Report on NTT R&D Forum 2018

1. Forum overview

The NTT Group is fully committed to being a value partner that continues to be sought after by customers. NTT R&D Forum 2018 presented lectures and exhibits displaying the latest research and development (R&D) results and their role in this effort. The main concept of this year’s forum was Digital Technologies for a Brighter Future. Technologies related to artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), media, user interfaces (UIs), networks, and security were introduced. To facilitate visitors’ understanding of the latest R&D in these areas, presentations featured business cases in which research results have been commercially applied. Attendance was high and included NTT Group customers in Japan and around the world, business partners, IR (investor relation) stakeholders, and people from government agencies and universities.

2. Lectures and workshops

On February 20, Hiroo Unoura, NTT President and CEO, gave a keynote address entitled “Co-creating a Virtuous Cycle of New Value,” in which he talked about the B2B2X (business-to-business-to-X) model, an initiative NTT is pursuing together with partners to create new value by supporting digital transformation in a variety of fields. This initiative is aimed at implementing Society 5.0, which is a Japanese government strategy to accelerate the penetration of digital technologies into government, industry, and society by developing innovative technologies and utilizing a diverse range of data.

For this initiative, the NTT Group is collaborating with players in various fields, including entertainment, sports, automotive, transport, manufacturing, and environmental protection. To promote digitization of industry and society and accelerate the realization of Society 5.0, NTT is proposing to build a Japanese-model ecosystem, in which a consortium of industry, academia, and government participants formed in each regional block collects and utilizes data.

As the first step, NTT concluded the Sapporo Town Planning Partner Agreement with Sapporo City. According to this agreement, three companies—namely, a department store, supermarket, and drugstore—have brought together their information about purchases made by inbound tourists so that they can analyze the data to a greater extent possible than when using only the information owned by individual companies. These analyses have enabled them to revise their marketing strategies, resulting in the creation of new earning opportunities.

The success in this unprecedented value creation prompted more than 20 companies to participate in this joint effort. This is expected to give rise to the development of new applications such as using the collected data to implement electronic payment systems or to share information about the operation of snow plow trucks.

NTT is pushing nationwide deployment of this Japanese-model ecosystem by expanding it from Sapporo City to the entire Hokkaido region and to other parts of the country. President Unoura expressed his commitment to bringing about Society 5.0 and to promoting value creation by supporting digital transformation in a variety of fields in collaboration with partners (Photo 1).

Photo 1. Keynote address by Hiroo Unoura, President and CEO, NTT.

This address was followed by another keynote by Hiromichi Shinohara, NTT Senior Executive Vice President and Head of the Research and Development Planning Department, entitled “Creating a Prosperous Future through the Fruits of R&D.” He introduced NTT’s R&D activities for strengthening industrial competitiveness such as improving productivity and empowering individuals, and NTT’s efforts to overcome social problems such as by promoting safety, preventing disasters, revitalizing local economies, and ensuring a sustainable global environment.

Advances in information and communication technology make it possible to understand the intent of consumers and to provide services and information in a natural manner without requiring consumers’ conscious action. Thus, future technologies will be such that they enter our daily lives more naturally than before. Enterprises will be able to provide products that detect changes in customers’ behavior and use collected data to remain more closely connected with their needs. NTT considers AI, IoT, media, UI, networks, and security as key technical fields in which further R&D will help address social issues. Mr. Shinohara introduced the latest technologies in these fields (Photo 2).

Photo 2. Keynote address by Hiromichi Shinohara, Senior Executive Vice President and Head of the Research and Development Planning Department, NTT.

In a workshop held on February 22, Hiroshi Nakamura, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer, and Executive General Manager of the R&D Innovation Division of NTT DOCOMO, talked about the company’s R&D activities under the title “Co-creation Generates Smart Innovation – DOCOMO’s Strategy Toward 5G.” He introduced the fifth-generation mobile communications network (5G), which enables high-speed, high-capacity, and low-delay transmission and connections with numerous terminals, and presented cases of co-creation with partner enterprises with a focus on corevo^®, the NTT Group’s initiative to utilize its AI-related technologies.

This workshop was followed by a special lecture entitled “The Future of the AI Era” by Yoshiharu Habu, professional shogi (Japanese chess) player. He acknowledged that shogi is a field susceptible to AI technology and talked about how AI is affecting humans. He first looked back at the history of using AI in games. He stated that the dramatic improvement in performance in recent years is enabling AI to analyze a large number of possible moves of pieces, which is in contrast to humans, who are good at developing a big-picture strategy to determine the next moves to make.

It has become routine for younger members in the shogi world to use AI to study strategies. This has resulted in the revival of once-abandoned strategies and the discovery of bold moves that only AI can conceive, since unlike humans, it is fearless. He said that in this new environment, it has become even more important for shogi players to bring to bear aesthetics, originality, and identity in countering moves made by AI (Photo 3).

Photo 3. Special lecture by Yoshiharu Habu, professional shogi player.

Two workshops took place on February 23. First, Ryutaro Kawamura, Vice President of NTT Network Innovation Laboratories, introduced cases in which value is created using IoT together with partners, in a workshop under the title of “IoT Activities in NTT and Its Future.” Next, Hiroki Takesue, Senior Distinguished Scientist, NTT Basic Research Laboratories, gave a lecture entitled “Quantum Neural Network: a New Computer Using Light” that featured a computer system that uses various networked light emitters (lasers) to rapidly solve optimization problems that arise in various contexts in modern society.

These lectures introducing NTT’s R&D activities were well received by the audience.

3. Exhibits of research results and sessions dedicated to specific themes

Under the concept of Digital Technologies for a Brighter Future, the forum presented 123 exhibits (about 30% more than last year’s event) on the latest R&D results, which were classified into five selected exhibit themes: media & UI, corevo, IoT, network & security, and basic research. In addition, NTT Group companies, including NTT DOCOMO, NTT DATA, NTT Communications, NTT WEST, NTT EAST, and NTT i3, contributed exhibits covering a wide range of technologies, from those in the basic research stage to those that have been introduced commercially.

To enhance visitors’ appreciation of the latest R&D results, exhibits were grouped in five main sites, and depending on the nature of the research, some were presented outdoors or in individual rooms, and some involved unique demonstrations.

4. Conclusion

This year, the forum was attended by about 16,000 people, a dramatic increase over last year. We believe that rising expectations for NTT’s R&D were the reason for the growth in the number of participants. This was substantiated by voices heard at the forum site and in responses to our questionnaire survey. To meet these ardent expectations for our R&D, we will make even greater efforts to develop and deploy new technologies.

Authors (from left): Masaki Hisada, Manager, R&D Management, Planning Department, NTT Service Innovation Laboratory Group; Haruhisa Nozue, Manager, Planning Department, NTT Information Network Laboratory Group; Hiroto Ishii, Manager, R&D Planning, NTT Research and Development Planning Department; Norio Sakaida, Manager, Research Planning Department, NTT Science and Core Technology Laboratory Group; Yuji Uekusa, Manager, Planning Department, NTT Information Network Laboratory Group; Yojiro Nishiyama, Associate Manager, R&D Vision Group, NTT Research and Development Planning Department