From IT infrastructure to application technology: make, connect, use

The rapid growth of devices (smartphone, tablets, robots, wearables, etc.) and the Internet has increased the amount of information that is being produced and accessed by society. In order to better utilize the data produced from millions of devices and systems, we are conducting research and development in a wide range of fields at the interface between information technologies and human factors. Our mission is to engage and enrich the public through the research and development of intelligent systems combining computational and physical capabilities for human use. A key component of our mission is making new discoveries in the hardware and software that interacts with physical devices to sense and change the state of the real world. Our discoveries will lead to industry innovations and contribute to the advancement of society by facilitating the interaction of humans with cyber-physical systems.

New Research Results

The Release of Japanese Speech Foundation Models "Izanami" and "Kushinada"

Researchers at AIST has released two Japanese speech foundation models, "Izanami" and "Kushinada," which can be used to build high-performance speech AI.
A speech infrastructure model is a general-purpose AI model for processing and analyzing speech data, which is increasingly being applied to speech recognition and speech emotion recognition. Building a speech foundation model requires at least a few thousand hours of speech data, which is based on the target language and the scene in which it is used. However, speech data such as conversational speech is scarce compared to single-talker speech, and speech AI performance has been insufficient for conversational speech that includes emotionally rich expressions.
We have built and released two Japanese speech foundation models, "Kushinada" and "Izanami," using the largest scale of Japanese speech data ever for creating a foundation model, 60,000 hours. The models are named after Japanese mythology in the hope that they will serve as creators and supporters of various types of speech AI in the future.
“Izanami" can be easily fine-tuned using user data, and "Kushinada" shows high performance in Japanese speech emotion recognition and speech recognition. These features enable the construction of high-performance speech AI even when only a small amount of labeled data is available, such as in the case of elderly people's speech or conversations containing emotionally rich expressions. In the future, we will work on improving speech recognition performance for Japanese dialects. It is expected to be used in a variety of situations, such as improving the problem of poor performance of speech AI due to regional and generational differences, and taking minutes in local assemblies.
The model can be downloaded from the AI model publishing platform Hugging Face (https://huggingface.co/imprt).

Construction of speech AI using the Japanese speech foundation models "Izanami" and "Kushinada
Improved the performance of speech AI, which had been limited by the small amount of training data, by using the feature representation of speech obtained from the Japanese speech foundation model.

Improved Performance of “Hygroelectric Cell” for Generating Electricity from Humidity Changes

Researchers at AIST have developed a hygroelectric cell with increased power output to the point where it can drive electronic circuits, making it the first in the world to successfully power a wireless sensor for more than four months by generating electricity using humidity changes.
Since hygroelectric cells generate power using day/night humidity changes, they can generate power anywhere, except in environments with constant humidity, and are expected to be used as a new energy harvesting technology for power sources for small wireless sensors and other devices. Until now, power generation output has been low, not enough to drive electronic circuits. However, the output has now been improved using ceramic solid electrolyte membranes, and small wireless sensors have been successfully powered for more than four months. This is expected to make it possible to use maintenance-free wireless sensors without the need for battery replacement even in dark places where solar cells cannot be used, such as under bridges and in machine control panels.
We have also derived a thermodynamic theory of power generation using humidity change, and theoretically clarified that the hygroelectric cell we have developed is capable of generating electricity with 100% efficiency in a quasi-static cycle. This theory is expected to be utilized to further develop research for improving the performance of hygroelectric cells.

Overview of high-power output of hygroelectric cells with ceramic solid electrolyte membranes
Figures from the original paper have been cited and modified.
*Figure modified from Komazaki et al., Advanced Energy and Sustainability Research, 6, 2400342 (2025).　

Open Innovation Laboratory

Since FY 2016, as a part of the “Open Innovation Arena concept” promoted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), AIST has created the concept of “open innovation laboratories” (OILs), collaborative research bases located on university campuses, and has been engaged in their provision. We are planning to establish more than ten OILs by FY 2020.

AIST will merge the basic research carried out at universities, etc. with AISTʼs goal-oriented basic research and applied technology development, and will promote bridging research and evelopment and industry by the establishment of OILs.

Cooperative Research Laboratories

In order to conduct research and development more closely related to strategies of companies, we have established collaborative research laboratories, bearing partner company names.

Partner companies provide their researchers and funding, and AIST provides research resources, such as its researchers, research facilities, and intellectual property. The loaned researchers of companies and AIST researchers jointly conduct research and development.

By setting up cooperative research laboratories, we will accelerate the commercialization of our goal-oriented basic research and application research with partner companies.