My 2010 R&D plan beyond Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing

Here is my My 2010 R&D wish (to be exact, that is my consolidated R&D plan.)

Nowadays, I am often invited to several conferences so as to present my thoughts about “cloud and mobile devices.” I have been saying that killer application enablers will emerge from these ideas:

1. Cellular Fat Pipe (will be available soon)
2. Cellular Phone as Sensor Hub, where cellular phones are now equipped with GPS(commodity) +Compass +Gravity +Motion + Intelligent Processing of Image and Audio data
3. Cellular Phone as Information Hub over Cloud that integrates the data: mail, address, schedule, .whatever!
4. Application Market as Incubation Platform toward Cambrian Explosion of Killer Application Candidates.

See one of my presentations for further details (MS IE is recommended to see).

As for the new term, “cloud”, personally speaking, I don’t have a strong opinion. “Cloud” is a buzz word recent two years. As for the definition of “Cloud Computing”, you can refer to the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
A more important point is that the recent technology and market trend are still in good accordance with Tim O’Reilly’s web 2.0 concept.
On 09/30/2005, Tim O’Reilly described “What is Web 2.0” at his home page
The key concept consists of

1. The web as platform,
2. Harnessing collective intelligence,
3. Data is the next Intel Inside,
4. End of the software release cycle,
5. Light weight programming models,
6. Software above the level of a single device, and
7. Rich user experience.

I admire his and his colleagues’ insights in what was going on mid 200X.
“The web as platform” implies “cloud computing.” Of course, the web as platform doesn’t explain web-scale (i.e., gigantic scale) computing technologies such as Google File System and Amazon EC2 virtualization for Platform-as-a-Service. Nevertheless, the concept expressed by the buzzword “cloud” has been mostly covered by the heart of web 2.0.

What is changing from the original web 2.0, in other words, the noteworthy point of change is that data aggregation and integration in cloud servers is in full progress and those have reached to a critical state for a communication paradigm shift. According to O’Reilly remark about “Data is the next Intel Inside, he said “the race is on to own certain classes of core data: location, identity, calendaring of public events, product identifiers and namespaces. In many cases, where there is significant cost to create the data, there may be an opportunity for an Intel Inside style play, with a single source for the data. In others, the winner will be the company that first reaches critical mass via user aggregation, and turns that aggregated data into a system service.”

Yes, that’s why I started a data-mining project in 2006 inside NTT docomo, given tons of data (tera-byte order) every single day. Data has been and will be vitally important.
The discussion point is what type of paradigm shift we are facing.
When looking at people’s data from the viewpoint of communication, what we are experiencing can be depicted by the following figure.


Before the cloud computing emerges, cell-phones have been at cross-roads of personal data. There have been several research topics to utilize the data for service coordination, where a scheduler launches a mailer, vice versa, and there is also some limit of coordination benefit due to poor computation power, battery and amount of data.

Now, the personal data is surely being stored into clouds. I’m a user of Apple’s Mobile ME, Evernote, Google’s services, SugarSync, a teleco’s address book backup service, and its GPS tracking service, etc. All the data is not necessary to carry. Those are stored in the clouds, and invoked over wireless broad band networks when necessary.

Thus, in Earth, we individuals are living with personal handheld devices, i.e., cell-phones. In Heaven, the cloud servers are taking data integration over people. How far we can integrate the data over the people? That depends on the consensus of our society. If the society and individuals allow the data under our trusteeship, we may have the paradigm shift in communication. It’s going to be beyond “Harnessing collective intelligence” and to be a communication facilitator. I hope the society doesn’t see any similarity to Big Brother of George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
My 2010 plan is to facilitate a virtuous circle of People’s trust as depicted here. We have done it to some extent, by initiating the inner circle of individual personal data integration. More important and essential one is to rotate the outer circle. We need a couple of killer applications with people’s data integration. That is one of my year 2010 wishes.

Wine Tasting Party

It was a great night. We tested six bottles by five persons, wine addicts
As usual, a blind tasting game was set; the participants were requested to tell correct pairs of wines and those descriptions.

The picture shows seven bottles
Givry Clos De Lasevosine -1er Cru- Domaine Joblot 2005
Les Forts de Latour 1995, 2003 (http://www.chateau-latour.fr/)
Casamatta Igt.Toscana Rosso 2007
Gevrey Chambertin 1er Petite Chapelle 2004
Tursan Kalecik Karasi 2005
Klikun Crni 2007

Two Larour were excluded from the blind tasting, since it was so easy to tell the difference from the rest of wines.The game was so tough that all of us could tell just one out of the five. I could shoot Domaine Joblot and failed to tell the rest.
There were several reasons, where Klikun Crni (Croat wine), and Tursan (Turkish wine) put us out in unknown wine tasting, and Chambertin was of Pino Noir. Those tasted similar light flavor.

After having those light-bodied wines, we enjoyed Les Forts de Latour 1995. The other Latour 2003 was stocked for a next occasion). Can’t wait to get our next party started.

10km Challenge

Since my high-school age, I've never tried a mid-distance running around 10km. The high-school from which I graduated compelled male students to run 16km (called "10 mile race") as a part of physical education though, after the graduation I have been enjoying a short-distance running typically of 5km. My typical running pace is 4 min 30-45 sec/km.
According to Wikipedia, it is said that the distinction between jogging and running is the speed 6 mph (10 minute per mile pace, 10 km/h, 6 min/km). Thus I'm a runner so far.

This morning I felt a slight hungover　due to drinking a bit heavily last night, but I wanted to switch on my body and mind with vigor. Then I took 10km run. It took 48'43" for 10.02 km. Here is my nike+ipod record. Not so fast but no so bad. My wish is to run a half-marathon faster than 2 hours/20km. It seems doable, doesn't it?
See below for my record and 10km course.

No perfect universal cell-phone so far to my own life

Using cell-phones is my profession. To understand how the cutting-edge of user interfaces and application technologies is evolving, I’m using three types of cell-phones: Apple’s i-phone, Google Android phone, and FOMA (i.e., docomo’s standard 3G cell-phones, developed by various manufacturers, branded by NTT docomo). Here is my personal summary.

i-phone (left in the picture)
Pros: fancy user interfaces, good integration with i-tunes, synchronization with Apple’s cloud service (http://www.me.com/), maturity of localized open application store
Cons: short battery durability (it cannot last one single day and not replaceable!), heavy weight (133g), no strap

Google Android phone (HTC’s phone, middle in the picture)
Pros: light weight(123g), wide variety of applications, battery charge thru a standard mini-USB, synchronization with Google’s applications(mail, calendar, address, etc.), good software architecture that allows background processes
Cons: no i-tunes, poor localization, small key-touch screen.

Docomo standard 3G phone (Panasonic phone, right in the picture)
Pros: light weight(122g), NFC(near field communication) for e-commerce, network-integrated services such as “earthquake and tsunami early warning system” , localized contents, carrier-operated quick mail system (not SMS), digital TV, long battery durability
Cons: poor integration with the Internet cloud applications (such as Apple’s mobileme, Google’s apps), small open application market

What I really need are 1. i-tunes, 2. Gmail, 3. Scheduler and address book synchronized with my assistant’s outlook, 4. Networked NFC for e-money , e-ticketing and security applications, 5. Earthquake warning system to survive, and 6. carrier-operated mail system that is not SMS but Internet-equivalent real-time one.

So far none of those can solely give the perfect answer. Thus I have been carrying the docomo standard phone and i-phone both.
This week I started to use Google phone. It is unexpectedly good. I’d rather like to use it in stead of i-phone. I found http://www.beyondpod.mobi/android/ for podcast services with my Google phone. It is working well without connecting to my PC. All the scheduled podcast (including video) self updated during midnight.

Buddy Runner (http://www.buddyrunner.com/ ) gives me a fun of running. It provides the capabilities of an expensive GPS enabled personal trainer on my Android phone. Bad news is that my andoroid phone is heavier than my ipod+Nike though, exact GPS measuring and automatic update is quite useful. The track record can be exported to FaceBook. I’m enjoying the combination of bluetooth connected audio and an armband cell-phone holder.

Velox provides me another fun of workout. See http://www.veloxgps.de/. The experience is marvelous. It shows biking statistics in realtime, which includes altitude, heading direction, pace in various durations, and Google map.

Localization (i.e., adaptation to Japanese) of Android phones is pre-mature, while English software stuffs are commodities and general population in Japan are behind the world. Android users at this moment must speak English.
Nevertheless, my Android phone (manufactured by HTC) is fitting to my life.

The Earthquake Early Warning System worked

It was a scary morning.
A strong earthquake with a magnitude of 6.5 hit Shizuoka Prefecture, south west of Tokyo, at 5:07 a.m. on August 11 (Japan Time). So far one was killed and more than 100 were injured mainly in Shizuoka Prefecture. I’m living in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, which is next to Shizuoka.
Just before the time 5:07am, to be exact, 15 seconds before I felt the earth quake, I had been awakened by my phone. My phone was beeping and showed early earth quake warning, “Now you are going to be hit by earthquake soon.” That was the time at which I felt a strong fear for an unknown upcoming event. Could you imagine the situation in which you were sentenced to have a big earthquake hit 10 or 20 second beforehand? I experienced such a terrible but valuable occasion.

Then, let me explain how I came to know the event.
The prediction is owed to the Earthquake Early Warning system which provides advance announcement of the estimated seismic intensities and expected arrival time of principal motion. These estimations are based on prompt analysis of the focus and magnitude of the earthquake using wave form data observed by seismographs near the epicenter.
Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) developed the core system in 20005 and deployed it in 2007 for a general use with communication systems. The core system is connected to not only broadcasters but also cellular phone companies. (see the above picture: source http://www.jma.go.jp/jma/en/Activities/eew1.html).

My colleagues developed well-integrated warning system called “Area Mail.” The emergency information “Area Mail” is a message based on the earthquake early warning distributed by the JMA via a local information distribution system developed by NTT DoCoMo. The distribution architecture is depicted in the next figure.
The location of the epicenter and the magnitude of an earthquake are immediately detected at observation points near the earthquake epicenter, and estimated from the difference in arrival times of the Primary (P) wave (about 7 km/s) which is produced by the initial tremor of the earthquake, and the Secondary (S) wave (about 4 km/s) which is produced by the principal motion. A prediction of the magnitude and arrival time of the earthquake can then be sent out as a warning. Emergency information “Area Mail” converts the earthquake early warning distributed by the JMA in an emergency information “Area Mail” message and broadcasts the message to mobile terminal users who are in the affected region.
For further information on the warning system see
http://www.jaee.gr.jp/stack/submit-j/v04n03/data/pdf/2-5.pdf
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/binary/pdf/corporate/technology/rd/tech/main/emergency_info/vol9_4_04en.pdf

At this time, the epicenter was located almost 200km south west of Yokohama, and the distance gave me 15-second long chance to worry about my next move.
Fortunately, I was not injured and my home was not damaged either. The technology is so advanced and told me a near future. Thanks God, It’s Free.

D'où venons-nous ? Que sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ?

One of benefits from living in Tokyo and its vicinity is to access various works of art.
The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo now holds an exhibition of Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) , through July 3rd to Sept. 23rd this year.

This morning, I went to the museum to see his works , especially for his great masterpiece which was painted in Tahiti, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897-98), which represents the consolidation of what he was attempting to achieve through his art. His works have been collected from other museums, as on loan, which includes the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston which houses that master piece.
He inscribed the title in French in the left upper corner. The title was influenced by his mentor, the Bishop of Orléans, Félix-Antoine-Philibert, where the three fundamental questions in this catechism were: "Where does humanity come from?" "Where is it going to?", "How does humanity proceed?"
I was fortunate enough in this chance, since without going to Boston, I saw his soul there.


The soul is on an oil painted canvas of 139.1 cm × 374.6 cm (54.8 in × 147.5 in).

The soul is depicted by enhanced colors as other symbolists did.

The soul is with people who lived from their birth to death with the original sin.

The soul is also symbolized by iconography of a god, a bird, etc.

The soul is full of unspoiled nature which the painter believed to exist.

That French painter moved restlessly from France to Tahiti in Southern Pacific Ocean.

It is said that he searched for the essentials of humanity whilst being torn apart by the extremities between civilized and savage, sacred and profane, life and death, man and woman, spiritual and materialistic. Gauguin was not trying to become uncivilized but more civilized by being more modem by understanding (at least superficially) primitive culture – he saw himself as more sophisticated, more modern and more avant-garde and he was exploiting their culture by getting food and sex from a local marriage that was permitted despite his real marriage in France.

All the story was new to me, and very impressed.

Behind the painting, the man made the history.