Sensing the possibility of further expanding the use of 3D, Susumu Matsuda started market research in 2001 while searching for ways to use VR applications. First of all, Susumu focuses on the game industry, where utilization has progressed. Game content is highly entertaining, and content that satisfies people’s desires is preferred, and a lot of rich content using 3D is being developed. The development method is an assembly-line work that breaks down each process and develops content.
The game industry is developing business by focusing on building a system that allows us to efficiently continue to make profits through the use of products. The game industry is a high-risk, high-return business. Susumu shifted his perspective and started thinking about how VR could be used in the industrial sector. In the industrial field, there was a need for a training system to improve piloting skills represented by aircraft and automobiles.
In 2005, Susumu established Studio WA Orient Co., Ltd. in Tokyo to specialize in program development for VR software to meet society’s needs. In 2009, Susumu established Studio WA Vietnam Co., Ltd. in Ho Chi Minh City to create virtual spaces to reduce content development costs. Susumu will use these companies to accelerate the software development of VR applications.
Striving towards New Horizons
In 2011, Susumu created a RiMM concept that incorporates the concept of how to reduce the development cost of VR software. This concept succeeds in reducing simulator development costs by 50%. RiMM base platform was completed in 2013. Susumu developed a simulator that trains initial responses to natural disasters using RiMM in accordance with national government requirements.
A training simulator for protecting from terrorism nuclear power plants was developed at the same time. Susumu developed a VR simulator for decommissioning work of nuclear power plants based on these achievements.
New challenges appeared in 2014 through training simulator development. Due to the lack of intuitive operation of the simulator, there was often a problem with reducing concentration during training. The first issue is the realization of “a mechanism that was easily used by intuitive operation in the virtual space.” The second issue is the realization of “a system that shortens the time, efficiently experiences and communicates in a more effective form.”
The third issue is the realization of a system that directly works on the psychological aspect and makes people feel more emotional. Susumu continues to improve the functions to overcome these issues. In addition to the reproduction of sight and hearing, which are the basis of VR, Susumu developed a mechanism to reproduce the sensations felt by the body. The sensation you feel in your body is realized with a real experience that directly transmits stimulation to your body.
The Core Fundamentals
RiMM safety and reassurance applications were developed according to the needs of society. Susumu shares, “In accordance with market demands, we create prototype software and put it on the market immediately. After experiencing the experience, we will ask the user to give feedback for improvement. We follow your feedback and improve our products. RiMM continues to improve by repeating this series of processes repeatedly.”
This is a way of developing new products according to market demands and finding user agreements. This method is tedious and painstaking work, but it works. Susumu has named this development method Cyclone as a development philosophy. Since 2010, Susumu has considered VR a means of visual reproduction, thinking about what can only be realized in virtual space.
The biggest purpose of the VR training simulator “Category A” that we have been working on simultaneously is to do my daily work safely. While thinking about how to realize safety, Susumu started to think about it with a completely opposite way of thinking from the game industry. Susumu began to think that by realizing negative sensations in a virtual space, it would be possible to stimulate people’s sense of danger and make them conscious of protecting people. The conclusion Susumu have reached is the importance of experiencing dangerous events and conveying their fear to people in order to realize a safe and secure society.
Learning about disasters “B: A disaster case study,” learning about the fear of disasters “C: Disaster experience VR for improving sensitivity to danger,” changing consciousness, learning how to protect yourself from disasters. In order to prevent disasters in advance, cultivate the ability to notice disasters before they occur and improve the prediction ability of “D: Awareness education through 360-degree VR panorama reproduction”.
Train your initial response in the event of a disaster, “E: Disaster Initial Response Training Simulator,” to guide you in a safe direction and increase your survival rate. Virtually reproduce an unknown difficult situation and find a coping method “F: DIG diagram training simulator” through trial and error. It is important to train these 6 processes in order for a person to live happily ever after. If you can simulate a dangerous event in a virtual space, you can safely experience it. Learning how to survive through negative experiences is socially valuable.
The Vital Elements
Appropriate stimulation of the five senses is important for people to feel intuitively in a more natural state. Susumu created multiple sensory stimuli, and in the right combinations and intensities, Susumu focuses on developing negative sensations that directly touch and feel the mind by transmitting negative sensations.
Negative sensations can also cause mental disorders if they are overstimulated. Therefore, Susumu searches for and finds out the elements that can be mental disorders from the psychological aspect. Susumu intentionally eliminates obstacles through bodily sensations.
Elimination of this risk factor is an advantage that can be realized only by virtual reproduction. In addition, Susumu evaluates human emotions during physical sensations and jointly evaluates mechanisms that apply and control negative stimuli according to individual sensibilities, in collaboration with institutions specializing in cognitive psychology.
At the beginning of the business, the focus was on visualization using VR. After that, the purpose will be the theme of people’s safety and reassurance. The current goal is to connect the future of humans and the earth through safety and reassurance.
RiMM Cyclone Philosophy aims to improve safety little by little through the six categories RiMM have shown so far. RiMM train while repeating the six methods, and by continuing to execute one cycle repeatedly, Susumu continues to maintain a safe and secure state. This idea takes into consideration the fact that people have the characteristic of forgetting what they have experienced to ensure their mental safety.
Minimize disaster risk by repeatedly training all of these 6 items: physical learning, knowledge of disasters, sensitivity to danger, means of protecting oneself, ability to cope with disasters, and intuition to respond to disasters and overcome obstacles. increase. RiMM thinks about safety and reassurance rather than the biological mechanism of humans and find ways to ensure human safety and reassurance. This is the RiMM Cyclone Philosophy concept.
In order to ensure the safety of human, RiMM will prepare a disaster database corresponding to four types of disasters: natural disasters, general disasters, occupational accidents, and human calamity. RiMM will create a system for sharing disaster information in society by developing a shared disaster database. Unfortunately, it is not possible to realize a safe and secure society without considering the safety of people and responding to natural disasters.
Natural disasters occur due to changes in the global environment. In order to protect human safety, we must continue to think about the global environment in which people live. This is one of the reasons why Susumu thinks about safety and reassurance by connecting both humans and the earth.
Towards a Future; Sustainable
Susumu presented how to achieve breakthroughs that create new products. Sensory reproduction, including the five senses, is usually solved with an engineering approach. The reproduction of senses begins with the reproduction of sight and hearing through VR. Intuitive operation is realized by gesture recognition by image processing.
Simulation is realized by feedback automatic control. Generates tactile sensations that can be felt in the body by robot control. At the same time, the sense of balance and the sense of force is realized with mechatronics. Reproduce pain sensation by electric discharge. All these technologies are engineering technologies.
The next task is to make people feel it by reproducing the five senses. Effective sensory transmission requires knowledge of sensory organs. Sensory organs transmit the sensation, and it is necessary to know how nerves and brains work. Emotions drive hormone secretion, and the body’s communication pathways are transmitted through the nervous system and blood vessels. In order to confirm the state of feeling in the heart, knowledge of the psychological domain is necessary.
The mechanisms of these bodies are closely related to life sciences. Knowledge of life sciences, including cognitive science and ethics, is necessary to prevent mental disorders. It is still not fully understood where and how negative sensations and experiences are stored. In order to connect the future of humans and the earth and realize safety and reassurance, research and development that fuses life science and engineering is necessary. Susumu has been researching and developing since 2014 while actively learning life science.
Since the start of business in 2001, Susumu has always combined multiple technologies to create added value. “Connecting humans and the future of the earth through safety and reassurance” is our eternal theme. The RiMM Cyclone Philosophy of Safety and reassurance considers life sciences at each stage and continues improving the circulation cycle, enhancing safety and security. Susumu believes that Cyclone Philosophy can be used in other fields as a means of human education. The fusion that combines new technologies is the challenge and brings about innovation. Susumu looks back on his failures, learns from his failures, thinks of new ways of doing things, and gradually overcomes obstacles through trial and error.
