On Tuesday, September 24, 2024, the "Object Recognition Workshop" was held by the "Future Environment Lab" jointly established by The Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics (KCGI), Kyoto Computer Gakuin (KCG), and BIPROGY Corporation, a leading IT services company.
This workshop was planned with the support of the Shinsaibashi-suji Kita Shopping Arcade in Osaka.First, Mr. Akira Taguchi, Secretary General of the Shinsaibashi-suji Shopping Center Promotion Association, explained the history of the Shinsaibashi-suji Shopping Center and its current status, which is bustling with inbound visitors, by comparing maps from the Edo period and today.Then, Prof. Hitoshi Miura KCGI, Chief Researcher of BIPROGY's Integrated Technology Research Institute, presented a case study of human flow analysis.After an explanation of the theme by KCGI Professor Takao Nakaguchi of the Future Environment Lab, students filmed images of passersby in a shopping arcade on campus for use in the workshop, providing a hands-on learning experience in object recognition technology.
In the afternoon, the students were divided into groups and worked on ideas for image recognition to solve problems, implementation, and preparation of materials for presentations.The students received advice from faculty members, and worked together, sharing their wisdom and skills.At the end, each group presented their results in a presentation format.The students and faculty members listening to the lecture were impressed by the idea of recognizing children from the video images and detecting the time of day when parents and children are most likely to visit the shopping arcade, as well as by the program that recognizes congestion and makes the shopping arcade more pleasant to use.Professor Miura commented, "As a next step, it would be even more wonderful if we could appeal that the shopping district is a safe and secure place to spend time by implementing services while taking security and privacy into consideration.Mr. Taguchi commented, "We were not only able to do human flow analysis, but we were also able to get ideas that would lead to the next step.Students who were exposed to the latest technology and real issues in society commented, "It was good not only to learn about image recognition technology, but also to hear directly about the current issues in shopping arcades and actual applications in the field.
The "Future Environment Lab" is an industry-academia collaboration where leading researchers from BIPROGY and faculty members from KCGI and KCG work together with students with fresh ideas to promote joint projects.We believe that "knowing what technologies exist in the world will give you ideas," and that "the ability to give shape to ideas also improves with training." We provide students with opportunities to view things from various perspectives and gain experience in creating new things by themselves that do not yet exist.
