Let's Talk about .. TRONSHOW2011

On December 15, 2010, I found the information posted by Kieng, my friend from the University of Tokyo, about TRONSHOW2011, so I went to listen to the international session.

The 27th TRON Project Symposium (TRONSHOW2011) is during December 15-17, 2010 at Tokyo Midtown, Japan. It is organized by T-Engine Forum.

Method of Identify Location

The Light Flexible Speaker (TLF-SP)

Tokyo Ubiquitous Technology Project

The session I participated was "Globalizing Ubiquitous Computing"

Prof. Ken Sakamura, a coordinator

First is the talk of "Globalizing Ubiquitous Computing"

Globalizing Ubiquitous Computing 

Dr. Gerald Santucci

By Dr.Gerald Santucci, head of unit "Networked Enterprise & RFID", European Commission 

He talked about nowadays, there are many Internet of Things such as Smart Building, Smart Energy, Smart Health, Smart Cities, Smart Transport, and Smart Living. PM of China said also last year that "Internet of Things is the wisdom of the earth". There are 3 underlying trends: Scale, Mobility, Heterogeneity & Complexity. There is a research said that everyone use 5,000 things.  Future Internet challenges consist of more storage, more addresses, more transport capacity , making tech ology compatible, Internet for all, better search tool, from data to knowledge.  

A definition of the Intetnet of Things by Dr. Gerald Santucci

The Internet of Things (IoT) as an Integral Part of the future Internet A dynamic global network infrastructure with self-configuring capabilities based on standard and interoperable communication protocols where physical and virtual "things" have identities, physical attributes, and virtual things.

EU IoT Project 

Cluster Activities Organized activity chains in the area of: Architecture approaches, models, naming, search, discover; Government issues, Privacy and security; Links to nation, etc.

IoT EU Policy Framework Europe's action plan
- Privacy and data protection; 'right to the silence of the chips' 1991 Internet was invented, started using in 1993, but well-known in 1995.
- Standardization, there should no barrier to train people.
- Research
- Waste management, when all technological devices go to the end of usage period.
- International dialogue
- Innovation
- Government
- Trust, security, and acceptance  

Internet of Things Governance

Action 1: Define a set of principles for IoT governance
Design an "architecture" with a sufficient level of decentralised management to address key challenges: avoidance of a single point-of-failure, service tranferability, interoperability ofn every level, security, scalability, technology-neutrality...

Action 2:
- Continuous monitoring of privacy and personal data protection
- Communication on trust and privacy in the ubiquitous society

Action 3: The "right to the silence of the chips": individuals should be able to disconnect from their networked environment at any time.

Action 4: The Commission will follow ENISA work on the identification of emerging risks and provide a policy framework to develop IoT.

Action 5: The Commission will follow the development of IoT infrastructures becoming a vital resource to economy and society.

Action 6:
- Launch or extend currently standards Mandates to include issues related to IoT
- Ensure IoT standards are developed in an open, transparent and consensual manner

Action 7: Finance research projects through FP7 projects.

Action 8: Contribute to the respective Public-Private Partnerships:
- Green cars
- Energy-efficient buildings
- Factories of the Future
- Future Internet

Action 9: Innovation and pilot projects: promoting the deployment of IoT applications by launching pilot projects though ICT-PSP.

Action 10: The Commission will inform Europe Institutions and relevant stakeholders about IoT developments.

Action 11: International dialogue to promote the lines of action laid down in the Communication

Action 12: To assess the difficulties of recycling tags and the benefits and nuisances that the presence of tags can have on the recycling of objects.

Action 13: Monitoring the introduction of IoT related technologies to allow the assessment of their impact as well as the effectiveness of the related Community policies

Action 14: The Commission will assess the evolution of IoT

Internet of Things Architecture 

Alessandro Blassi

By Mr.Alessandro Blassi, Technical Coordinator of the FP7 IP Project "Internet of Things Architecture", Hitachi Europe Ltd. 

Only a few people imagined in last ten years ago that today we have smart phone that can send e-mail like today. There are many Internet involved things around us such as Smart house, business productive, safe health monitoring, logistics. IoT-A will be laying the foundation for such a future.  

For Current status, it's Fragmented architecture, no coherent unifying concepts, solution exist for only application silos. No coherent approaches to implement the IoT.  Many island solutions do exist (RFID, sensor, etc.)  

The objectives of IoT-A
- Removing the barriers of deployment and widescale acceptance of IoT
- Demonstrating the usability of IoT-A

Means of implementation
- Providing a protocol suite based on open protocols centred around a narrow waste
- Defining a novel resolution infrastructure
- Building novel device platform components
- Implementing real-life use cases

Spiral Development of IoT-A

Spiral Development by Alessandro Blassi

IoT-A will work with T-Engine. 

If you want to get involve and contribute to IoT-A, the IoT-A need you, you can become a IoT-A stakeholder by going the website http://www.IoT-a.eu/stakeholder  

Key Driver for ubiquitous network 

By Prof.Dr.Ryo Imura, Executive Officer, Hitachi Information Systems, Ltd. and Professor of the University of Tokyo. 

Prof. Ryo Imura, Dr. Gerald Santucci, and Alessandro Blassi

By  Essential point is how smart and how beneficial to our daily life.  The technology, especially IoT is already embedded in our daily life. We need to win the technology by using our creativity. After that it's the discussion between him and Dr.Gerald and Alessandro.

After that there's a continuing talk about China's case.

Ref.

[1] Summarized from Santucci, G., Blassi, A., and Imura, R., the international session "Globalizing Ubiquitous Computing" , the 27th TRON Project Symposium, Tokyo, Japan, Dec 15, 2010.

Let's Talk about .. Gerontechnology

On December 9th, 2010, I went to the AIST Gerontechnology Forum 2010 / International Society for Gerontechnology Japan Chapter, organized by Affective Laboratory of TokyoTech at AIST Tokyo Waterfront conference room (11th floor), Odaiba, Tokyo, Japan. I joined the workshop of Designing for Older Adults: Human Factor Approaches by Prof.Dr. Wendy A. Rogers and Prof.Dr. Arthur D. Fisk from Human Factors & Aging Laboratory, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA.

Assoc.Prof. Hiroyuki Umemuro opened the workshop

Prof. Wendy A. Rogers

Prof. Arthur Dan Fisk

Aging Demographic
From the research, 65-year-old Japanese men is expected to live more 23 years in the future and longer for women. Around 68.8 % of Japanese is going to continue working when they are older.

In US, 65+ are living alone for 15% men and 30% women. Over 50% of them is hypertension, and other deceases. It means they need to use the medical activities. There is an increase rate of computer use for 65+ from 20 to 40% 2010 comparing with 2000. The frequent process 65+ people do is open a file, save a file, and use a printer. About Internet usage, it's quite similar with the computer usage (10 to 40%). For Japan, it is also increases.

Older adults' capabilities and limitations

Process of aging
Primary aging
- Normal, disease free development during adulthood (inevitable)
Secondary aging
- Developmental changes related to disease, lifestyle, environmental factor
- Tertiary aging
- Rapid loss in organs

Movement control limitations
- Response time slows and more variable

Percentage of people in each age that require visual correction, Cataracts, Glaucoma or other Visual Impairments

The need of visual correction increases when people grow older, the maximum is around 60 plus. The speech intelligibility is also going down when people grow older.

Cognitive aging
Decline in
- Working memory
- attention limits
- Multiple tasking
Some remain intact
- Verbal ability
- General knowledge
- Schemas and scripts
- Previous experience
- Metacognition

Design guidelines

The general way of guideline is to view an older as adult's system as "a noisy information channel". We need to boost the signal strength, like increase the size of visual objects (font size, icon size). And decrease the noise, like isolate messages from other message channels, and maintaining the consistent positioning of target items.

Good design for text
- Black on white 28 point is better than gray and smaller font

Design input device
- Match it with the task demands
- Direct: for pure pointing and clicking tasks
- Indirect: experienced users, combined input tasks,large movements, precision
- Speech recognition: restrictions in manual dexterity; low ambient noise level
- Keyboard input

- Use large keys with clear markings and inter-key spacing

- Provide tactile and auditory feedback with keypads

Remote example

Comparison of good and bad design of remote control

The bad design showed that its buttons are too close together and it's black on gray color.

Design output device
- High contrast between characters and background
- Text size 0.6 degrees of visual angle or greater on display
- Shield visual output screens from glare
- Provide an adaptive, adjustable display (with instruction)
- Important warning message

Interface design
- Minimize clutter
- Visual: too many display items in any one location

- Auditory: too many sounds to make sense out of such as warning tones

- Cognitive: too many things to keep in memory

- Movement related: too many or too small response items

- Ensure that characters and targets are conspicuous and accessible

- Font size less than 12 should be avoided

- Icons should be large enough to select easily

- Auditory information should be presented at the proper pitch, frequency, and rate

Interface design-Navigation
- Screen scrolling should be minimized ( especially horizontal scrolling)
- Provide the site map
- Provide search history
- Indicate clearly where the user currently is
- Provide the navigation assistance for linking

Interface design - information organization
- Frequent and important actions should be easily visible and accessible

- Optimize information organization within natural or consistent groupings

- Develop the menu structure to match medium

One of the good examples is the web site that we can search by both letter and category.

Example of bad design of web page

Example of better design of web page

You can see the tips at Making Your Website Senior Friendly (National Institute on Aging and the National Library of Medicine).

Anyway, the Golden rule is a user testing.

Involving older adults
Methods in the human factor & aging lab
- Questionnaires
- Structured Interviews
- Diary Studies
- Observation

- Experiments

- Field Trials

General consideration
Selecting a representative sample
- depends on research question
Aging in place issues
Technology use problem (user testing)
Benefit of computer system in home

Structuring testing environment
- Minimize distractions and ambient noise
- Ensure adequate lighting
- Adjust screens to accommodate size differences and eyeglasses
- Comfortable chairs
Actually, it is important for everyone, but especially for older adults.

Format of materials
- High contrast text of background
- 6th grade reading level
- Minimize jargon
- > 14 point San serif font
- Avoid fancy font, even it looks fun

Framing your questions
- Distance yourself from developer
- Use reminder
- Provide scenario to elicit opinion
- Video or demonstration of technology
- Goals

Pacing of events & Timing of sessions
- Recognize that environment may be foreign to older adults
- Allow time to get acclimated
- Sequence task easy to difficult
- Provide basic instructions
- Assume 1.5 times needed by younger
- Allow time to break

Pilot test everything
- clarity of instruction
- working of materials
- timing of tasks and overall session
- explain pilot testing to participants open and honest

Technology Acceptance
Attitudes
- Identify barriers to adoption
- Instrusiveness, privacy, security concerns
- Conditional adoption

Older adult does not use tech as much as younger adult. They concern about tech description, and others.

Introduction new technology to older adults
- Recognize their unique preferences, capabilities, limitation, and experiences
- Provide written, well-designed instructional material
- Ensure that perceptions are accurate reflections of the complexity and ease of use of the technology
- Do not assume users will understand why technology might be useful to them, make benefits explicit

I like the sentence that they mention during the discussion period, "We should not think about what technology can do, but we should think about what the technology should do."

For more information, you can visit their website at http://psychology.gatech.edu/hfa

Ref.

[1] Summarized from Workshop: Designing for Older Adults: Human Factor Approaches by Prof.Dr. Wendy A. Rogers and Prof.Dr. Arthur D. Fisk, AIST Gerontechnology Forum 2010, December 9, 2010.

Let's Talk about .. STeLA Leadership Forum 2010

I was one of the speakers in STeLA Leadership Forum 2010 Debriefing Session.
I explained about my experience of being Japan delegate to participate the MIT-Japan's STeLA Leadership Forum 2010 at Beijing, China.
This presentation was on October 9th, 2010 at the University of Tokyo, Japan.




Hello! Now international organization "STeLA" is recruiting the new
staff members for next year! (Deadline 29th 23:59. Oct)
Here is the brief introduction of STeLA. It contains;
・What is STeLA?
・What do the staff members do?
・How was the last year's activity?
We are looking forward to seeing you in the selection process!

********
**** STeLA (Science and Technology Leadership Association)
** Web Site: http://web.mit.edu/stela-mit/
* e-Mail: stela.japan(at)gmail.com　e-Mail(recruit)
stela.japan.staffrecruit.2011(at)gmail.com

*STeLA*
The purpose of STeLA is to develop future leaders from across the globe
to act on real global issues in science and technology fields.
As of now, STeLA has four branches.
+STeLA-USA: consists of students in MIT, Harvard...
+STeLA-China: consists of students in Peking Univ, Tsinghua Univ...
+STeLA-Japan: consists of students in Tokyo Univ, Tokyo Tech...
+STeLA-France: consists of students in ENSTA, Ecole Polytechnique...

*Activity of STeLA*
Main activity of STeLA is to organize STeLA Leadership Forum.
Objective: To cultivate global leadership skills of students in the
science and technology related students.
Term: About one week.
Participants: Each STeLA branch recruit.
So far, we have held the forum 4 times in Tokyo, Boston, and Beijing.
Next year, the forum is planned to be held in Stanford.

*Call for Staff*
We will recruit new staff members in order to hold STeLA Leadership
Forum 2011.
Staff works consist of...
- Fundraising and accounting,
- Forum Program(Leadership Education, Thematic Session, Group Project),
- Developing web page,
- Forum program making
- ...
This year we are especially seeking those who have experience in and
knowledge of public relations and fundraising.
Of course, you are still encouraged to apply even if you do not have
these specific experiences.

The staff meeting among branches is held using online conference system,
and the official language during the meeting is English.
So you don't need to be afraid of our activity even though you are not
confident in speaking Japanese!

Our selection process consists of documentary elimination and interview.
The deadline of application is 23:59, 29th Oct (Fri).

You can check our web page for more details, and we will hold debriefing
session for last forum on 9th Oct (Sat)
in Hongo Campus of Univ. of Tokyo.

*STeLA Leadership Forum 2010*
We organized following programs in STeLA Leadership Forum 2010.
+Collaborating with MIT Leadership Center
( http://sloanleadership.mit.edu/ ),
we held leadership lecture, role playing game, discussion...
+Keynote speech:
Mr. Yasuji Watanabe (JST),
Prof. Xue Lan (Tsinghua University),
Dr. Yalei Hao (Petro China),
+Focusing "Technology transfer" as a global issue relating to science
and technology, we held lecture, role playing game, discussion.
+Finding social issues in Beijing city and proposing innovative solution
using solar energy.
Participants built solar energy generator and device which could work by
the energy.
The devices and solutions were presented to public.

If you have any questions, please check our web page or contact us.
We are looking forward to your application!!

Contact;
Web page: http://web.mit.edu/stela-mit/index.html
e-mail(recruit): stela.japan.staffrecruit.2011@gmail.com

Let's Talk about .. SnapIt Screen Capture

There is one nice application I would like to review about it today. It's SnapIt, a WindowsOS application to capture the screen. This light size software is nice for the person who have to make an instruction that needs to show the step-by-step screenshot or describe interface or even buttons; add figure into your e-mail or others. And yes, for Blogger, it's a useful tool.

Let's look at its features. SnapIt supports hotkeys, auto-saving, and clipboard. Various format for the saved file, BMP, GIF, JPEG, TIFF, and more. When using it, you will have a small icon in system tray bar area, which is used to modify the properties. Moreover, we can track the history of our capturing.

SnapIt is a software from Digeus Incorporation. If you're interested, you can try Screen Capture Software. Enjoy SnapIt!!

Let's Talk about .. JAXA Tsukuba Space Center

Last week I had a chance to visit Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Center. It is located at 2-1-1 Sengen, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan. It's established since 1972 [4].
There are both English and Japanese tour service for free, but you have to book in advance.

First of all, we need to have the visitor card, after that I entered the building to see the introduction video.

Visitor Card

Inside Information Building

Robot Kun, mascot of JAXA

Rocket H-II, H-II A, and H-II B

First place, I went to the Exhibition Hall. After entering, there is a big Earth half sphere called Dream Port. I can see the position of the satellites above the atmosphere and other JAXA activities.

Dream Port

After that, they show achievement of each space projects. There are many models of the satellites.

Since 1970, ..

Medium-scale Broadcasting Satellite for Experimental Purpose

Engineering Test Satellite-VII

Spacesuit is used by astronauts for extravehicular activities. It consists of 14 layers of materials to protect. Astronauts from harmful radiation and space debris [4].

They provide the full scale mockup of KIBO, the Japanese Experimental Module (JEM). It is a Japan's first human facility in the International Space Station. Kibo is a module to study about space medicine, biology, Earth observations, material production, biotechnology and communications research [3]. I can see the introduction of utilization of the space environment. They said that Kibo is as big as motor coach [4].

Kibo

Inside Kibo

International Space Station (ISS) model

Next to Kibo, there are many rockets standing there. There are 1/12 scale models of the successive rockets.

1/12 Model of Successive Rockets

KAGUYA, an engineering model for a space science and lunar and planetary science research is also shown in the hall. The major objectives of KAGUYA mission are to obtain scientific data of the lunar origin and evolution and to develop the technology for the future lunar exploration. KAGUYA consists of a main orbiting satellite at about 100 km altitude and 2 small satellites (Relay Satellite and VRAD Satellite) in polar orbit [4].

SeLenological Engineering Explorer KAGUYA

Not only the model, but they also display the real rocket engines "LE-7" and "LE-8", which were used for combustion tests [4].

Then, the bus took me to the Weightless Environment Test Building. There is a large 16-meter-diameter pool with 10.5 meters in depth for the astronaut training with spacesuits. They showed a video of the weightless environment test.

Weightless Environment Test Building

Symptom according to pressure

I found that there were some Japanese children learning something about communication technique if the room next to video display place.

Until 2010, there are 8 Japanese astronauts [2]:-

Japanese Astronauts

- Mamoru Mohri, Ph.D.(Chemistry) from Flinders University, the first Japanese astronaut, crew member on the Spacelab-J mission in 1992
- Chiaki Mukai, M.D., Ph.D.(Physiology) from Keio University, the first Japanese female astronaut, Payload Specialist
- Takao Doi, Ph.D.(Aerospace Engineering) from the University of Tokyo, Ph.D.(Astronomy) from Rice University
- Koichi Wakata, Dr.Eng.(Aerospace Engineering) from Kyushu University
- Soichi Noguchi, M.Eng.(Aeronautical Engineering) from the University of Tokyo
- Satoshi Furukawa, M.D., Ph.D.(Medical Science) from the University of Tokyo
- Akihiko Hoshide, M.Sc.(Aerospace Engineering) from University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering
- Naoko Yamazaki, M.Eng.(Aerospace Engineering) from the University of Tokyo

After that, the bus took me back to the Information Building to visit a Space Toy Shop, a souvenir shop.

Thank you JAXA for this nice experience.

Ref.

[1] JAXA, "KAGUYA SELENE", available at http://www.kaguya.jaxa.jp/index_e.htm (accessed September 2010).

[2] JAXA, "Profile of JAXA's Astronauts", available at http://iss.jaxa.jp/astro/profile_e.html(accessed September 2010).

[3] Kauderer, A., "Kibo Japanese Experiment Module", International Space Station, NASA, available at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/jem.html(accessed September 2010).

[4] Tsukuba Space Center, Tsukuba Space Center Tour Guide, 2010.

Let's Talk about .. Santory Beer Factory Tour

On 26 July, 2010, I have a chance to join Senoo Lab's fieldwork. We went to Santory Beer Factory in Tokyo (サントリー武蔵野ビール工場). It's located at 3-1 Fuchu, Tokyo.

The nearest train station to the factory is Bubaigawara Station (分倍河原駅). There is a shuttle bus provided to go from the station to the factory. For 

Taxi, it's around 710 Yen.
It is considered the old company of food and beverage in Japan.

After gathering, the staff showed us the video about the process of beer production and then we walked around the factory following her.

The step of beer production (from the Brewery tour)

1. Ingredient

Suntory uses the following main ingredients:
-First natural water from underground.

-Second malt. It's a cereal grain.

 Suntory has a gold large field of malt because it's the main ingredient of Beer. They let us test t

he taste of malt. It's delicious.

-Third hop. A type of flowers.

 Its smell is like aroma. The staff let us try to smell both scene of them to compare, but for me, I think it's quite similar.
They become premium beer of suntory, with many medals show their nice of taste.

At the entrance there is air blower to blow small dust.

2. Wort production

The temperature is quite hot, around 35.6 c degree.
Unfortunely, we saw only the machine during it's not processing.

3. Fermentation

This process transforms wort into young beer.

It breakdown sugar in wort into alcohol and co2, and young beer is produced.

4. Maturation

They keep young beer at regular temperature 0 c degree.
We walk pass model show inside of the beer tank.

5. Distrillation

6. Canning

They have the red line limit to show the criteria of the length of border of the beer can. They evaluates by computer one by one. They also concern about environment issue , for example, separating of each type of garbage.

Finally I tried the premium malt's beer.

Other than beer, sanitary also provides natchan, an orange juice, and appetizer to eat with beer such as nuts, or rice crackers.

Nat Chan

More info. http://www.suntory.co.jp/factory/musashino/index.html