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Research paper : How car navigation systems have been put into practical use (H. Ikeda et al.)−289−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.3 No.4 (2011) America on a business trip, he got information from Dr. Robert French, a NAVS trailblazer, and tried Etak’s prototype NAVS. Incidentally, the map used for that NAVS was a simple one.6 International comparison of NAVS proliferationQuestion (Motoyuki Akamatsu)Concurrently with Gyrocator, developed by Honda Motor Co., Ltd., Electro Multi Vision by Toyota Motor Corporation and Sumitomo Electric’s system, US-based Etak developed and launched their NAVS. Eventually, NAVS came into widespread use in Japan. Why the difference, do you think?Also, I would like to hear your view on why the Japanese industrial sector was highly motivated and why the Japanese government showed a positive attitude toward NAVS.Answer (Hirosaka Ikeda)(1) Differences in NAVS proliferationIn the United States, cities have streets and avenues neatly arranged in a grid pattern. Access points to inter-city roads are numbered and easy to follow, reducing the need for NAVS. For route guidance in America, itemized information is more often used than maps, further reducing the need for map-based NAVS.In Europe, by contrast, city states of long history have winding roadways that are extremely difficult to follow. In such places, the NAVS is readily accepted, as in Japan.Japanese people are generally early adopters. In addition, the country had advanced technologies for NAVS, including gyro sensors, displays, CD-ROM drives, semiconductors and traffic information communication systems.(2) In the motivated industrial sectors, NAVS system and map development was promoted by automotive, car electronics, audio, electric and map manufacturers. Parts suppliers worked on gyro sensors, GPS, semiconductors including microprocessors, CD/DVD/HD drives and displays. Moreover, many emerging IT companies entered the market as a new field for them and provided embedded NAVS software.(3) The government, I think, was interested in NAVS as a new industrial sector involving infrastructure.7 Distinction from review papersComment (Akira Kageyama)Readers of this paper may have the impression that it is a review of the technological development of NAVS, or a research and development history. Therefore, it is recommended that it be stated why a specific technology was selected from among a set of candidate technologies for research and development, and in what aspects the selected technology was superior to the other candidate technologies, by providing semiquantitative data or something similar.Answer (Hirosaka Ikeda)Regarding the optical fiber gyro, we inserted a sentence: “The introduction of the optical fiber gyro contributed to improved performance to a level where the NAVS would get lost only once or so per 200 km driving.” For the vibration gyro, the following has been added: “We did not solely rely on the performance improvement of the vibration gyro itself, ... . Because of these software capabilities, the vibration gyro we employed was smaller and less expensive than the optical fiber gyro, yet was five times greater in zero offset.”8 On Synthesiology paperQuestion (Motoyuki Akamatsu)Your present paper is on NAVS development and commercialization. Could you please mention specific information that you have provided for the first time in the Synthesiology paper and may not have included in other papers for conventional journals?Answer (Hirosaka Ikeda)In the paper we could write:(1) Process behind the NAVS development at Sumitomo Electric(2) Process behind the optical fiber gyro development conducted to improve positioning accuracy(3) Process behind the creation of an unprecedented digital map database(4) Relationships with automakers(5) Development of aftermarket NAVS(6) Business profitability and development cost issues(7) Software defect issuesWhat we could not write was considerable, including:(1) Inter-government agency coordination issues(2) Difficulty associated with parts procurement(3) Marketing to approach customers(4) Responses to various relevant events (From a business promotion perspective, it was not necessarily wise to actively participate in events.)(5) Objections from members of Sumitomo Electric(6) Relationships with competitor manufacturers(7) Alliances

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