installed in “RICOH FUTURE HOUSE,” a commercial complex located in Ebina, Kanagawa. The fieldtest aimed to evaluate its safety and soft- ware improvements. Projection Doors were also exhibited in SIGGRAPH ASIA 2015, hosted at the Kobe International Exhibition Hall in November, where we demonstrated to explore the possi- bilities for installation at fixed-term events. As the sun set and the light dimmed, visitors gathered in front of the doors to see and photograph it.

Some future plans are to develop the software environment suitable for commercial use adding new functions requested by creative designers and improvement.

“We want a variety of creators to produce the contents for Projection Doors, for example game creators and programmers who prefer wide programming languages. We believe to go beyond the conventional concept of the automatic door, and seek for possibilities for providing memorable experience or as branding tools of commercial usage”, says Project Assistant Professor Daisuke Uriu.

(This article was written in March 2016.)

Toppan Printing and KMD “Interactive Museum”

KMD Associate Professor Kouta Minamizawa led a team of students working on “the creation of novel viewing experience at museums,” a Real Project with Toppan Printing. Their goal was to create interactive experiences to allow visitors to more actively engage with the exhibits. This co-research project investigated ways to use Toppan Printing’s VR (virtual reality) theater service that is offered at such cultural institutions as museums, to create “physical interaction designs.”

One of the results of the past two years of research was an event for elementary and junior-high school students held in conjunction with a VR experience called “Map of Japan created by Ino Tadataka“ that was shown in the summer of 2014 at the TNM & TOPPAN Museum Theater, co-produced by the Tokyo National Museum and Toppan Printing.

Koichi Yoshino, who researches VR at Toppan Printing’s Technical Research Institute, headed the project. “Our biggest achievement was to discover a new kind of viewing experience for visitors. For me, one of the big attractions of the Real Project was the environ- ment in which we worked. We shared the project task from the beginning, and then set about building a system based on find- ings from a user research,” he recalled.

The co-developed interactive installation used a flashlight-shaped controller that visitors could wave in front of the display to see a modern map superimposed on the “Map of Japan (Medim-sized map or Ino Chuzu),” an “Important Cultural Property.” The control- ler’s “magnifying glass-effect” allowed the visitor to enlarge the image. A number of people viewed the large screen installed in front of the Museum Theater while individual visitors wandered through the locations on the map that interested them. The inter- active installation was highly evaluated as it gave viewers a new and free perspective to experience the Ino Chuzu. It also helped to deepen their understanding of their VR experience in the Museum Theater and the actual artifacts on display in the Exhibit Hall.

Participants in the “Pacing Workshop,” which was held at the court- yard of the Tokyo National Museum in parallel to the Museum Theater exhibition, used 19th century surveying methods to create a simple map of Japan based on their own measurements. The synergy between the workshop and the VR presentation gave visi- tors a new and more realistic experience.

“I think we were successful because we were working in an actual museum and were able to prototype a number of ideas from the very first stages of the project. One of the things that set KMD Real Projects apart is that we actually turn our ideas into reality through technology in the course of joint research. In this case, we tried to find new ways to bring art and history to life, and create interactive installations that stimulate the creativity of younger viewers. We think there are broader applications to be explored,” says Associate Professor Minamizawa.

(This article was written in March 2015.)

Ericsson and KMD “Social Things”

Led by Professor Masa Inakage, five faculty members and six students began work on the “Social Things” project with Ericsson in 2013, exploring different aspects of future infor- mation environments that will be possible with the next- generation 5G networking standard.

Ericsson presented the idea of the “Social Web of Things,” an evolution in the “Internet of Things” (IoT) in which things are not only networked, but connected to social networks. KMD built on that concept to propose “Social things,” a world in which things autonomously build networks and act as if they are living entities.

During Phase 1 in 2013, the project designed emotional experiences using a restaurant as a case study. In Phase 2 that began in 2014, the members created scenarios exam- ining how social things would function and designed some real-life social things. Participants hold Skype meetings with Ericsson twice a week, Ericsson personnel give workshops at KMD, and students visit Ericsson’s research labs in Sweden to show and discuss their prototypes.

One of the attractions of the Real Project is that it provides the opportunity to imagine new cities and societies. In this case, high-performance communications will extend not only to furniture and home appliances, but even to medical equipment and industrial machinery.

“There are cultural differences between Japan and Scan- dinavia but our approach to technology is more or less the same. Students in the project come from all sorts of backgrounds and careers. We have interaction designers, product designers, and even some musicians. As their diver- sity deepens their discussions, they have been able to arrive at a more concrete picture of what the future will be like. International projects like this demonstrate how much can be achieved through collaboration,” says Professor Inakage.

(This article was written in March 2015.)

Tokyu Land and KMD “Takeshiba Project”

A team led by Professor Ichiya Nakamura is working on the “Takeshiba Project” with Tokyu Land and Kajima Corporation,  the companies that have entered into a 70-year lease for land owned by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in the Takeshiba, Minato-ku area of Tokyo. The project is part of a larger program dealing with land-use in Tokyo called “Urban Renewal Upgrade Project (Takeshiba District)”. The plan is to create a center for international business focusing on the Japanese content industry, and use it as a platform for better communicating and interacting with other countries. The “Contents innovation Program Council” (CiP Council) responsible for formulating and implementing the project held its first planning session in June 2014. Five KMD Master’s students, working under the guidance of Professor Nakamura to build a new platform for urban development, were involved in creating the organization and managing the research and development. Group Leader Atsunori Tanaka from the Urban Development Division at Tokyu Land praised them highly, saying, “They had an extremely high level of drive and were able to move from the Council preparations phase through detailed planning and on to implementation.” The CiP Council’s plan is to begin in April 2015 to create “a place unique in the world” in Takeshiba, a home for the entire span of the content industry, from research and development to human resources development, entrepre- neurial support, and business-matchmaking. In addition to providing office space, commercial facilities, serviced apartments, and room-shares, the project will bring in the surrounding neighborhoods to create a “borderless” community. As a research and development institution, KMD will serve as the hub and will investigate a number of topics such as “superhuman sports,” “IT policy,” and “the digital signage of the next generation.” The Real Project led by Professor Nakamura commits to creating a new business center in Japan that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. The building is scheduled for completion in 2020. The area will also host pre-event activi- ties in conjunction with the Tokyo Olympics. “KMD is not a place where you are taught, it is a place where you learn and build. You are in a situation where you are working with people in the business world, industry and government to create the next new thing, and, through this experience, you hone your skills. You can develop all the plans you want in your head, but they mean nothing if they are not implemented. We focus on the idea of‘imagine and realize.’ It’s the ability to bring things through to completion that’s important,” says Professor Nakamura.

(This article was written in March 2015.)