September 2019 Issue
Topics
Social informatics: Innovative information systems to connect humans and social infrastructure
Kayoko Yamamoto
Professor, Graduate School of Information Systems, The University of Electro-Communications, Tokyo.
"The Great Hanshin Earthquake 1995 that centered on Kobe triggered my interest in using information technology to connect humans with their environment," says Kayoko Yamamoto, a professor at the Graduate School of Information Systems, UEC Tokyo. "After a huge earthquake hits a highly populated city, such as Kobe, it is critical to find safe and open spaces to mitigate danger due to aftershocks. One of my projects is focused on providing such disaster-response information via smart phones where photographs are over laid onto real time maps of the local area. So people can see and recognize their immediate surroundings and follow instructions to move to safe spaces and designated evacuation areas. I refer to this as 'social informatics'."
Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are an example of modern information systems that are widely used by local governments, industries, and citizen's groups. Notably, GIS is multidirectional and interactive, enabling information to be shared based on for example digital maps and photographs for the creation of a better community and local living environment.
Specific research projects
Information analysis using GIS
Evaluation of land and space use; environmental disaster prevention; layout of buildings and route search; and geospatial information data as big data.
Integrating GIS and social media
Development of social media and social recommendation GIS; universal design navigation system; spatio-temporal information system using mixed reality (MR); action support system using augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR).
"In one of our projects we are integrating spatiotemporal information with mixed realty for enhancing the experience of sightseeing as well as a means of learning about local areas," says Yamamoto. "Mixed realty means combining virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). We have developed a dedicated system that includes application software for tablets and smart phones. The system was highly evaluated by 66 users over a period of five weeks. We are confident that our approach will be useful for real-world applications to connect humans with social infrastructure including 'language barrier free interfaces' [1]."
Other projects include providing real-time local weather forecasts based on GIS and data from weather radar systems.
Related educational programs
Joint Doctoral Program for Sustainability Research
http://www.tufs-tuat-uec.jp/page/gakubu.html
This program is a collaboration between UEC Tokyo, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT), and Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS)--three academic institutes that are located within close proximity enabling easy interaction between staff and students affiliated with them. "This is an interdisciplinary program designed to nurture students who will be able to contribute to the resolution of global issues," says Yamamoto. "The students are able to learn from experts reflecting the different strengths of the three universities: languages, liberal arts, and regional studies at TUFS; food, energy, and life sciences at TUAT); and big data, ICT, artificial intelligence, and optoelectronics at UEC Tokyo. It's a challenging and comprehensive program."
References
- Book, "Computational Urban Planning and Management for Smart Cities", Editors: S Geertman, Q. Zhan, A. Allan, C. Pettit, (Eds.) 2019, Springer.
R. Makino and K. Yamamoto, "Spatiotemporal Information System Using Mixed Reality for Area-Based Learning and Sightseeing", Chapter 6, pages 283-302, 2019.
ISBN 978-3-030-19424-6 - Shinya Abe, Nagi Yoshitsugu, Daisuke Miki, and Kayoko Yamamoto, "An Information Retrieval System with Language-Barrier-Free Interfaces", JISSJ Vol. 14, No. 2, 57-64, 2018.
Further information
