Let's Do Our Best

Naturally the accumulated experience of living and working in Tokyo since 2001 is difficult to box into one catchy tagline. If you insist, then most simply put: it's the same.. but different. This dedicated effort will be focused on raising awareness for current projects and connecting our global networks.. Ganbarimashou!

Society 5.0

A national strategic policy to integrate cyber and physical data inputs – combined for shared benefit – of academia, business, citizens and government. Review our 5x5 project brief here.

Ryokan Resort

Our Smile Ventures platform was built for passion projects, we are currently working on this wonderful Onsen Ryokan resort property on the Izu peninsula. From the Past - For the Future.

The Mob Rulz

We have an amazing contact network, from Adelaide to Zurich, from corp. execs to startups, spanning segments from Ai to xR. Whew.. Therefore: Bringing the Community Together.. Again.

Happy Hours

Like Office Hours.. but better.. let's book time for a web chat! We'll get further, faster, with a free-flow voice exchange.. @_@ Standing by looking forward: the request lines are now open

Welcome Aboard

Behold.. this private space dedicated for our Alpha Ambassadors - Seriously Thrilled to have you here!

Background: in late 2019 we decided it was (long past) time to do some 'major' digital house cleaning, with 100's of hours spent updating existing sites and building a few new ones, for the road ahead - Beyond 2020.

A critical part of the process included migration from our legacy newsletter service platform and rebuilding multiple mailing lists into three equal sized non-duplicate groups, so through the magic of exel automation you ended up on the initial so-called Alpha segment.. Congrats.. :)

It's been a hectic few weeks since our first announcement in mid-February, with so many contact requests and follow-up calls, very grateful to all who have responded and extremely thankful for your comments and support. While we are preparing for the next round, Beta group segment blast coming soon, we wanted to pass along this quick update with our debut 5x5 post below.. sincerely hope you will enjoy that.. =@_@=

Meanwhile, as always, we really do look forward to your feedback; please feel free to contact us anytime!

Prelude

Are you sitting comfortably.. ideally with refreshments.. then, lets begin. As we stated, as firmly and humbly as possible, the Society 5.0 initiative merits attention; in this first of a series of posts we hope to illustrate how the range of tech. from AI to space, from corporate to startup and academia, are all inter-connected in a subtle compelling way. To be clear, as with mobile in the past, this is not based on unique Japan culture, it's applicable to global societies and business models.. (don't say it's a machine, don't say it's a machi..)

It's a Machine

As our proposed 5x5 Reports project listed 16 topic sections, starting with robotics, it seemed most logical to begin here with Karakuri Ningyo circa 400-years ago. Indeed, these 'trick dolls' performed a range tasks purely for delight, much like many Mechanical Marvels of the spring and gear pre-electricity era. This video below shows archery and calligraphy models, so now maybe that DoCoMo demo @MWC makes sense.. :)

For the history buffs, Inuyama Matsuri is a fantastic event — for the futurists, it seems, hardhats still required.

Of course I could go on (and on) about enterprise applications, such as DoCoMo JV with Toyota for T-HR3, but let's make do with Yaskawa and current version of Alter3, apparently '5G will Rock'.. in a classical sense. Rounding out a distant past, like water wheels and windmills, automation tools for business & pleasure are evident in the evolution of mankind, going back by the millennia. Obviously.. digital is key to the next level.

Mori-sensei defined 'Uncanny Valley' in the 1970's, then Hiroshi hold my shochu Ishiguro came along with the Actroid model unveiled at IREX in 2003. That colab. effort between Osaka University and Kokoro Labs, under Sanrio [Hello Kitty!], led to the F-series in 2011; see 1/7 playlist menu top-right of video player below. By 2014 his creations were enshrined at Miraikan and Geminoid debuted on the silver screen in Sayonara. For those who would like to dig deeper, Wired published an epic long read on Dr. Ishiguro in October 2017.

The current projects are Ibuki (breathe) and Erica, as he said: robots will be like cars, and she is a Ferrari.

Shifting to the 'compact' end of robot vehicle lineup; Kirobo launched into space Aug. 2013 and JV partners Dentsu, the University of Tokyo, Robo Garage, Toyota and JAXA earned two Guinness World Records. In 2016 Toyota announced the Kirobo-mini for consumers, and Sharp adopted the RoBoHon branded version, with Takahashi-sensei from Robo Garage as the father figure, for their 'somewhat unusual' mobile phone design.

Filed under the 'any color you want, so long as it's.. White', we have the prosumer Pepper model. SoftBank's acquisition of Aldebaran, and subsequently Boston Dynamics, rolled this pseudo C-3PO model in mid-2014. Initially positioned as a family member, and increasingly touted for retail and hospitality services, fair guess they've sold +100K units over the years. Across all of the use cases, HUG Project deserves a special mention.

For me, last auto reference I promise; NAOv6 is a solid 4x4 SuV choice, 'if' I was shopping for robo-wheels.

Finally, no worthy write-up on the subject could overlook the impact of Astro Boy, the Superman equivalent of that era. This custom video, by Tezuka Productions - owners of the iconic character, is a fantastic example of our Society 5.0 primary topic. The Sagami Robot Town opened in 2016 as a public/private partnership to serve the community and their content depicted in this clip is precisely the envisioned integration of digital and physical world future generations will experience. Thankfully, and thoughtfully, it has English sub-titles.

On Feb. 27th Tezuka and partners announced this Ai-Manga project for the production of comic contents. Yet another case in point, as I'm fond of saying; Japan.. Where the Past and the Future is Always Present™

Wrap

Whew, if a picture is worth 1,000 words, and video runs 30-frames second, checks calc; that was 3M words! Yes, we both earned a nap and pat on the head for job well done, yet it barely scratched the surface of this space with no mention of Aibo, Asimo, Fanuc, Paro or Wabot - to name a just few. Hopefully.. a good start?

Coming Up

Our next mini-marathon topic: AI.. because it's not just merely physical form but action inside. For example, this 'Camouflage Against the Machines' demo at recent Media Ambition event held here in Tokyo.. imagine!

Request

• Feedback.. my super-sonic telepathic powers are not all powerful, would really love to hear your thoughts.
• Happy Hours.. as per below, booking slots as mutually available for more meaningful exchanges, lets talk.
• Sharing.. if you have contacts who might enjoy this, forward the link, they can join via the form at bottom.

I accept info. will be used to contact me.

Send

Happy Hours - like Office Hours, but better - Let's Book a Call. We'll get further, faster, with a free-flow voice exchange.. @_@ Standing by looking forward: the request lines are now open

I

Human Machine

Naturally the accumulated experience of living and working in Tokyo since 2001 is difficult to box into one catchy tagline. If you insist, then most simply put: it's the same.. but different. This dedicated effort will be focused on raising awareness of current activities here and connecting our global networks. Yoroshiku!

Naturally the accumulated experience of living and working in Tokyo since 2001 is difficult to box into one catchy tagline. If you insist, then most simply put: it's the same.. but different. This dedicated effort will be focused on raising awareness of current activities here and connecting our global networks. Yoroshiku!