Going from the philosophy and concepts to the implementation and user study this book presents
an excellent overview of Japan's contemporary technical challenges in the field of
human-computer interaction. The next information era will be one in which information is used
to cultivate human and social potential. Driven by this vision the outcomes provided in this
work were accomplished as challenges to establish basic technologies for achieving harmony
between human beings and the information environment by integrating element technologies
including real-space communication human interfaces and media processing. Ranging from the
neuro-cognitive level to the field trial the research activities integrated novel perceptual
technologies that even exceed human ability to sense capture and affect the real world.This
book grew out of one of the CREST research areas funded by the Japan Science and Technology
Agency. The theme of the project is the creation of human-harmonized information technology for
convivial society where 17 research teams aimed at a common goal. The project promotes a
trans-disciplinary approach featuring (1) recognition and comprehension of human behaviors and
real-space contexts by utilizing sensor networks and ubiquitous computing (2) technologies for
facilitating man-machine communication by utilizing robots and ubiquitous networks and (3)
content technologies for analyzing mining integrating and structuring multimedia data
including those in text voice music and images.This is the first of two volumes which is
contributed by nine team leaders. Besides describing the technical challenges each
contribution lays much weight on discussing the philosophy concepts and the implications
underlying the project. This work will provide researchers and practitioners in the related
areas with an excellent opportunity to find interesting new developments and to think about the
relationship between human and information technology.
