InnoUvators

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Meet our InnoUvators

Find out More About Our Esteemed InnoUvators

A Highly Reliable Embedded OS / Biogroup Control

2015

Yosuke Furusawa was born in Takizawa, Iwate in 1982. He has been involved in the launch of the production design and development of the welfare and medical Robot-suit HAL since he started working for CYBERDYNE Inc, including the acquisition of ISO13482 and ISO13485 certifications. Following the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, he retired from his company and returned to his hometown in Iwate to establish Homura Heavy Industries Corporation.

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The Digital Shaman Project

2016

Etsuko Ichihara is a media artist and “inventor who turns delusions into reality.” She has a bachelor’s degree from Waseda University’s School of Culture, Media and Society, where she majored in the Studies of Media, Body and Image. She left Yahoo! Japan in 2016 and has since worked as a freelancer. She has been creating artworks that interpret Japanese culture, customs and beliefs from a unique point of view, and present new, technology-based approaches. She has been featured across the globe for her work. Ichihara also received the Excellence Award at the 20th Japan Media Arts Festival, and won an Honorary Mention (Interactive Art+) in PRIX Ars Electronica 2018. She has recently been appointed as an expert committee member for the "Workshop on Basic Concepts of the Japan Pavilion" for the Japan Pavilion at the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.

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CARS-α: A Global Warming Countermeasure - A Machine Directly Recovering CO2 from the Atmosphere

2017

Born in 2000, this young researcher has one goal: stop global warming. Even from elementary school, Kazumi Muraki began studying and researching how to solve the carbon dioxide crisis as well as human migration to Mars. After graduating from the INNO-vation Program with the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Muraki entered Tokyo University to study engineering to realize his dreams of helping the world. In 2019, he was named as one of Forbes Japan 30 under 30, 2019, science division as someone who will change the world. Despite ongoing study at University, Muraki has already founded his own independent company, CRRA, with the goal to stop global warming and work towards being the first Martian of mankind.

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Magnetically-Guided Capsule Endoscopy for the Whole Digestive Tract

2018

Naoki Ohmiya received his M.D. in 1988, and his Ph.D. in 1995. He was a research fellow at The Burnham Institute (San Diego, California) in 1997-8, an assistant and associate professor at the Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Nagoya University Hospital in 2001-13, an associate professor at the Department of Gastroenterology, Fujita Health University in 2013-2015. He has been a professor and chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology at Fujita Health University. His research fields include endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of gastroduodenal diseases, capsule endoscopies, small bowel diseases, inflammatory bowel disease, fecal microbiota transplantation, molecular mechanisms of carcinogenesis in the alimentary tract, and biomarker development of gastrointestinal tumors.

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Autonomous Flight Control of a Vertical Take-off and Landing Flapping Flying Robot

2018

Takanobu Watanabe was born in 1972. He received the Ph. D. degree from Waseda University in 1999. He is currently a Professor at Waseda University. His research field includes electronic materials engineering and computational physics.

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The Urinary Incontinence Experience Device

2018

Kajimoto Laboratory, The University of Electro-Communications, D1. Established the “Incontinence Study Group” in 2014, and has since developed incontinence experience devices as a representative. His specialty field is VR, especially elucidation of the mechanism of the tactile perception and development of haptics devices. Related URL: - <a href ="http://kaji-lab.jp/en/index.php?kameoka" target="_blank">Personal Page at his Laboratory </a>

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UNEUNEWARAWARA Animatronics

2016

Technology (Patents) Akira Nakayasu - Linear Actuator and Robot with Use of Linear Actuator, Japanese Patent Application 2020-12382 Akira Nakayasu - Three-Dimensional Motion Display Device, Illumination Device, and Method for Sending Information, Japanese Patent Application 2020-12383 Akira Nakayasu - Linear Actuator, Japanese Patent Application 2019-13412 Akira Nakayasu - Three-dimensional Motion Display Device and Method for Controlling the Same, Japanese Patent Application 2017-16491 Akira Nakayasu - Three-Dimensional Display Device, Japanese Patent Application 2017-164918. <b> Works, Awards </b> Tentacle Flora (2018)  Aesthetica Art Prize Longlist 2020、SIGGRAPH 2019 Art Gallery、ALife Art Award 2018 Special Jury Prize Luminescent Tentacles (2016)  SIGGRAPH ASIA 2016 Art Gallery, UIST 2016 Best Demo, Asia Digital Art Awards Exhibition 2016 Interactive Art Category Excellence Award Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry Innovative Technologies 2016, 1st Hakura Award VR Technology Encouragement Award, Montzukuri Bunka HAJIME ASAOKA Award

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Solid Knitting Machine - The Machine Which Makes Physical Objects Updatable

2018

Yuichi Hirose conducted research on digital fabrication at Hiroya Tanaka Laboratory in Keio University. After finishing his Master’s Degree there, he worked for Roland DG as a mechanical engineer on 3D milling machines. Now, he has left the company and currently develops a Solid Knitting Machine, which automates Solid Knitting, a method he invented to knit solid objects from 3D data. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoKSMabXirurhL8UbVTO1JA" target="_blank">YouTube Channel </a>

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Interviews

2021/02/17 19:30

Yosuke Furusawa

The “Aquaman” of Japan

Breaking down the barrier separating reality and fantasy by manipulating the movement of fish

Furusawa isn’t a fisherman or a farmer, but you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise as he emerges from one of his giant water tanks clad in chest-high rubber waders. He’s an engineer, and he has created something that evokes comparisons to that American comic-book superhero of old, Aquaman. Furusawa has invented a way to talk to fish. It doesn’t use words, of course, but rather carefully crafted underwater electrical fields to direct and corral schools of fish like a sheepdog herds its flock. This might not sound like much of a superpower, but the device’s potential impact on the world is in fact supersized.

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The “Aquaman” of Japan

2020/06/05 18:00

Takahito Aoto

“Soft thinking” – a camera to capture softness

Dr. Takahito Aoto (University of Tsukuba) is working to develop a device that can measure the exact softness of materials without actually touching them

Is it gelatinous or doughy or simply limp...? The only way to determine the softness (and elasticity) of an object is by touching it and feeling for yourself. However, Dr. Aoto is currently engaged in research on a special kind of camera—a camera that “captures softness.” Since it accomplishes this simply by filming objects, the camera is, of course, non-contact, non-destructive, and non-invasive. It can determine how springy an object is based solely on the visual data that it collects.

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“Soft thinking” – a camera to capture softness

2020/05/22 18:00

Yusuke Nakano

Chicks, Sex and Tech

Using AI to solve the growing issue in the chick sexing industry

Yusuke Nakano is a specialist in making the invisible visible. Be he’s no mad scientist or magician – he’s a video-streaming expert with a trick up his sleeve.

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Chicks, Sex and Tech
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What is InnoUvators?

InnoUvators are individuals in society that have a mindset of continually undertaking challenges without fear of failure.

They are the creators of "something new from nothing," forming and implementing original ideas without being bound by preconceptions. In Japan, there are efforts to find and support such InnoUvators. This site introduces those visionaries, and the technologies born of their challenges.


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