There is a Japanese inventor who is drawing attention from all over the world. Emi Tamaki has attracted the world's attention for her "body sharing," a technology that shares not only audiovisual but also various sensations such as weight and resistance with other people and robots. She is Mr. Tamaki, the first female professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of the Ryukyus, and the representative director of H2L (Minato-ku, Tokyo), a venture company. I want to experience it by sharing my senses and increase my experience in life-Body sharing was born from Mr. Tamaki's thoughts.
Whenever I have something fun, I want to share that experience with my close friends. In such a case, you can take a picture or video, send it, and enjoy playing it on your smartphone or computer. Such visual and auditory experience sharing has become a part of our lives due to the spread of smartphones.
This series of communication consists of input and output of information. The sender creates information that appeals to the eyes and ears using input devices such as cameras, microphones, and keyboards. The receiving side receives it in the form of video or audio using an output device such as a display or speaker.
However, with audiovisual experience sharing, it feels like you are passively sharing your experience rather than experiencing it yourself. Therefore, thinking that it would be possible to share sensations other than audiovisual sensations, Mr. Tamaki focused on the "proprioception (deep sensation)" that he felt deep inside the skin.
The proprioceptive sensation is, for example, when catching a fallen apple, the sensation of stretching the arms and fingers, feeling that the apple is on the palm and the fingers cannot be grasped, or feeling the weight on the palm. means. Mr. Tamaki thought that if he could measure the proprioceptive sensation with a sensor and convey it to others through some kind of output device, he would be able to share an active and immersive sensation as if he had experienced it himself.
The problem was that there were no input devices to measure proprioception or output devices to convey proprioception. Therefore, Mr. Tamaki first invented the "posest hand" (meaning the hand to be manipulated) that moves a person's hand by electrical stimulation, and announced it in 2011.
"For example, when we try to move a finger, the brain emits a weak electrical signal that travels through nerves and stretches and contracts the muscles to move the finger. Similar to this electrical signal. When an electrical stimulus is sent from a computer to stimulate a specific part of the skin on the forearm, the finger moves even if you do not want to move it. This mechanism is used by the Posest Hand, "says Tamaki.
The realization of sharing of proprioception has attracted a great deal of attention due to its novelty. The original Posest Hand was selected as one of the "50 Inventions of the World" in the US magazine "TIME" in 2011, and in 2012, Mr. Tamaki established H2L.
The Posest Hand was an output-only device, but Mr. Tamaki then said, "Unlimited Hand (meaning unlimited hand), which also has the function of a sensor (input device) that measures the movement of muscles when the wearer moves his or her fingers. Was developed and announced in 2015. Unlimited hands are used for research and product development by many people, with specifications that can be used without restrictions for applications such as medical care and entertainment, just by developing software.
"When you shine a special light on the bulging muscles under the skin, it reflects more light than when it's not bulging. It's unique to focus on this phenomenon, with how many grams of force your hands have. It was possible to indicate whether it was pressed or not, and we succeeded in measuring the proprioception. "(Mr. Tamaki).
With Unlimited Hands, by outputting the obtained data as an electrical signal, it is possible to convey the unique sensation to others, robots, characters in the virtual world, and so on. For example, you can share the weight of a bird when it flies and catches it, and the feeling when a bird's claws are scratched. Mr. Tamaki named this unique sharing system body sharing.
Mr. Tamaki's desire to share his experiences grew when she was hospitalized several times from high school to college. Tamaki, who was in a large room with patients who had been hospitalized for a long time, began to talk with people of all ages. It was a fun time and seemed to enjoy each other, but there was also a common earnest feeling.
“When I'm in the hospital for a long time, I often miss the opportunity to experience life. As a student at the University of the Ryukyus, I couldn't have the experience of joining a circle or having a barbecue together. Some say they can't go to their child's athletic meet, and some talk about the loneliness of not being able to celebrate their birthday near their grandchildren. Everyone can't experience it by discussing and sharing what they actually experienced. There were times when I was able to come to terms with the loneliness of the current situation, "says Tamaki. "From there, I realized that sharing experiences is very important in my life, I wanted to be able to share more experiences, and I wanted to create a mechanism that allows people who have difficulty going out to have many experiences, so I started research. rice field"
At first, I was thinking about something that robots would experience instead of myself, so I went to the graduate school of the University of Tsukuba, where robot research is active. "But when I saw a lot of robot researchers, I thought,'Oh, I don't have to do robots' (laughs). Then, the final step is to increase the quantity and quality of experience sharing. When I thought about what I should do if I was aiming for a goal, the field that no one was doing and was quietly missing, so to speak, the missing piece was a shared sense of peculiarity. " In order to open up new fields, I desperately studied not only engineering fields such as circuit design, programming, and machine learning, but also physiology, materials science, and psychology, which are far from specialized fields. This physiology and psychology is utilized for the sharing of proprioception.
By sharing a sense of proprioception, one can immerse in a shared world in a more immersive state. This was also of great industrial significance. Currently, H2L has a strong presence not only in product development and sales, but also in body sharing applications.
However, engineering, especially information, is a field with few women. It is said that there were some difficulties unique to women. For example, when I was with a male student or a male researcher and talked to an outsider, it seemed that the woman did not design the circuit, so she was not the subject of the discussion and was frustrated. Still, Mr. Tamaki thinks as follows.
"It is true that female students were minorities, but with the diversification that we have now, anyone can become a minority somewhere. Therefore, we positively consider being a minority as an interesting thing to overcome in the future. I want you to remember what I felt when I was a minority. Also, considering the responsibility and hardships of those in their 50s and 70s who have opened up the social advancement of women. I think it's a good time. "
Minority is individuality. Mr. Kazuhisa Wada, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering, University of the Ryukyus, hopes that Mr. Tamaki's individuality will lead to the revitalization of the entire university.
"Similar to the diversity that the SDGs sing, universities need a lot of individuality. Among those who pursue one field and build a theory, there are a variety of people like Professor Tamaki who challenge inventions that connect with society. I'm glad that the university and the local community will be revitalized by gathering a wealth of individuality. "(Mr. Wada).
It is said that the future society that Mr. Tamaki envisions is a society in which everyone can get three times as much experience as people living in the present age in one life by sharing experiences. What is the reason why Mr. Tamaki attaches great importance to experience?
"I think that human beings can't just have knowledge, they feel that they are alive by mixing experience with knowledge and becoming wisdom. And by leaving that wisdom to the next generation, culture Therefore, I would like to enrich the life of an individual and mature the culture by increasing the amount of experience. "
As the amount of experience increases, wisdom increases, new ideas are born, and society can be changed. Indeed, inventions create the future. What kind of technologies and application examples will be announced in the future toward the realization of the future society that we are aiming for? Keep an eye on that trend.
Emi Tamaki Professor, Faculty of Engineering, University of the Ryukyus, Founder of H2L Inc. Born in Okinawa Prefecture. She completed the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the University of Tokyo in 2012. She has been an intern at Disney Research, Inc. in the United States, and an associate professor at the School of Human Sciences, Waseda University. Since 2021, she has been in her current position. Since 2015, she has been a member of the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for scientific research and development. She was the same year she was a JST PRESTO researcher.
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