We live in the Age of Super Sensing. That is according to Satoshi Nakagawa. Nakagawa is a professor at the University of Tokyo and the Chief Technology Officer of Sensingnet, Inc., a Tokyo-based AI design, research, and consulting startup in the IoT space. For two years, Sensingnet has hosted an international conference centered around advanced sensing design and technology aptly named “The Age of Super Sensing”.
The 2018 conference, “The Age of Super Sensing,” empathetically asked, “What kind of design can we offer that will help to realize a society of rich diversity?” Speakers included professors from the University of Tokyo and Waseda University, business leaders from fledgling startups like FutureAir and tech giants like Microsoft, and members of the Asahi Kasei Corporation.
Despite varied backgrounds, all speakers expressed an eagerness to make the world a more habitable place through the production and use of socially good technology.
Masayuki Nakao, a professor at the University of Tokyo, highlighted the need for his students to understand and feel discomfort in order to direct their minds toward solutions. Through immersion in discomfort–and evaluation of implications–Nakao’s students are better equipped to address unique solutions, such as new umbrellas and pillows designed to facilitate healthy sleeping patterns.
Katsumi Watanabe, a professor at Waseda University and Adjunct Professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, urged listeners to consider the decision-making process of human beings. Imagine decision-making as the culmination of complex interactions between explicit and implicit processes between listeners and others. This process creates a kind of contagion in cognition and behavior which leads to an interconnectedness between human beings on a greater scale.
Haiyan Zhang, the Innovation Director at Microsoft Research, showcased a set of custom-designed solutions for problems that people face on an everyday basis. A feedback watch solved an inability to write legibly after an early diagnosis of Parkinson’s. A ten-year-old girl with severe memory loss used a specialty tablet to aid in learning and recall.
Simone Rothman, founder, and CEO of FutureAir, a cleantech startup that develops design-forward solutions to address indoor air pollution and energy consumption, spoke of the growing need to measure and manage indoor air quality. Simone believes firmly that which gets measured gets changed. Her company’s first product–SAM™, or Smart Air Manager–includes innovative sensing technology, IoT integration capability, and color-coded feedback to allow for constant IAQ measurement.
The Age of Super Sensing 2018 also announced FICTION, a gallery where “creators, with a passion for conceptualizing a prosperous future, exhibit their prototypes to the public.” The FICTION gallery will be located in New York City, at 525 West 26th Street. It will include exhibitions, workshops, and a “design bar”, which will provide a place for creators to stop in and collaborate on ideas.
Between this announcement and the conference’s panel of lectures, Sensingnet and Satoshi Nakagawa reaffirmed their desire to bring technology and humanity together. The result? A future blissfully free of clichéd dystopian notions and instead full of hope and promise.
References:
Sensingnet, https://www.sensingnet.co.jp/
Photo (Sensingnet)