The Cyber Assist project was initiated in 2000, and its R&D was conducted at Cyber Assist Research Center of AIST from 2001 to 2005. This project was a leading activity followed by ubiquitous computing and service engineering in Japan as well as one of the foresighted projects in the world. It should be highly evaluated even in the present time. The project had its focus on a human-centered information system that provides services in the physical world. This article rebuilds the goals and activities of the research center on the basis of documents produced then, and provides future research directions.

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“System Design and Management” program, a study that integrates humanities and sciences by crossing many disciplines, is essential to foster talented persons who can lead in the development and operation of large-scale complex systems that are symbiotic, safe and secure. The subject of the new graduate school education is large-scale complex technological and social systems, with an education curriculum that provides practically oriented lectures through which students can acquire the capacity to consider systems, the faculty to design systems in line with system life cycles, and the ability for system management. By collaborating with industries and related stakeholders such as domestic and international educational research institutions, we designed an educational curriculum and recruited faculty members, developed educational facilities and research centers, recruited students, provided education, and moreover designed the method of publishing accomplishments. As for the establishment of the graduate school in April 2008, the educational curriculum was formed to provide students with opportunities to acquire must-learn capability and knowledge that were classified into six groups. The validity of the education method was confirmed based on verification of the students' self-evaluation, evaluation by the external evaluation committee and accomplishments by students such as papers, after the first two years of graduate education.

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We introduce a case study of UV-protective cosmetic product development. Recently, cosmetics need to solve 3 problems simultaneously: 1) UV-protective effect, 2) transparence, and 3) smooth-textured touch. However, the best recipe and usable evaluation methods are not established. This research is the result of a strategic regional alliance of the AIST grant venture and the technical guidance that did not set a prior scenario with immediate effect of the national research institute. A new manufacturing and evaluation method has been commercialized in the forms of a highly original cosmetics and a new evaluation device. An example of the methodology is shown concerning social factors (regional alliances), particularly. The example is illustrated by comparing 2 elements. The first is the R&D methodology that the Synthesiology journal advocates (the Aufheben type, breakthrough type and strategic selection type). The second is the humanities way of thinking by analogy with natural phenomena such as the evolutionary theory.

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In order to realize sustainable development, it is anticipated that industrial structure, social and technical systems based on large-scale production at concentrated sites must be changed in the near future. Establishment of highly controllable compact processes with high speed reaction is desired to realize distributed production with multi-purpose low-volume production. Integration of high-pressure micro-engineering and supercritical fluid has received considerable attention as a core technology for compact processes. To realize the technology, basic developments for high-pressure micro-engineering such as rapid heat exchange and precise temperature control were firstly needed, and then process developments on basic engineering followed. As applications of compact processes, organic synthesis under supercritical water is discussed, and inorganic synthesis and an innovative coating process using supercritical carbon dioxide are also described.

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DNA and RNA quantifications are essential in various fields such as biomedicine, agriculture, fishery, environment, and food. We have developed an accurate and cost-effective method for the quantification of specific nucleic acid sequences; the method involves the use of the fluorescent quenching phenomenon via an electron transfer between the dye and a guanine base at a particular position. This paper describes the elemental key technologies and their synthesis for the development of such a gene quantification method. Furthermore, based on the findings of a collaborative research project with a private company, we report the scenario for the industrialization and the practical use of the developed method.

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[in Japanese]

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