Summary

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has spread widely across society and has become an essential foundation supporting human society. Particularly in Japan, where the population is aging and the birthrate is falling at an accelerated rate, the effective use of advanced ICT to support people’s social lives, including dispelling fears for the future of medical treatment/welfare/pensions/education/childcare, correcting the intergenerational digital divide, ensuring safety/security in people’s lives, and restoring familial/regional ties, is becoming an important national strategy. This key research applies basic intelligent information processing technologies comprised of signal processing and image processing technology, network security, information protection technology, ubiquitous environment construction, sensory information processing using human emotions and brainwaves, artificial intelligence robots, and intelligent software engineering technology to enhance social living support systems and contribute to life innovation.

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Keywords:

Intelligent information processing, social living support system, intelligent sensing, advanced image processing, network security, ubiquitous environment, sensory information processing, biological information processing, artificial intelligence robot, intelligent software engineering

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Related research topics

1. Research on Social Living Support Systems Using Intelligent Sensing/Image Processing Technology/Emergent Design Techniques
   1-1　Outline
   (1)Measuring human biological information (brainwaves, myoelectric information, MR images, etc.) using intelligent sensing technology, and making use of this information in social support of the elderly and disabled through integration with soft computing and ultrafast statistical processing technology.
   (2)Constructing a gentle monitoring system for automatic detection of abnormalities in people who are sick, elderly, disabled, etc. from among images obtained from numerous cameras connected to networks.
   (3)Applying emergent design techniques for automatic and adaptive design of robots, etc. based on evolutionary and learning techniques to the design of systems that are easy for the elderly and disabled to use.

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   1-2　Supervisors

   Miroru Fukumi, Norihiko Ono, Kenji Terada, Yoshio Mogami, Koji Kashihara, Stephen Githinji Karungaru, Shin-ichi Ito, Momoyo Ito

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2. Research on Lifestyle Support by Human Model and on Robot Communication Support by Modeling Human Mind.
   2-1　Outline
   (1)Applying construction of an intellectual infrastructure aimed at IT barrier-free and at a social living support system by a human function model using biological information to support the independence of the elderly and the disabled.
   (2)Establishing elemental technologies such as multimodal emotional understanding and emotion creation, and applying this technology to the fields of medical care and welfare by developing communication technology for conscious robots.
   (3)Researching a basic technology related to modeling higher order human mind such as emotional understanding from the brain , and researching the application of this technology to new robot functions.

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   2-2　Supervisors

   Junichi Aoe, Kenji Kita, Fuji Ren, Shoichiro Fujisawa, Masami Shishibori, Masao Fuketa, Kazuhiro Morita, Minoru Yoshida, Masaki Oono, Kazuyuki Matsumoto

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3. Research on Safe/Secure Social Support Using Network Security, Web Knowledge, Ubiquitous Environments
   3-1　Outline
   (1)Research into ensuring security in network information and telecommunication systems using advanced coding techniques such as error correcting codes, network coding, data compression, and random number generation.
   (2)Promoting research on the application of Internet environments to assisted living technologies in human society using technologies that improve the efficiency of Web knowledge exchange.
   (3)Creating educational information and living assistance information using efficient and safe/secure ubiquitous environments, and implementing user-friendly assisted living environments by correcting the educational and digital divide in people’s social lives.

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   3-2　Supervisors

   Takao Shimomura, Kenji Ikeda, Hiroyuki Mitsuhara, Shun Watanabe

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