News & Stories

For the purpose of studying the origin of life, an asteroid explorer Hayabusa 2 was launched four years ago, and now it is getting closer to the target asteroid Ryugu. On 14th, the newest pictures of Ryugu was released. They have recognized that the asteroid looks almost round, approximately 900 km in diameter.

Hayabusa 2, which has been launched from Kagoshima prefecture four years ago, is traveling in Space 300 million km away from the Earth and is going to reach the place 800 km from Ryugu.

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) held a press conference on 14th and showed the newest pictures taken by Hayabusa 2. Enlarged pictures are a little bit rough, however, they could recognize that Ryugu might have almost  spherical shape. Some part of it looks square, so they need further studies to clarify the entire picture. According to the results of analyses, it is known that Ryugu's diameter is 900 meter, the full rotation is 7 hours and 40 minutes.

Hayabusa 2 will reach to the place of the distance of 20 km to Ryugu on 27th this month, then go into its orbit, after observing the situation of surface and the shape, it will try to land and pick up some rock samples.

If some water or organic would be found, it will increase the potential for finding the origin of life. The mission manager of JAXA, Makoto Yoshikawa said, "It is getting closer so we can get more clear pictures in next week. Hopefully, entire figure of  Ryugu will become clearer."

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20180614/k10011477891000.html?utm_int=news_contents_news-main_002

A new type of computer, which is equivalent in the meaning of calculation capability with a quantum computer, is put into practical use in Japan.

As far as processing "Combinatorial optimization problem" is concerned, the quantum computers are already developed in the level of practical use by a Canadian venture company. It is a task to choose most appropriate solution among a huge amount of number pairs. However, a Japanese manufacturer, Fujitsu has developed a new type of computer which can solve the Combinatorial optimization problem using only traditional electronic circuits. They started to provide the services using it, and the most significant feature of this computer is that it doesn't require a huge equipment to keep their components in ultralow temperature.

According to the Fujitsu, it might be utilized for the tasks such as making parcel service more efficiently, through assisting finding out the best traffic route for delivery. It might be also utilized for finding out the best angle to expose a cancer patient to a laser beam, taking a radiation therapy. The company aims to make this new type of computer to grow hundred billion yen business until the year of 2020.


https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20180521/k10011447381000.html?utm_int=news_contents_news-main_004

The Mitsubishi Corporation and the Mitsubishi UFJ Bank have announced on 14th May that they will start experiment of international currency transfer, applying the block chain technology. If they will be successful with this experiment, then they will be able to transfer funds to other countries in a matter of minutes. The technology was developed by Ripple Inc., US which is also a service provider in a fintech industry.

The Blockchain technology was originally used in crypto currency, in which they are now using to make their experiment. Because the traditional way in sending funds has to go through a lot of banks. With this technology you can send the funds directly to the intended location or recipient.


https://www.jiji.com/jc/article?k=2018051400370&g=eco

A Japanese Fashion brand, Anrealage has built a collection called "prism". It changes color depending the angle from where you look at it. It is inspired by the theory of the prism, that it makes a transparent light went through a prism look like a rainbow. They used miniature materials, that are similar to beads, on the surface of their clothes. This is used in order to project a prism-like shape.

Those clothes attract light on its surface and reflects a variety of colored lights depending on which angle you look at it. So everybody might see different colors based on where they are standing, althought the cloth is just same one. Actually those clothes are made from transparent material. It might chanege our understanding that a cloth should have it's own color.

http://www.asahi.com/and_M/articles/SDI2018050882101.html?iref=comtop_list_andm_t

Tohoku university, Japan has found some mineral on the Moon. It is the first time to been found on a celestial body other than the Earth. Those were formed from water vapour under high air pressure. The study team announced that they found the mineral in the meteorites from the Moon. There is a possibility that water exists under the surface of the Moon. The water content is estimated to be 19 litres per one cubic meter of soil.

An associate professor of Tohoku university said "There might be a huge amount of underground ice on the Moon. The existence of water on the Moon makes it easier to use it as resources. For example, it can be used for making hydrogen fuel." They are hoping that the Moon can become a base for further space exploration.
https://www.fnn.jp/posts/00391134CX

A japanese company, YKK AP has developed and produced a prototype of AI-equipped door. It has a big screen on it's entire surface which projects images and recognizes human faces. It has no key hole, nor doorknob. Depend on the data of family mebmers registered in advance, it recognizes their faces. If some of them came back home, it will be automatically opened.

For example, if the farther would come colse to the door, it asks a question suck like, "What time will you come back home?" Then considering the time the father might come back, the door will give some useful informations. Suppose, the father answered "Maybe I will come back at 8 o'clock in the evening", then the door would advice him, "It starts rain in this afternoon, although it might stop until evening, in case the rain does not stop, it is better that you bring an umbrella." The door provides you informations which might be needed at that moment, such as traffic information, weather report and so on. It is just equate with hireing your own butler.

The door can even transmit a message from a family member to another member. If a child leaves a massage "I would have more pocket money", the door records it and transmits to the child's mother, when she goes through there.

http://www.fnn-news.com/news/headlines/articles/CONN00391053.html