Pocket

Future Vision

"A Family Life in Future"

Future Life conducted by Aoyama Gakuin University Next-Generation Well-Being.
  • sports performance improvement
  • "touch"able internet shopping
  • AR/VR
  • welfare house for aged people
  • concentration and fatigue management on work-at-home
  • interactive learning using A.I.
  • alarm and bed for better sleeping


Project Scope

A social framework in which all people can live with good physical, mental, and social well-being is important in a mature society of a developed country. We call this type of social framework "Next Generation Well-Being," and aim to establish one of our university brands for research relating to this framework.

To realize "Next Generation Well-Being," an optimal service providing various accumulated knowledge and skills, rather than a traditional and uniform system, is required in order to satisfy each target individual. In order to provide this kind of service system, technologies measuring a target individual's characteristics and the individual application models for processing those characteristics are necessary. This information regarding the target individual must then be fed back to the service provider. This project focuses on the developments and social implementations of such a service provision system, including the measurement technologies and individual application models such as "integrative human measuring and modeling technology," which integrates living measurement technologies, motion measurement technologies, modeling technologies, and individual application technologies.

Project Outline

The figure below compares a traditional service provision system and our proposed system of "Next Generation Well-Being."

A traditional service provision system provides a uniform service based on a common and general model for many undefined target people. This general purpose model is built on the basis of the observer's knowledge, his/her experience, and his/her subjectivity, while actively adjusting for the target's characteristics in the long term. A traditional system may therefore be unable to provide a service that can quickly reflect a target individual's characteristics. In addition, such a system cannot provide optimal and satisfactory service for all target individuals. In contrast, our proposed system utilizes an individual application model rather than a traditional general model. The individual application model consists of common general-purpose model and individual parameters indicating the characteristics of each target individual. Our system measures the target individual's characteristics as living data and motion data, and analyzes the measured data. The individual application parameters are adjusted automatically. The data on the target's characteristics are then fed back to the service provider, and the service provider can provide optimal, individualized service to the target individual based on these data. Our system integrates living measurement technologies, motion measurement technologies, modeling technologies, and individual application technologies into "integrative human-being measuring and modeling technology." This technical integration enables short-term and automatic measurement of individual characteristics, which are living data and motion data.

Our proposed system can be applied to various fields. We have especially focused on the health and welfare, knowledge and education, and skill training fields. We have implemented our system domestically, cooperating with local governments, enterprises, and universities, all of whom have experience in industry-government-academia research projects. In addition, we intend to construct an international model by cooperating with overseas university research groups.

Primarily, we target national and international involvement as explained below in the health and welfare, knowledge and education, and skill training fields.

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Health and Welfare Field

We aim to construct an individual application model by including living data and motion data reflecting people’s longer life spans, and provide information regarding effective health management as indicated in the figure below:

Each target individual's health status is estimated from measured living data and motion data, and is then fed via a network into a database installed by the affiliated enterprise. The individual application parameters are adjusted on the basis of the estimated health status. The optimal information on individual health management, such as aromatherapy, nutrition, exercise, and so on, is provided to the target individual by his/her health management supporter.

The key technologies are as follows:

  • Unconstrained bio-signals measurement system utilizing a super-sensitive pressure sensor;

  • Brain blood flow measurement by Near-infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS); and

  • Machine learning for integration data.

These technologies are structured to improve the accuracy of the health status estimation.

WINFrontier and other established enterprises in the field of wearable health information technology have cooperated with us in this part of our proposal.

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Knowledge and education field

Our goal in the knowledge and education field is to construct an individual application model by measuring a learner's living data and motion data, and to provide optimal study material at the most effective time.

The key technologies are as follows:

  • Vital activity and behavior measurement using wearable sensors;

  • Vital activity and behavior measurement using web camera; and

  • Advanced signal processing technology for analysis of autonomic nervous system activity.

These technologies are structured to enable the user to evaluate an individual learner's characteristics in terms of brain activity. In this field, the individual’s learning skills are developed. In addition to this, our project’s "integrative human measuring and modeling technology" enables the user to gauge the learner's expression, concentration, interest, understanding, ease of learning, and so on, and then change study materials dynamically to optimize the learning experience. Hence, active learning can be adopted not only in general e-learning but also during university coursework such as in a computer programming class. The Open University of Japan and Kitasato University cooperated with us in this part of the proposal.

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Skill training field

In the skill training field, we intend to construct the individual application model by measuring a trainee's living data and motion data and then provide effective advice from the instructor.

In the case of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), there may be many instances in which a worker manually handles manufacturing process because of the higher running cost associated with maintenance, even though the SME may be considering the installation of automatic equipment. Many SMEs do not have a sufficient number of mature, skilled workers and need quick and effective human resource development. As described in the figure above, the establishment of "integrative human measurement and modeling technology" will aid training by responding to the learner's maturity level, concentration, tension, and so on using Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. It will contribute to the rapid development of workers and engineers.

The key technologies are as follows:

  • Skill extraction system by measuring motion;

  • Skill training system utilizing virtual reality; and

  • Peripheral visual inspection training system by means of a visual mechanism.

These technologies are structured to enable the user to evaluate the individual trainee's characteristics more accurately. We have worked with Sagamihara City, making in-roads in industrial development, and Oei Co. Ltd., a plating company, as well as other organizations.

We substantiate "Next Generation Well-Being" as a university brand internationally with our initiatives as described above.

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Researchers

Satoshi Kumagai

Research Leader, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, College of Science and Engineering
[Business Management Systems, Business Process Management]

Yosuke KURIHARA

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, College of Science and Engineering
[System engineering]

Guillaume LOPEZ

Department of Integrated Information Technology, College of Science and Engineering
[Wearable information]

Toshiyuki MATSUMOTO

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, College of Science and Engineering
[Industrial Engineering, Kaizen Activity, Environmental Education]

Akio NOZAWA

Department of Electrical Engineering and Electronics, College of Science and Engineering
[Welfare Engineering]

Reiko YAKUSHIJIN

Department of Psychology, College of Education, Psychology and Human Studies
[Cognitive Psychology, Psychology of Perception]

Setsu KOMIYAMA

Department of Integrated Information Technology, College of Science and Engineering
[Sensory Engineering, Acoustic Engineering]

Hiroshi SAKUTA

Department of Integrated Information Technology, College of Science and Engineering
[Computer Application Science, Design Information Engineering]

Yoshito TOBE

Department of Integrated Information Technology, College of Science and Engineering
[Communication Networks]

Photos

Our Partners

In this project, Aoyama Gakuin University cooperates with local governments, enterprises, and universities, and shares the research results with local communities, educational institutions, and industries. These contributions, in the areas of health and welfare and skill training, are made to local communities at Sagamihara City, Shibuya City, and the surrounding areas in which the two campuses of Aoyama Gakuin University reside. We also apply our technologies, in the knowledge and education field and health and welfare fields, to certain educational institutions, including the Open University of Japan and Kitasato University. In addition, five enterprises, including Oei Co. Ltd. and WINFrontier Co. Ltd., also cooperate with us. Finally, we will coordinate our research efforts in the fields of knowledge education and health and welfare with Jean Monnet University (France), University of Oulu (Finland), and University of Hradec Kralove (the Czech Republic).

WINFrontier Co.Ltd.

WINFrontier Co.Ltd.

AR'S Co. Ltd.

AR'S Co. Ltd.

Arch Technology CO., LTD.

Arch Technology CO., LTD.

Oei Co. Ltd.

Oei Co. Ltd.

The Open Uiv. of Japan

The Open Uiv. of Japan

Sagamihara city

Sagamihara city

Jean Monnet Univ. (France)

Jean Monnet Univ. (France)

Oulu Univ. (Finland)

Oulu Univ. (Finland)

Univ. of Hradec Kralove (Czech Republic)

Univ. of Hradec Kralove (Czech Republic)

Inquiry

Please contact us for collaborative research, speech or another inquiry through the form below or E-Mail.

Address us at
Research Promotion Section, Sagamihara Campus, 5-10-1 Fuchinobe, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara-shi,Kanagawa 252-5258, Japan
Email us at