Media Design Research Center

Director: Masahiko Inakage (Professor, Graduate School of Media Design (KMD))

Main Campus: Hiyoshi

With the establishment of the Graduate School of Media Design (KMD), this center will be utilized as a research framework to promote joint research on media design with external organizations. The center was established with the urgent mission of securing the following two research frameworks:

System Development

In fiscal year 2009, we will conduct technology development, upgrades, and verification to enable content collaboration and networking in larger-scale environments. In particular, as part of technology development from the perspective of recording user experiences, we will upgrade and verify the LIFE data collaboration system for operation in a larger-scale environment. Furthermore, as a prerequisite for enabling large-scale system development, we will improve the development environment to allow users to develop systems more easily.

Content Creation

In fiscal year 2009, we will prototype ubiquitous content with the xtel platform, building on our work from previous years, and present it at academic conferences and festivals both in Japan and internationally to enhance the global movement in this field, including xtel. Furthermore, this fiscal year, we aim to design an integrated human life where multiple ubiquitous content exists within daily life. We will exhibit the ubiquitous content we have created so far that has received domestic and international acclaim at "Ubiquitous Content Tours 2009," a culmination of our final year's efforts. By allowing many people to actually experience a future life where multiple types of content exist, we will verify the effectiveness of the xtel platform in daily life.

Formulation of Design Theory

In fiscal year 2009, based on the ubiquitous content created to date and materials documenting the creation process of these works, we will compile and publish a theory for practicing phenomenological design theory. As an effort to compile and disseminate these design theories, we will launch a website to publish case studies and practical theories based on examples of various ubiquitous content that have actually been created. Furthermore, we will aim to popularize the theory with a view to publishing a book based on the website's articles.

System Development

To support the production of ubiquitous content, we have built the following development environments to date.

Until now, these environments have supported the production of various content and applications independently. However, in fiscal year 2008, to expand this platform to social content and applications, we upgraded it for system operation in large-scale environments, which included developing and verifying small modules and improving the development environment. Additionally, as a prerequisite for social content development, we developed a data collaboration system called LIFE, which serves as a foundation for multiple content to collaborate across multiple networks, and conducted its development and verification in a small-scale environment.

Content Creation

To date, we have prototyped numerous ubiquitous content closely related to daily life from the perspectives of clothing, food, housing, and entertainment, and presented them at international academic conferences and art festivals both in Japan and abroad. In fiscal year 2008, we proceeded with content creation while actually using xtel, an integrated development platform for ubiquitous content developed primarily by the system research group, and examined the practical utility of xtel.

Formulation of Design Theory

In fiscal year 2008, many works and presentations that put phenomenological design theory into practice were accepted at international academic conferences. Furthermore, research progressed on integrating context search theory and technology—which predicts the future based on interaction history and forms the technical core of the design theory—with Bayesian network theory and activity theory, and a prototype applying this research was also completed.