第五日から、先発組と大樹我妻と白井先生を合流しました。私達一緒に電車でLAVAL展示の参加するために、LAVALへ向かいました。LAVALはフランスのとても古い町です。今の人口は二十万ぐらいです。町の中に至る所が古代な城と修道院があります。都心には古代から住民の生活を支援したマイエンヌ川が流れています。

展示の五日間で赤ちゃんチームは四百以上のお客さんに体験してもらいました。主な評価はよいものでした。お客さんはこのプロジェクトは楽しいし、教育にも向いているし、そして革新的ですと話したり、twitterで赤ちゃんについての文章を書きました。それに記者が私達のプロジェクトを新聞に報道しました。

最終的に、赤ちゃんチームがSIGGRAPH賞を受賞しました。皆がSIGGRAPH賞を受賞した時、とても驚きましたし、嬉しかったです。賞があるので、今年のSIGGRAPHへ参加できます。

展示を完了した後に、フランスの最大乳製品会社Lactalisへ見学しに行きました。最後の日にレンヌへ電車で行って、古代な城モンサンミッシェルを見学しました。

On the fifth full day the advance team was joined by the last team member of Real Baby – Real Family Daiki Agatsuma, as well as team supervisor Akihiko Shirai-sensei. We made our way to Laval VR exhibition located at the ancient city of Laval and spent the entire day setting up the exhibition. Laval itself is a city of over 900 years old and is the French city with the highest castle concentration ratio. The entire town is full of ancient fortresses, churches, and structures. Right at the center lies the Mayenne River which has supported the Laval population since ancient times.

In the next five days from March 22nd to March 26th our team would entertain over 400 guests and eventually won the SIGGRAPH award during the Laval Award ceremony. When it was announced that our team would receive the SIGGRAPH award I was extremely emotional and somewhat embarrassed by standing beside my other teammates during the award ceremony as I was just an English translator and onsite support. Winning the SIGGRAPH award also means the team will be heading to California for the SIGGRAPH conference later this year. As for me it is undecided whether I will get to go or not due to the limited budget but if my submission in SIGGRAPH gets accepted I will be able to join the team.

The reception to our exhibition was in general positive with most players saying the project is ground breaking, innovative, and fun to play. There are some negative feedback of course such as how the system functions more as a working demo rather than a full blown game and that the baby could have more facial expressions. During this time I was also able to meet with many VR enthusiasts from all around the world. We had party almost every single night and at the end of the five day marathon I was dead tired but feeling extremely fulfilled.

After the Laval exhibition we visited Lactalis, the largest French diary company founded in Laval back in 1933 as well  as went to Rennes to tour the Mount Saint-Michel, an ancient French fortress situated on an island. I have had a lot of fun and am looking forward to my next journey.

3月16日から同月28日まで、白井研究室の赤ちゃんチームはフランスへLaval Virtual 2017の展示に参加するためにフランスへ行きました。私がフランスに旅行に行くのはこれで２回目になります。

三月16日の夜に、フランスのシャルルドゴール空港に到着しました。先発組の望月と浅野の助けを借りて、二時間後にパリのホテルに着きました。私達のホテルはアパートの八階です。このビルはとても高い建物だったので、窓からエッフェル塔を見えました。旅行はとても疲れたので、晩御飯を食べてすぐに寝ました。

パリの旅行の第一日に私達歩いて有名なルーブル美術館へ行くことを決めしました。この美術館は昔のフランスの王様の宮殿なので、とても大きく、美しく、そして時々部屋の壁と天井の中にも美術作品があります。建物のサイズは大きいすぎるので、一日で全て展示を見るのは無理です。展示されている作品は昔の城壁と城の堀や、ヨーロッパからの色々な絵や、そしてギリシャの彫刻などです。美術館を見学した後に、皆がとても疲れたので、電車でホテルへ帰りました。

二日目と三日目は赤ちゃんチームは主としてSIGGRAPHとLAVALについて仕事を働きました、ただし二日目に私達ホテルの近くの朝市へ向かいました。この朝市は毎週の土曜日だけ開いている市場です。

第四日に先発組は凱旋門とエッフェル塔へ参観することを決めしました。浅野はLAVALについて仕事を完了するために、一緒に行けませんでした。凱旋門は二百年前に、ナポレオンが戦争の勝利を祝うために、建築家に依頼させてできました。建物のいたるところにきれな彫刻があります。私達を凱旋門の最上階へ上がるために、切符を買いました。最上階からは、パリ全体を見下ろすことができます。美しい彫刻の他に、第一回世界戦時の戦士の服もがあります。私の考えでは、凱旋門はエッフェル塔よりとても面白いです。

From March 16th to March 28th, the Real Baby – Real Family team from Shirai-lab embarked on a journey to France where the team participated in the 19th Laval Virtual Reality exhibition. This is my second time in France and first time in Laval and Rennes.

I landed on Paris`s Charles Du Gaulles Airport on the evening of March 16th and after some navigation arrived at our hotel in Paris thanks to my other lab mates Yuya Mochizuki and Takaya Asano. At our flat we are joined by the 4th member of the expedition team Marika Higashida. After some very quick dinner the team quickly fell asleep.

On the first full day the entire team walked to Louvre Art Museum for some sight seeing. The Louvre Art Museum used to be a fortress for the French King Philip Augustus and is later converted into an imperial palace and finally to an art museum. The museum is the undisputed biggest art museum I have seem to date and that is saying a lot as being a professional artist I made it my priority to visit as many art museums as I can. There are probably over five floors inside the art museum and at times an entire room from the floor up to the ceiling are covered with art pieces. The pieces exhibited there ranges from old fortress wall sections and castle moats (yes actual entire fortress sections the sizes of 3 story building), to European art master pieces and Greek statues. At the end of the day the entire team is dead tired and resorted to taking the train back to our hotel.

We toured the French Morning market on the second day which while doesn’t seem like much is a street market open only on Saturday. There the team practiced our English and very limited French skills. The third day is mainly a working day where we didn’t finish our SIGGRAPH VR Village submission till late at night.

On the forth day three of the expedition team, Marika, Yuya, and I went to the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower. Takaya Asano had to stay behind due to some unfinished works for the Laval Exhibition that is yet to come. Before our visit to Arc de Triomphe there were some initial debates as to whether we should even visit the structure due to our limited time but I was and am very glad I had went there as it would prove to be the highlight of my trip. The arc was commissioned by Napolean at the height of his power where the emperor wanted an arc for soldiers to march under after returning from a successful military campaign. It stands at the heart of Paris and is connected by 12 other streets, forming a star like geography with the arc right at the middle. It is 50 meters, or roughly 15 floors tall and is much bigger than I originally anticipated (I thought it was just a small arc roughly 4 stories tall). The entire arc is covered by stone relief sculptures featuring soldiers and angels. Our small team of three actually paid an entrance fee to go up to the arc (yes you can actually walk up there) where we gets to see the entire city of Paris. The arc also functions as a small art and history museum where soldiers’ uniforms are stored inside. After the arc we went to the Eiffel Tower which proves to be somewhat of a let down as it is just a giant steel structure. The team decided not to go up the arc due to the long waiting time (45 minutes) and expensive ticket.

This week is a very unique way in many ways. One of which is that our supervisor Shirai-sensei is absent due to having to go to America to take care of students at Seattle. The second reason being the number of visitors and visits conducted within a one week period.

On March 9th, 2017, a professor from a Finland University named Junnila Miika decided to visit KAIT because he was recommended by some of his friends to talk to Nakamura-sensei. Around noon I was asked by Nakamura-sensei to attend the meeting.

After some pleasant chit chats Nakamura-sensei began his presentation was then I realized the impressive game industry resume Nakamura-sensei has. According to Nakamura-sensei, he has worked in Bandai Namco for more than a decade and has even collaborated with the creator of Pac Man. After the presentation our Finland visitor began his master program in games introduction. Apparently the program in Finland is an international program that attracts students from all corners of the world. The program is also very competitive and only accepts around 7 students per year. Because of Finland’s education system students of Finland national gets to attend it for free.  Afterwards we were given the chance to play the many mobile games his students and past alumni have created.

On March 10th, 2017, me and the majority of Shirai-lab members visited the Fujitsu Advanced Engineering company stationed on the west side of Shinjuku station.

The company is one branch of Fujitsu company with the other one being SSL. We were greeted by company employees at the reception area and after some self introductions inside a meeting room led back to the reception area to study the construction and dimension of their lobby. My fellow lab mates all took out retractable rulers and laser measurement equipment and began recording the width, length, and height of the room. We were even given blue prints and concept art pieces of the lobby. While this may appear to be dumb or even unnecessary by outside standard, the Japanese training and educational system has always been very strict which I believe is what leads to their successes world wide.

During the exhibition I was approached by Uehara-san, a veteran comployee of Fujitsu AE who has been working at the company for 16 years. Uehara-san, knowing I am not a native Japanese speaker, offered to introduce me to their many different projects. One such project is the construction of fifty meter telescopes out on the mountains of South America which won the company an award. Because of the high altitude the telescopes were constructed in, the team cannot afford use much software so the entire telescope was built using hardware alone with no software. Other projects Fujitsu AE was involved with include the manufacturing of space satellite hardware.

今週は本当に特別な週です。今週は、白井先生はアメリカのシアトルで日本学生を支援しています。それに私はフィンランドからのお客さんに会って、富士通株式会社へ企業訪問しました。

3月9日にフィンランドからの大学教授Junnila Miikaさんが神奈川工科大学に来ました。Junnila Miikaさんは十年前に日本で短期交換留学をしていました。彼が働いている学校はゲームを研究するし、作るし、それに国際留学生が多い学校です。沢山の卒業生は大きなゲーム会社で働いていたり、自分の会社をやったりします。神奈川工科大学へ来た理由はこの学校の中村先生に会うためです。中村先生はゲームを作る経験が十年以上あり、そして有名なゲームの開発者と一緒に働きました。会議後にMiikaさんの学生が作った携帯電話ゲームを紹介していました。

3月10日に白井研究室の学生と一緒に新宿駅の近くの富士通株式会社を見学しました。会社は西新宿に高いブルの17と18階があります。自己紹介後にロビー室のサイズを測量機で測定しました。見学中に上原さんに会社の製品を聞きました。上原さんは富士通で十六年間働いているので、それで沢山の製品を知っていました。

On Sunday March 5th, 2017, I went to Roppongi Hills in Tokyo for the Media Ambition Tokyo show. The exhibition was located at the 52th floor of the tallest building in Roppongi Hills called the Tokyo sky view where one can see the entire Tokyo city. The works exhibited there are a mixture of digital art, technical innovation, projection technology, and 3D printed works.

Among the many projects exhibited there, the work that caught my attention the most is called “Levitrope” by Dr. Ochiai. “Levitrope” is composed of nearly ten metal spheres floating on top of a metal desk without any strings or supporting materials attached them. What’s more, the spheres appear to be travelling in circular motion around the circular desk at a constant speed without ever going off track.

After the exhibition I considered going to Gundam Front to take one last peek at the Gundam statue before it got taken down but due to the lack of money had to cancel the trip. I only hope the Gundam statue will be moved to some other parts in Japan as it wasn’t always in Tokyo.

3月5日に、第五回のMedia Ambition Tokyoに参加するために、六本木ヒルズへ向かいました。チケットは佐藤先生にいただきました。三週間前に、同じ展示へ行くつもりでしたが、地図を持っていたのに、展覧会のビルをみつけられませんでした。それで、別の美術館へ行きました。今回は、前回より詳細な地図をもらいましたので、展覧場所を見つけることができました。

この展示の展示物は3D印刷物とデジタルアートと技術開発です。展示の中でも一番凄いと思った作品は落合先生の”Levitrope”です。”Levitrope”は金属球を磁気で浮遊させる作品です。

展示会の後ガンダムフロントへ向かいたかったのですが、手持ちが少なかったので、行けませんでした。