Giga Games 1/Giga Games.iso/net/vir_real/papers/jacobson/bobjapan.2

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91-09/Bob.Japan.2
From: [e-mail] (Robert Jacobson)
Subject: Japan Report, Part 2:  June 1991, Nikkei Conference, Matsushita
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1991 17:50:56 GMT
Organization: Human Interface Technology Lab, Univ. of Wash., Seattle



    My second trip to Japan was in July, as an invited speaker and
panelist at the Nikkei Conference on Artificial Reality and Tele-
Existence, cosponsored by Nikkei and the Japan Technology Transfer
Association (JTTAS)  Nikkei (Nihon Keizai Shimbun) is one of Japan's
largest publishers and event organizers, specializing in business and
technology reporting and conferences.  JTTAS is a loose affiliate of
MITI, that attempts to create exchanges between universities and
Japanese (and other) industry.

    The conference lasted two days and was held in a large new
industrial park cum conference center in the south of Tokyo.
Without doubt, one of the more interesting aspects of arriving at the
conference was taking the commuter monorail that extends from a
major railroad station to the center.  Talk about crowds!  I couldn't
help but wonder what would happen to the monorail, perched on a
track high above the neighborhoods it crossed, if the passengers
leaned too heavily to one side....

    Organizers of the conference included an academic team led by
Tokyo University's Susumu Tachi and Michitaka Hirose, Makato Sato
of Tokyo Institute of Technology, and Tsukuba University's Hiroo
Iwata; JTTAS's Shinji Ishikawa; and Kenichi Kaeriyama and Ken
Hasegawa of Nikkei  The conference, whose scheme was reported on
earlier in this newsgroup in a crosspost by comp. research.japan's
Dr. Kahaner, was well-attended by representatives of Japan's
industrial elite, including Sony, NHK, ATR, Hitachi, Matsushita,
Fujitsu, NTT, Toshiba, Sharp, and others.  Smaller firms, like
Bodysonic Ltd. (which manufacturers a chair that creates a user-
enveloping acoustic field) were also present.  Most of those in
attendance were mid-level senior researchers and division managers
from these firms.

    The JTTAS professors made up the Japanese panel at the
conference.  Among the North American panelists were NASA Ames's
Steve Bryson and Cleon Levitt, Reflection Technologies (whose
president,Al Becker, used the occasion to announce a stereoscopic
game version of the Private Eye similar to Randy Pausch's "$5-a-
Day" headset), VPL's Jaron Lanier (who showed off the new HRX
headset, manufactured by Nissho), MIT's Tom Sheridan (co-exec
editor of PRESENCE), W Industries's Jonathan Waldern (whose
Virtuality system was the hit among the few demo's in the exhibit
lobby), pioneer computer artist Myron Krueger, groupware consultant
Charlie Grantham, hypermedia designer Wei-Chi Cheng of New York
University's Interactive Media Program, and me.

    Also present in the audience, and popular among their Japanese
colleagues, were the Sun team led by Michael Deering and Matt
Perez, and Alias's delegation led by Martin Tuori.  Sun's videotape of
its new 3-D workstation, showed afterhours, attracted the
particular attention of Hitachi and its chief scientist, Dr. Ikeda.

    The conference was oddly structured, in that three-quarters of
its presentations were by the North Americans.  Only during the last
half of the second day did Tachi, Hirose, Sato, and Iwata talk about
their work.  In a way, many of us among the North Americans felt as
if we were being employed by our Japanese counterparts in JTTAS,
in the most collegial manner, to cudgel more support from Japanese
industry for the JTTAS's researchers.  (We do this in the West, too!)
Clearly, from their presentations, our Japanese researchers were at
about the same position we in other parts of the world find
ourselves:  large ambitions, lots of talent (at least we think so), but
too little funding!  So we didn't mind being the "threat" this time.  In
fact, many of us gaijin developed our own communications with
Japanese firms as a result of this conference, so the benefits
seemed reciprocal.

    The conference, which otherwise exposed no information that
would be new to participants in this newsgroup, closed with a most
interesting panel, again separated -- physically, on a divided stage
-- by geographic locale.  On the one side were Tachi, Hirose, Sato,
and Iwata; on the other, Sheridan, Krueger, and me.  Invariably, a
question would be pitched to one of the Americans and then the other
two would comment (without much agreement -- but as you read the
questions, you'll see how variation was almost inevitable, given
their speculative nature); then our Japanese colleagues would
respond.  Tachi was definitely the cheerleader among the Japanese,
who displayed a much narrower range of opinions.  (One might say
the Japanese were more constrained to stick to current situations,
while we Americans verged far afield and into the future.)  Among
the questions put to us, which showed a fair amount of insight into
difficult emerging issues, were:

    * What are the key technologies for breakthroughs?

    * Will artificial reality change society?  How and when
       (speaking of the network society, the virtual office,
       and so forth)?

    * What are promising business opportunities?

    * Is artificial reality a new means of expression (for
       thoughts, ideas, concepts, and emotions)?  Is it
       superior to existing media?  (All enthusiatically
       responded in the positive.)

    * Is artificial reality leading to a new science/paradigm/
       doctrine?  (Various takes on this depending on which
       category was most comfortable, personally, but everyone
       agreed that something new is afoot.)

    There were numerous occasions for informal discussion at
lunches, in our fantastic five-star hotel ("Just like home," joked my
wife, noting the consistently fine English of the staff), and at
dinners.  At one of these events I met again my friend Dr. Satoshi
Fushimi, whose firm, Information and Mathematical Science
Laboratory, Inc., is trying to interest larger companies in a virtual-
worlds system for nuclear reactor decommissioning and
deconstruction.

    A feature of the conference I found most enjoyable and com-
mendable, which we elsewhere would do well to emulate, was a
closing dinner for the panelists and the organizers, where we had a
chance to do a little bonding that conference mores usually prohibit.
Oh yes, I must remember to mention that while speaking on stage,
one must remember to wear a shiny yellow ribbon that denotes one's
momentary leadership.  Very interesting.

    In short, the conference was a fine affair, and I hope that the
allegiances struck up by our Japanese colleagues with their industry
compatriots were as good as those that we, their guests, were able
to consumate.

    Some technical notes:  Tachi's tele-presence robotics system,
developed at MITI's MEL, is now being commercialized by Yaskawa
Corporation, in Japan; and the HRX Eyephones by VPL/Nissho are
really quite good, definitely TV-quality (although their price has not
changed for the better).  Also, the glove used by W Industries is a
good one, but the addition of some measure of tactility will greatly
improve their capability for doing small tasks, a coming feature of
W's new systems.

    All in all, the conference was warm, well-organized, and a fine
opportunity to see old friends and make new ones.  The major lesson
I learned is that we are all in this together, and the funding crisis in
our field is not limited to Western shores.  There is a lot to be done.

                *     *     *

    Two associated events deserve notice.  One was spending the
evening in a new Japanese nightclub, courtesy of Jonathan Waldern's
Japanese backers.  (Normally, admission is an incredible $50 per
person, and then by invitation only!)  We danced up a storm among our
more modest but impeccably dressed Japanese co-celebraters (who
were considerably younger than we aging codgers) and closed down
the place.  Never was more neon, Mylar, and laser-projection
technology employed to create what can only be called Modern Funk.
The DJ, who played both audio and video feeds, a nice chap from
Britain I believe, kept the myriad TV screens and speakers blasting
rather ridiculous images and curious songs at us.  We left hot, tired,
and ready for a loooooonnnnnnnggggggg walk home, the trains having
ceased to run for the evening.

    The other event was a roistrous evening at a neighborhood
dining hall, to which we were led by Adam Peake of the Network
Design Institute, Tokyo; and MONDO 2000 Japan correspondent, Chris
Case (who is also editor of the Tokyo PC Users Group magazine).  We
were all of us sprawled on the floor in the most ungainly fashion.
For most of us, our knees just would not fold in the right way.  The
waitresses had to step over and around us to deliver a wonderful
array of morsels, not only to us but to tables around us (at which not
a few Japanese businessmen, having done some saki to relieve the
day's tensions, were sinking into private reveries).  The place was
madhouse; our spirits ran really high and although we were
definitely not Japanese, we were in the mood and those around us
toasted us convivially.

    Thanks to Adam and especially to Chris, whose van expired at
midnight.  I hope he found his way home, many miles to the east, in
the mountains....

                *     *     *

    I can't close without mentioning Matsushita Electric's virtual
kitchen/home, a nice display of technology now being deployed by
Matsushita's Home Products Company.  With help from VPL, but
mostly on their own, Matsushita's team, led by AI Laboratory direc-
tor Dr. Junji Nomura, have constructed a sight and sound simulation
of a home.  The sink runs, dishes break if dropped, the TV set is
running a commentary on a baseball game, and the clock on the wall
always tells the right time.  (Except when we saw the display, it
was evening, but daytime in the virtual kitchen.)  The idea, as
expressed in a paper by Dr. Nomura, is to link the production process
to the sales process, so that as you mess about with the color of the
walls or the quality of the wood shelving, instructions are passed to
machines in the factories to make these items and deliver them
immediately, while accounting and invoicing takes place automati-
cally.  Dr. Nomura says the demonstration has been a big hit with
Matsushita executives, who were initially skeptical about the
prospects for this expensive experiment.  Now there are plans to
begin testing the system in the field, in actual showrooms, and then
to apply it to other goods sold by Matsushita.  Welcome to the future
of industry.

    I also want to mention work on hypermedia going on at Chiba
Institute of Technology, in Kanagawa, including the planned design
and construction of massively parallel computers at a fraction of
today's price.  The projects are just getting started, but under the
direction of chief professor Yoshiro Miida, Chiba's faculty, including
Akira Nomoto, Hiroyuki Miyamoto, and Masahiro Ukigai, and with the
participation of star pupil Manabu Fukushima (whose mother bakes
the finest French pastries, which we enjoyed together), their is a lot
of enthusiasm and talent -- outside the normal Tokyo ambit.  Thanks
to friend Koji Sato for showing me around.

                *     *     *

    After the conference and the visit to Chiba, my wife, Lauren,
and I traveled to Kyoto, where we braved 100 degree heat and 95%
humidity trying to see one sight after another, and failing in every
attempt.  Thank goodness for the half-dozen soft-drink and health-
drink machines on every corner (one dispensing a new treat called
"Desert Storm:  For the Energetic Individual").  We did manage finally
to walk through the Shogun's Palace, an evocative, beautiful
collection of structures.  Virtual environments abounded in this 16th
Century structure:  he Palace's "nightengale" floors give off a
chirping sound whenever a guest (or spy) walks by, a deadly call to
the Shogun's hidden guards; and the rooms are decorated with images
ranging from the garish (landscapes) to the sublime (abstract
forms), the former for the hoi poloi, the latter for the elite.  Nothing
was quite as it seemed.  And perhaps the same can be said of Japan,
to the novice visitor, as I was and remain.

    And, even as you read this, I am off to Japan one more time,
with a new report, on the East Coast establishment -- Osaka and
Matsushita -- to follow....
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