Forum/Symposium/Event
The role that information communications should play in the advancement of the society and economy is of great importance. NTT has an objective to contribute to the development of information communications in Japan, and all around the world as well, by disseminating our research and development results. To achieve the objective, we are energetically developing the activities shown as follows.
- Announcing research results, exchanging research with other organizations
- Dissemination of R&D results through technology disclosures and other methods
- Standardization activities
2005 Symposiums/Forums Schedule (arranged chronologically)
| Event | Date | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Universal IT Design Symposium | May 27, 2005 | Shinagawa Kokuyo Hall |
| NTT Communication Science Laboratories Open House 2005 | June 2-3, 2005 | NTT Keihanna Building (Kyoto) |
| NTT Basic Research Laboratories Science Plaza 2005 FALL | October 28, 2005 | NTT Atsugi R&D Center |
| 3rd NTT-BRL School | October 31-November 4, 2005 | NTT Atsugi R&D Center |
| Tsukuba Forum 2005 | November 1-2, 2005 | NTT Tsukuba R&D Center Tsukuba International Congress Center |
| 3rd NTT Cyber Communications Laboratory Group Core Technology Symposium Portal Technology Symposium | December 1, 2005 | Shinagawa Kokuyo Hall |
| NTT Group Communication EXPO | December 20-22, 2005 | Tokyo International Forum |
| Universal IT Design Symposium in Fukuoka | January 30, 2006 | NTT Yumetenjin Hall (Fukuoka) |
| SPRING SCIENCE CAMP | March 28-29, 2006 | NTT Yokosuka R&D Center |
R&D Exhibit at the NTT Group Communication EXPO
For three days from December 20 to 22 2005, the NTT Group held the NTT Group Communication EXPO at the Tokyo International Forum to commemorate 20 years since the privatization of NTT.
This event included a keynote speech from our President Norio Wada, seminars, and various exhibitions on the theme of NTT's preparations for a ubiquitous broadband society.
In the exhibitions, we introduced NTT's historical role in the development of communication and recent developments in communications. These were presented three zones: “The History of Communication”, “Future Square”, and “Technology Lab”. This event helped to present our image of the future of communications to about 10,000 visitors over three days.
Our recent R&D achievements were presented and introduced centered around two zones: “Future Square”, and “Technology Lab”. In the “Future Square”, exhibitions were presented based on the four keywords feel, learn, live and meet, where visitors were able to experience first-hand the lifestyle that will be offered by telecommunications in the near future. The exhibitions in the “Technology Lab” related to five themes: natural communication, net life technology, net security, key technologies for high speed and high capacity, and ecology & science. In this way, we introduced visitors to our technological connections and advanced technical abilities, including the diversity of NTT's research and development work.
At the EXPO, visitors were able to experience the wide variety of achievements that NTT is continuing to make in research and development towards the realization of a ubiquitous broadband society. They showed a great deal of interest in the future trends of this field,and were able to take part in meaningful discussions.
- Keynote presentation
by NTT president Norio Wada 
- “Technology Lab” exhibition
NTT Communication Science Laboratories Open House 2005
NTT Communication Science Laboratories Open House 2005 was held on June 2 and 3, 2005 at the NTT Keihanna Building to present research results to the general public. Based on the theme of “Creating Intelligence to Fill Communication Space”, Open House 2005 featured a series of lectures and exhibits on current research divided into the five categories of search intelligence, communication intelligence, perception intelligence, logical intelligence, and interwoven intelligence of the future.
Five lectures were given in each of the above five categories. The first, titled “Storytellers from the Future”, was presented by Shigeru Katagiri, then the director of NTT Communication Science Laboratories. A total of 36 research exhibits were prepared with eight or nine exhibits allocated to four of the above categories. Only two exhibits were presented for the research category of “interwoven intelligence of the future”, but these encompassed many of the other exhibits under the theme of “The Future Envisioned by Communication Science”. Open House 2005 opened its doors to a total of 1,017 visitors giving them a first-hand introduction to research at NTT Communication Science Laboratories. This event also enabled NTT researchers to interact with customers and receive many valuable comments and suggestions. Members of the press were also in attendance and Open House 2005 received news coverage in various media.
- Lecture by director Shigeru Katagiri
- Research exhibit scene
Core Technology Symposium
At NTT Cyber Communications Laboratory Group, we have planned and held a core technology symposium every year since 2004 in order to reinvigorate our research activities and enhance our presence with regard to our five R&D themes (core competences) of (i) visual media, (ii) speech, acoustics and natural language, (iii) human interfaces, (iv) human appliances, and (v) media-based computing. In 2005, the NTT Cyber Communications Laboratory Group and NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories organized the third core technology symposium which was held at the Kokuyo Hall in Shinagawa on December 1.
At this symposium, presentations and panel discussions were held on the theme of “Portal Technology Symposium —Targeting the net community of the near future”. The symposium proved to be a success, with about 200 people taking part. The participants were introduced to the current state of society concerning media computing, and to the achievements of research at NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories.
- Panel discussion at the symposium
Universal IT Design Symposium in Fukuoka
The “Universal IT Design Symposium in Fukuoka” was held on January 30, 2006 at NTT Yumetenjin Hall in Fukuoka, Kyushu, Japan sponsored by NTT Cyber Solutions Laboratories, cosponsored by Kyushu University and NTT West Fukuoka Office, and supported by the Kyushu-Yamaguchi Economic Federation. This symposium was planned and carried out to “publicize NTT's interest in universal design and to present NTT's stance on universal design in cooperation with the entire NTT Group”.
The symposium included various lectures from universal design concepts to specific examples and welcomed Chika Sekine from UDIT, Inc., Yoshitsugu Morita from Kyushu University, and Seiji Shimada from Kumamoto prefecture as lecturers. It also featured a presentation from NTT on the trials it has been holding on “Weldery Communication System”, monitoring services for the elderly and a demonstration of these services. These and other research results from NTT Laboratories attracted much interest among the 202 symposium participants. Panel discussions were also held and lively discussions took place. Participants asked many questions on IT technology and universal design resulting in a meaningful symposium for all concerned.
- Lecture scene
- Hall entrance
Activities in Open Source Software Communities — Linux and PostgreSQL —
We have played an active role in the activities of OSS*1 communities, mainly with regard to the Linux operating system and the PostgreSQL database management system.
For Linux, we have made proposals to the Linux developer community regarding patches to improve the file system reliability. Seven of these patches have been incorporated into the official Linux kernel. We also released NILFS*2, a log-structured file system which increases the availability of data, as open source software. This has been highly evaluated as a major contribution from Japan to the development of Linux, and further developments are eagerly anticipated. We expect these activities will draw attention to the reliability of Linux, and encourage users to apply Linux to large-scale reliable systems.
With regard to PostgreSQL, we have contributed to the developer community by proposing 15 patches including performance tweaks and bug fixes, five of which have been incorporated into the current release, PostgreSQL 8.1. These patches effectively increase the database throughput by about 70%. We have also made efforts at the Japan PostgreSQL Users Group to enhance NTT's presence and expand the PostgreSQL community through activities such as technical presentations (4), contributing articles to the group newsletter (2), and building ties with the Database Society of Japan.
- *1 OSS: Open Source Software
- *2 NILFS: New Implementation of a Log-structured File System
- NILFS OSS development Web page http://www.nilfs.org/ja/
- Example of a bulletin on NILFS in the Linux community
- NTT's contribution to the PostgreSQL community
Communication Support System for Elderly Care and a Social Experiment at Kijocho, Miyazaki
In Japan, the aging society continues to grow with one in four people expected to be senior citizens by 2015. To help the elderly lead healthy lives with a feeling of well-being in this society, NTT Laboratories have developed the “Welderly Communication System” to provide monitoring and communication functions in a bidirectional manner (between elderly persons and their families or local care volunteers, public welfare officers, etc.). A particular feature of this system is the use of infrared sensors to detect the state (presence) of both parties at all times and the presentation of that state on respective terminals. When one party wishes to communicate with another party, the former can do so by either audio/visual calling or text messaging according to the state of the latter using simple operations provided by the system.
This system has been used in trials since March 2005 in Kijocho, Miyazaki prefecture, a local area that, though thinly populated, has been provided with a fiber to the home (FTTH) infrastructure. In these trials, elderly users have said that the system helps make their everyday life more enjoyable, while volunteers and public welfare officers have said that it enables them to provide the elderly with an even higher level of care. Our objective for the future is to commercialize this system by lowering the cost of the communication terminals.
