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TAK KAMAE [M] (kamae@abmes.twmu.ac.jp)
is director of research and development, Laboratories of Image Science
and Technology (LIST), Tokyo, Japan, responsible for such projects as
networked appliance architecture and IT-supported healthcare management.
His past R&D work includes a facsimile communication system, digital videotex, and sketchphone.
He received the Medal with Purple Ribbon from the Japanese Government in
2000 for his achievements of facsimile communication system. He organized the first International Workshop
on Networked Appliances (IWNA) in November 1998 in Kyoto and served as
its general chair. He was chair of the Multimedia
Communications Technical Committee, IEEE ComSoc (1999-2001), and is chair of the IFIP
Entertainment Computing Task Force. He received his B.S. and M.S. in
electronics from Kyoto University and his Ph.D. in electrical
engineering from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He
worked for NTT for 26 years, and was vice president and executive
manager of its Human Interface Laboratories from 1990 to 1993. After NTT
he joined Hewlett-Packard and was director of its Japan Laboratories
from 1993 to 1999. He is member of the advisory board of the Faculty of
Advanced Techno-Surgery -Institute of Advanced Biomedical Engineering &
Science at Tokyo
Women's Medical University.
Takahiko Kamae
(PhD EE'66)
I retired from NTT, a Japanese telecommunication carrier and started a
new career with Hewlett-Packard in 1993. After I took a PhD from U of I
in 1966, my career began as a research engineer with NTT in 1967. The
biggest project I was involved in was the development of a facsimile
communication network, which is now nicknamed F-net. From 1990 to 1993
I led its Human Interface Laboratories as the executive manager. R&D
work at NTT's HI Labs includes video compression/ decompression, video
and image processing, speech recognition/ synthesis, multimedia human
interfaces, and human factors. Based on the discussions held at the
labs, I organized the International Workshop on Networked Reality in
May, 1994, in Tokyo. The workshop was very successful because we had
good participants from many countries and very stimulating discussions.
Multimedia, virtual reality and the information superhighway are really
attracting attention in many countries. In April, 1994, I joined
Hewlett-Packard and began a computer science research laboratory for HP
in Tokyo. I believe many people in Western countries wonder whether such
a job transfer may happen in Japan, where people tend to work for their
whole lives with one company. Frankly, many phone calls, faxes and
letters came. Most of them asked why, and the rest congratulated me and
my courage indeed! There was one call to ask how.
Our organization is called Hewlett-Packard Laboratories Japan (HPLJ) and
is located in Kawasaki City, a southwest neighbor of Tokyo. My
experiences at Champaign-Urbana helped me a lot to adapt myself to a
U.S.-based company culture. I met people from different countries as
well as many Americans on the campus. Such globalism in U.S.
universities made my student life at Urbana enjoyable and also
stimulating. HP is also cherishing such globalism. It is one of the
reasons I like HP.
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