| ●Date: November 15 (Eve), 16-18 (3Days), 2016 ●Venue: Shinagawa IntercityHall | (Up&Coming 2017 New Year issue) |
 Tue. Nov. 15 Eve
Wed. Nov. 16 Day1
Thu. Nov. 17 Day2
Fri. Nov. 18 Day3 |
| Day 1 (Nov. 16) The 17th UC-win/Road Conference Autonomous Driving Conference |
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Seeking Mobility of Next Generation, Possibilities of Utilizing Advanced UC-win/Road DS
Day1 of the Design Festival (Nov.16, 2016) started in the morning at Shinagawa Intercity Hall with "Age of Virtual Reality. UC-win/Road® Presentation" of "the 17th UC-win/Road Conference (VR Conference)". It was followed by "Autonomous Driving Conference" by the concerned members of the government and related agencies up until the first part of the afternoon part.
Towards Realization of Autonomous Driving, Efforts Made by the Relevant Government Agencies
First, Yuji Ito, President and CEO of FORUM8 gave Opening address of the Festival. Following this, "Age of Virtual Reality. UC-win/Road® Presentation", which precedes "UC-win/Road Conference" <Autonomous Driving Conference>, started with presentation by our staff member entitled "Past development results of driving simulator and VR system, and future vision". He explained the major functions of the latest version of UC-win/Road (Ver.11) including reinforcement of rendering, display performance, and database creation with their procedures. Next, he introduced the lineup of simulators, examples of constructing systems using them, and UC-win/Road options. After mentioning Riding Simulator, Earthquake Simulator, Brain Wave Driving Simulator, linkage with HMD/AR devices, and UC-win/Road UAV plugin, he showed the idea of reinforcing the functions in the future.
Second, from the developer's point of view, our staff member in charge made presentation entitled "Associated functions of Driving Sim and ADAS, and future development". He explained the features of the next version of UC-win/Road (Ver.12) including support for 64bit, automated calculation function of geometries, calculated frequency control and SIL function, extension of automated control, simulation real-time linkage option, camera sensor model option, edge blending, and mask function, illustrating with examples.
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| ■Katsumi Matsuda, Executive Officer and System Sales Manager of FORUM8 |
■Pencreach Yoann, Executive Officer and VR Development Manager of FORUM8 |
After that, Mr. Keiji Furuya, member of the House of the Representatives and President of "Federation of Diet Members for considering Automobile Culture" made a speech as a guest. Mentioning the topics he is involved in such as national resilience and motor sports promotion, he talked about future prospects for autonomous driving.
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| ■Mr. Keiji Furuya, member of the House of the Representatives, President of "Federation of Diet Members for considering Automobile Culture" and Chairman, Election Strategy Committee of LDP |
This was followed by the special lecture of Mr. Shuji Okuda, Director of Electric Vehicle, Advanced Technology and ITS Promotion Office, Automobile Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), entitled "METI's involvement in autonomous driving". First, he summarized the significance of automated travelling in terms of road traffic, society, and industries, and the outline of level 1-4 of automated travelling and its road map for practical implementation. Then he explained technologies for driver assistance and autonomous driving, intensifying global competition for development, competition status about automated traveling technology. After recalling changes in the government's grappling with them, he introduced the outline of SIP (Cross-ministerial Strategic Innovation Promotion Program) – adus (Innovation of Automated Driving for Universal Services), examples of SIP Project that METI took charge of, and large-scale demonstration experiments. Then, as an intermediate report of the review meeting for autonomous driving business, he explained 1) sharing of the future vision and identification of the cooperative areas, 2) the organization for preparing international rules (criteria and standards), and 3) promotion of academic-industrial collaboration. Finally, he mentioned the policy of the review meeting for future development.
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| ■Mr. Shuji Okuda, Director of Electric Vehicle, Advanced Technology and ITS Promotion Office, Automobile Division, Manufacturing Industries Bureau, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) |
The afternoon session started with the second part of presentation by FORUM8's staff responsible for development who spoke in the morning "Associated function of Driving Sim and ADAS, and future development". He explained the functions of the next version of UC-win/Road (Ver.12) such as PinP (Picture in Picture) and HUD simulation, extension of 2D view and simulation control, and other improvement in functions, with demonstration. He also mentioned the concept towards extension and enforcement of the functions after this version.
The next special lecture was "Trends of autonomous driving- world movement about standards of automobile" given by Mr. Hidenobu Kubota, Director of International affairs, Engineering Policy Division, Road Transport Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). He talked about the safety policy on automobile in terms of the actual circumstances of traffic accidents in the world and the global countermeasure, the needs for safe automobiles, provision of traffic safety master plan and approaches to traffic safety, and concept of safe automobiles. Then he explained the significance of autonomous driving, level classification of autonomous driving by SAE (Society of Automotive Engineers) International, the present situation and the future of development of automated traveling technology, and domestic support status for automated traveling. Next, he commented on the domestic movement on autonomous driving in terms of the endeavor of SIP and the review meeting of automated travel business, the trend of international rule making through them, the support system for driver's unusual situations and vehicle assessment, and the prospect for development of other autonomous driving technologies. Further, he developed his lecture into the international tendency of introduction of autonomous driving and the direction of future discussion. Especially, he mentioned examination status of the international standards of ACSF (Automatically Commanded Steering Function) (R79 Revision), among which the detail of main items such as Corrective Steering Function of the R79 Revision 1st package, discussion of level classification in the IWG (informal working group) on ITS/AD (Intelligent Transport Systems and Automated Driving) and the combined meeting of experts of WP.1 (Working Party on Road Traffic Safety) and GRRF (Working Party on Brakes and Running Gear), examination status of United Nations Guidelines on cyber security and data protection, Japan's role in the international society, and G7 Transport Ministers' Meeting in Karuizawa, Nagano in September.
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| ■Mr. Hidenobu Kubota, Director of International affairs, Engineering Policy Division, Road Transport Bureau, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) |
The final special lecture of the session was "Review of autonomous driving and considerations for the futures" given by Mr. Takashi Ono, Assistant Director of Traffic Planning, Traffic Bureau, National Police Agency. First, he gave an outline of the present situations of the automated traveling system and road map, and the endeavor of the government and National Police Agency. Following this, he summarized the basic relationship between the Road Traffic Law and autonomous driving towards demonstration experiments on public roads and practical application. Then he expounded the provisions of the Convention on Road Traffic (Geneva, 1949) and the specific points on automated driving in it, situations of international discussion on Geneva Convention (the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Working Party on Road Traffic Safety (WP.1) and the informal working group on Automated Driving (IWG on AD)), and contracting countries to the Convention on Road Traffic. Then he explained establishment of "the research and review committee on institutional problems of automated traveling etc.", distribution of a questionnaire there, and the points of the guidelines for demonstration experiments on the public road about the automated traveling system provided based on the questionnaire. At the same time, he introduced legal and operational subjects about automated traveling in terms of criminal responsibility and civil liability, and obligations of laws and regulations, establishment of "the Research and review committee towards staged realization of autonomous driving", and the matters for study for this fiscal year.
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| ■Mr. Takashi Ono, Assistant Director of Traffic Planning, Traffic Bureau, National Police Agency. |
| The 15th 3D VR Simulation Contest on Cloud Award Ceremony |  |
Renewal Plan of Mizuki Shigeru Road by Sakaiminato City Won the Grand Prix
| A lot of works were gathered for the 15th 3D VR Simulation Contest on Cloud,
and 10 works from Japan, the USA, China, and Korea were nominated through
the selection meeting on Oct. 18, 2016 at FORUM8 Tokyo head office. The VR data of nominated works were open on cloud from Nov. 5 through 13 for the public voting by net users. On Nov. 15, the chief of the judging committee Prof. Fumio Seki from Department of Civil Engineering, College of Science and Technology, Nihon University, and other two committee members conducted a rigid final judgment and chose "Mizuki Shigeru Road in Sakaiminato City" by Sakaiminato city as the Grand Prix. |
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| ■Winners | |
| Mizuki Shigeru road is the road between the JR Sakaiminato-shi station
and the Mizuki Shigeru Memorial Hall. There are 153 bronze statues of yokai
monsters familiar of the animation "GeGeGe no Kitaro" in the
one-way streets with expanded sidewalks filled with Showa-era atmosphere. The renewal plan was reproduced in VR, and at the "Mystery Forum 2016" in September, VR Kitaro on Roll of Cotton navigated the city and showed the concrete plan to citizens and persons involved. This VR work that introduces the plan from various viewpoints of walking tourists seeing the statues effectively worked for the consensus formation because it had a reality as if viewers slipped back in time to the world after the renewal. The "Semi Grand Prix Excellence Award" was awarded to "Fushimi Technical High School, alma mater that is passed down the generations" by Fushimi Technical High School in Kyoto. Precise 3D models of school building that will be torn down due to the school integration were created from the photos shot with a drone. Viewers can catch the enthusiasm of the Technical High School students from detailed creation of the building roofs and compressor units by using advantages of UAV characteristics. Click the banner below to check the other nominated works and its details. |
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