I think that technology ultimately is something that becomes one with human beings themselves and expands their lives.The scope of 'augmentation' can be thought of not only in terms of intellectual capacities, but also in terms of the amplification of sensory capacities, cognitive capacities, physical capacities, the sense of presence, and physical systems (health).

In this session, I will present about a vision of the future that I call the Internet of Abilities (IoA) - Integrating human to human, and human to computer, across networks to augment capabilities in complementary ways, and about the possiblility of how we can augment the human capability.

The Kyoto Laboratory (Sony CSL Kyoto) was created to rethink the meaning of fulfillment, both for people and for society, searching for pathways to new technologies that will benefit all humanity. Today, three researchers who began their work in Kyoto in 2020 (Jun Rekimoto, Yuichiro Takeuchi, Lana Sinapayen) will be presenting on two topics: Preserving & Augmenting Tradition, and Future Cities and Citizens.

In the first half, Remikoto, Director of the Kyoto Lab, has invited Mr. Reijiro Izumi, Director of the Urasenke Tea School Associations, to discuss how technology might be used to "preserve and augment the traditions of the tea ceremony." They will talk about the development of technologies for passing skills and etiquette to the next generations, and possibilities for research that would augment the experience of the tea ceremony.

In the second half, Takeuchi, who works on the Wikitopia Project, will lead a discussion on how the cities of the future can truly be created by everyone, giving an overview of an urban development workshop series that he will be starting in Kyoto.

In this session, we will introduce the "JackIn" project and open innovation initiatives as social deployment activities at Sony CSL.

JackIn, the vision for augmenting human capability and human existence, has been researched at CSL since 2011. Recently, JackIn has a lot of possibilities to solve various practical problems because COVID-19 elevated remote needs, and 5G enables high speed internet communication. Therefore, we have restarted the project with a new team structure aiming for practical application. At the Open House, we will introduce the new concept of the project restart, and demonstrate the JackIn experience, which broadcasts first-person 360-degree video to multiple participants in remote locations in real time using the newly designed prototype.

Sony CSL is actively engaged in Social Implementation through Open Innovation with the aim of making our research results beneficial to our society. However, it is not easy to get ideas about where and how to implement new technologies. Here, we explore issues that need to be resolved with a variety of partners and work with them to fix them. This presentation will introduce some of the examples we have worked on with our partners. We look forward to new activities with you in the near future by making you aware of Sony CSL's Open Innovation.

Life Science, Music & AI: Interdisciplinary Harmony

Natalia Polouliakh and Taketo Akama discuss their research in the life sciences, music, and artificial intelligence. Polouliakh will give an overview of her work in the life sciences on genetics and anti-aging. As for the combination of life science, music and AI, Polouliakh and Akama will talk about ACGT, a biology data analytics tool, and how they modified it into ACGT-Deep, a tool that works with musical data. AI and data analytics technologies have fascinating applications in many fields of study, which in turn foster collaborations between these different fields. At the intersection of music and AI, Akama will offer an analysis of the current state of music AI, comparing and contrasting with other types of AI, including image, voice, and natural language processing. Akama will also discuss his research into AI that can suggest alterations to pieces of music, AI that creates new musical instruments, and more.

From the perspective of the life sciences, what are music and AI exactly? What is the role of the life sciences in music/AI? And what is AI in the first place? We discuss these sorts of questions.

Flow Machines is a research and a social deployment project which aims to augment the creativity of musical artists. The Flow Machines iPad app is currently available to the general public?it features various Style Palette, such as "A.I. Vocal". Experiments are underway to use this Sony CSL technology in Sony Music’s Soundmain service. We will hold a panel discussion about the future of Flow Machines + Soundmain, and the future of AI in music production more generally.

Moderator: Ken Fujimoto (DTM Station)
Panelists: Kenichi Gokan (Sony Music Entertainment), Tomonobu Kikuchi (RightTracks), Haruhiko Kishi

Music Excellence Project consists of "Musical Dynaformics", "PEAC", and "Programs". Musical Dynaformics is research and development for enhancing expertise and preventing injuries of musicians. PEAC (Physical Education for Artists Curriculum) is a physical education program specialized for musicians. Programs consists of various educational programs as the platform to provide outcomes of research and development for artists and teachers. In this open house, a former half discusses future musical education that enables sustainable development of culture, and a latter half discusses a novel platform that can make a synergy between science, technology, and design for supporting artists' creativity, together with designers at Creative Center.

When humans and computers integrate, to what extent are we ourselves? Through my research framework "Superception" for extending and transforming human perception and cognition using computer technology, I am investigating how the "self" can be shaped when humans and computers integrate.

In this CSL Open House talk, I will present examples of our current work on three themes: "Superception for Self," "Self in Human-Computer integration," and "Beyond one mind one body". Then we will also invite researchers and artists who are collaborating with our research team to discuss the cross-disciplinary research and, the significance of building experience from research, as well as future plans and intersection with society.

In 1968, a runner broke the "10-second barrier" in the 100-meter dash for the first time. In the years since, many athletes have set new records, with the current world record standing at 9.58 seconds. The 100-meter dash record for athletes using prosthetic leg(s), meanwhile, is 10.57 seconds?the 10-second barrier has yet to be broken.

In this session, Ken Endo, who does R&D on blades (prosthetic legs for athletes), and special guests, Dai Tamesue, Akifumi Matsuo, Keita Sato and Akiteru Tani will discuss various aspects of athletes and blades - the technology in the blades; the analysis of runners' technique; time spent at medical facilities, from limb amputation to physical rehab; daily training regimens - and what ideas and social initiatives we will need going forward for an athlete using prosthetics to break the 10-second barrier.