Hello. I’m M1 student Seiya Kojima.
I was at University of Oulu in Finland for one month as an internship student.
I was studying with the research group of prof. Petri Pulli in Department of Information Processing Science. The members of this group are mainly focused on support systems for elderly and they develop not only software but also hardware. Therefore, there was a function generator and some other equipment for making electronic circuits. I felt familiar that because my undergraduate major was in electronic engineering.
This glass device is made from scratch and can be connected to smart phone and provide a navigation service.
During my stay, I accomplished many things. One of that was a patent survey. I searched many patents and devices related to movement of eyelids and discussed about them with a student. I found some interesting things such as detection of arousal levels in drivers and contact lens type devices, such as Sight from Google. I was surprised that so many things are already invented.
The device reminded Sight from Google. (Reference: US20130258287 A1)
I also had some discussions with professors and students about my research. In this university there are people whose research themes are about ethics. For example, “designing and evaluating behavior change support systems” is one of them. Although this kind of research is important for creating a better understanding on persuasive systems there are not so many researches in Japan. The ethics is also important for my research so I got so many valuable information.
Doctoral defense about persuasive systems.
Discussion while lunch (sushi!) with prof. Pulli and some researchers.
Towards the end of my stay I had the privilege of attending SIGCHI in Finland. The presentation impressed me the most was about devices for healthcare by researchers from POLAR. This topic received lots of attention from people thanks to many different devices. So I think this kind of technology is noteworthy of development and research for our future.
Presentation by a researcher from POLAR.
I want to write in more detail but let’s stop here. J
Please don’t be afraid if you also want to study abroad.
Café lingua : People who want to study Japanese get together on every Wednesday.
Farewell party held for me. Thank you very much!