AIST REPORT 2012

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Deputy Director, Center for Service Research, AIST Yoichi MotomuraSenior Researcher, RT-Synthesis Research Group, Intelligent Systems Research Institute, AIST Kazuhiro KojimaDeputy Director, Intelligent Systems Research Institute, AIST Kohtaro OhbaThe highway to solutions is out in the field This project came about through wide-ranging collaboration with disaster victims, local government bodies, NPOs and volunteer groups active in the field, businesses, and others. According to Kohtaro Ohba, there have been very few studies that have succeeded in penetrating so deeply in a disaster zone.“My ultimate objective is for us to continue our support and not leave the disaster zone until the people of the area are back on their feet. My first contact with the disaster victims was not in the role of a researcher but as a helper, and this may be what enabled us to build up an unusual level of trust. There were very many people in the disaster zone who could not be reached by telephone, so spending 30 minutes in the area had to be more useful than 30 hours of discussions in Tsukuba. Being in the field, we could confront the new problems, and solve the problems that kept coming up, and we could build strong connections with the people.”Concerning the importance of these relationships and networks, research center deputy director Yoichi Motomura gives the following explanation: “When creating technologies that can be introduced into society, the amount of social capital a research institution has is an important matter for that institution. We cannot just develop technologies without understanding people’s daily lives and surroundings. The ideal has to be a co-creative approach in which we create values together with the people who will use the technologies.”Research at the leading edge of innovationKohtaro Ohba argues that this project is new research at the leading edge of innovation: “There is an overwhelming number of lessons to be learned in the field, and it would not be possible to respond without researchers changing to address these lessons. Adapting is only natural for researchers, while doing things that have no precedent is research and is surely the ultimate in innovation. I would really like to live in a society that appreciates such research.”The research will not be concluded in the disaster zone. For example, it is likely that the technologies and methods cultivated here will be deployed in the aging society of 20 to 30 years hence. Even where technologies are feasible, it may not be possible to use exactly the same processes, and new high-level methodologies will be needed so that appropriate methods for embedding technologies in new situations can be identified.Yoichi Motomura expresses his hope for the future: “Another objective is for other researchers in other situations to be able to create the structures that Kazuhiro Kojima created in this case. Lifestyles and daily living practices are themselves living things and are constantly changing. Research into people will never come to an end as long as there are people.”These researchers set down roots in the disaster zone and took the challenge of creating a completely new concept by their own efforts. Through this work, they have raised questions about the fundamental nature of innovation.From left (position and name):Open Innovation|15

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