Science for Capital — robotics that merges with the body

What was discussed

The session discussed how connecting with robots can expand bodily and social participation possibilities beyond working in place of people. In addition to remote operation that conveys touch and temperature, research that edits the body, such as experiments adding arms and prosthetic hands that become musical instruments, was introduced. A case of a bedridden person serving customers by moving a robot with their gaze, and a case of a person with ALS for whom moving it themselves is what matters, were also discussed. It was pointed out that while investment gathers around substitution for labor shortages, there are gaps with researchers' interests and systems that have not kept pace.

About this session

Hearing “physical AI,” people may picture an autonomous humanoid robot. In this session we dig, together with a leading scientist, into the future that lies beyond physical AI as seen from another robotics: the augmentation of the body.

Speakers

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  Kouta Minamizawa

  Keio University　Professor, Graduate School of Media Design

  He graduated in mathematical engineering from the University of Tokyo in 2005 and completed his doctorate at its Graduate School of Information Science and Technology in 2010. After serving as a research assistant professor, project lecturer and associate professor at the Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University, he has been a professor there since 2019. He researches embodied media that transmit, extend and create bodily experience through haptic technology, and works on haptic design, cybernetic avatars and superhuman sports, from research through to deployment.

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  Akihiko Nagata

  DiscussantUntroD Capital Japan　Chairman and Representative Director

  A venture capitalist specialising in deep tech. As co-founder of the Real Tech Fund, established in 2015, he has led investment and management support for companies tackling global challenges through technology. He also joined the management of Euglena Co., Ltd. and supported its growth through to listing. At UntroD Capital he now works on building structures that channel capital towards basic research and challenges facing humanity.

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  Teruyoshi Sumiya

  ModeratorPnika　Design Researcher

  From Higashimurayama, Tokyo. He served with the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and worked on open innovation at a nonprofit. At Keio University's Graduate School of System Design and Management he researched multi-stakeholder rulemaking and earned a master's degree. He went on to advance agile governance — an open, self-organising form of governance — through his own organisation and at the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution Japan. Since encountering the anthropologist Arturo Escobar's idea of the pluriverse, he has explored new ways of relating to nature and plural forms of governance, with care and multispecies thinking as his keywords.