Computer graphics research in Japanese Universities

There is considerable research activity related to computer graphics within the Japanese academic community. However, little is known about it outside of Japan. Another problem is that some of the most interesting work being done is not called “Computer Graphics” and is therefore only reported in other fields such as “Precision Engineering” or “Image Processing.” Interpreting “Computer Graphics” broadly, this panel will survey the work of three leading Japanese researchers who will each briefly describe the history of computer graphics at their institutions, outline the level of staffing and equipment resources in their laboratories and report on their current areas of research activity. These presentations will be proceeded by the chairman's overview discussion about Japanese University research, in general. The panel will conclude with a question and answer period.

Professor Makoto Nagao, Department of Electrical Engineering, Kyoto University, Sakyo, Kyoto, Japan - The main thrust of research at Kyoto University has been in the field of digital image processing systems. Work began in 1965 on the problem of Japanese character recognition. One of the earliest digital processing systems in Japan was also designed. Working from beliefs about the human pattern recognition process, efforts were directed towards the development of a structural approach rather than mathematical theories which were popular during the early days of character recognition research. Current topics of interest include the modeling of more human-like image understanding functions, such as trial and error processes, knowledge-driven analysis processes and declaritive representation for image understanding. These can be summarized under the theme “Image Interpretation by Knowledge Presentation”.