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Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, The University of Tokyo
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2010/05/10

Creating intelligent systems that exceed human capabilities

Professor Masatoshi Ishikawa
(Department of Creative Informatics)

Professor Ishikawa is a leader respected and trusted by both Japanese and foreign researchers. A number of foreign researchers who saw the smooth motions of his robot arms left internationally prestigious universities and came to ask for his mentorship. Professor Ishikawa aspires to create “intelligent systems that exceed human capabilities.” In order to realize this vision, he promotes four unique and original research groups ---- “Sensor Fusion” or realizing sensory functions integrating the human five senses using an engineering point of view, “Dynamic Image Control” based on visual information processing on phenomena so fast it that cannot be followed by human eyes, a “Vision Chip” that performs ultrafast processing at the rate of 1,000 images per second, and “Meta Perception” which allows unusual sensory experiences by allowing communication between humans and artificial systems through a new perceptual technique.

His creative ambition to converge these four research fields to create intelligent systems exceeding human capabilities differentiates his approach from other researchers, given that most robotics researches try to simply recreate known senses such as human eyes, hands, muscles, touch, and vision. “Making a bird-shaped airplane by observing a bird” is not Professor Ishikawa' s research model. Rather, his approach is “making a jet airplane by observing a bird.”

He first sketches an overview of the entire system, explores possibilities by making mathematical models, and then investigates light and nimble industrial strategies to realize the system. One innovative example of this approach is a pitching robot that throws a ball and a batting robot that hits the ball back. The overall objective of the research in which the robot reliably hits back the thrown ball by instantly recognizing its position, speed, and direction is to invent high-speed motor systems (arms and hands) and high-speed recognition systems (eyes and brain) and promote their application to industry. This research approach and his perspectives resonate with Japanese and foreign researchers.


Graduate School of Information Science and Technology
the University of Tokyo