The opening day of Wired’s fourth annual NextFest wrapped up with a roundtable discussion between the magazine’s editor-in-chief, Chris Anderson, and two Hitachi execs. The discussion focused on the technology of Hitachi (a major sponsor of the convention) beyond the large screen TVs most consumers know the company for.

Upon entering the conference room, I couldn't ignore the strange piece of headwear that was sitting on a table and hooked up to a large hospital-style PC. Clearly the instrument was destined to be a focus of the talk, and not surprisingly, the conversation quickly turned to a discussion of the company’s pioneering work in brain sciences.

In all a fascinating talk; apologies in advance for those times when the Japanese accents proved a touch to thick for verbatim transcriptions and the moments when the brain science was a bit over my head (rimshot).

Things get started with a slightly over-the-top video presentation on the history of Hitachi, beginning, oddly enough, in the mid 1800s.

Gerry Corbett, vice president of Hitachi America, introduces Anderson as the moderator.

Dr. Hideaki Koizumi, corporate chiefe scientist of Hitachi Unlimited.

Tadahiko Ishigaki, chief executive for north American.

CA: we’re going to talk for about half an hour about Hitachi and some science, then we’re going to see something interesting about brain science. When we were talking earlier, I realize I didn’t understand how big Hitachi was. It’s something like the 20th largest corporation worldwide. But many people think of Hitachi as being screens and TV? What are some of the surprising things you do?

TI: That’s a good question. One thing we like to talk about is brain science. Also, we are developing a lot of devices to cope with global warming. The other area is data storage. We do a lot of research in those areas.

CA: You contributed to the human genome sequencing and the very first iPod. Apple came in with a 1-inch microdrive that could store 4GB. The question is, what’s it good for? Apple said maybe we should develop a product that lets you keep your whole library in your pocket. I recently bought a Dell PC with a terabyte drive. The next version will come with a petabyte. How do you think about what pople will do with your tech?

TI: That’s a good question. One thing we like to talk about is brain science. Also, we are developing a lot of devices to cope with global warming. The other area is data storage. We do a lot of research in those areas.

CA: You contributed to the human genome sequencing and the very first iPod. Apple came in with a 1-inch microdrive that could store 4GB. The question is, what’s it good for? Apple said maybe we should develop a product that lets you keep your whole library in your pocket. I recently bought a Dell PC with a terabyte drive. The next version will come with a petabyte. How do you think about what pople will do with your tech?

TI: That’s a tough question. Competing with storage capacity at home and network pipeline, it’s a good battle between these. I don’t think I’m answering your question right. It’s still an area that we need to look into.

CA: Did you have any idea what the drive could be used for? You anticipated an iPod in some sense?

TI: Right, right.

CA: Doctor, tell us about your personal history.

HK: My background is physics. I was trained in physics. When I came to Hitachi, almost 35 years ago, I started to devlop instruments. We developed lights for light shows. After that, I moved to the field of MRI, about 20 years ago. I learned various things and was interested in brain science. As the leader of the project, I had to learn anatomical things about the brain. I was very interested in brain function. We developed the instrument that we brought here. Now I’m very interested in what is mind. What’s conciousness, ethics, and the arts, and so on. I believe that this science will be essential in the development of Hitachi.

CA: You have a special interest in the arts.

HK: My wife is an opera singer. I love artists and repect them very much.

CA: You have a laboratory at home.

HK: Yes, sometimes I use the one in the house. And then we try the projects at the company.

CA: How does your wife feel about this?

HK: That is a problem. We’re very happy, though. Her field is very different than our field. We get to work separately.

CA: What has changed in the way you do research?

HK: Interdisciplinarian research will be integral. It’s spiraling up into a new field. That’s why we’re doing this kind of research.

CA: Can you give an example.

HK: The 20th century was the century of dividing fields. Science and technology progressed, but now many fields are almost matured. But the important thing in this centurty is how to bridge fields; for example, brain science and education. The combination is a completely different field. Also brain science and ethics, the arts, ect.

CA: Are there any products you’d suggest to check out?

HK: At the last stage of Lou Gherig's disease, the body is locked in state [the brain is active, but the body can’t move]. We tested these patients, and found out that the brain works well, even when the body doesn’t. We produced a machine interface for it. The machine asks a question. If your answer is yes, imagine gripping; if it is no, don’t imagine gripping. We can recongnize the patient’s answers, so we can communicate with them

CA: Why gripping?

HK: That’s the easiest way. After that we expanded it to control things... We succeeded in controlling a model train, only by thinking.

CA: Can they pick letters or words from a board?

HK: In the case of these patients, it’s a yes or no machine. But in the case of training, the more strongly you think, the faster the training goes.

CA: Let’s continue with the demonstration.

[Dr. Koizumi comes up for the brain demonstration. We’re going to experiment on Chris.] 

HK: Our research development has a philosophy: Though we cannot live one hundred years, we should be concerned with 1,000 years hence. We are challenging the mind-brain sciences, especially the imaging of neo-cortex functions. This is the frontier of brain sciences.

We are concentrated on  brain science research is because we think that innovation can be produced by... bridging different disciplines to create a new field. Brain science and education, the economy, arts, and so on.

The important thing is how to observe the brain function. We developed MRI a long time ago. MIT Technology Review named four research technologies that breaks the mold. Hitachi’s Advanced Brain Imaging is one of them.

[I’m not going to go too far into the sciences here, for fear of attempting to explain a subject about which I know very little. Dr. Koizumi is discussing the technology that is about to be showcased in very technical detail.]

HK: We are interested in the connection between mind and matter. The only way to communicate with an ALS patient is to speak to them, because the ears don’t use muscles, while the eyes do. We asked the patients to imagine their right hand grasping for yes, and don’t imagine, for no. We got two different signals. So we had succeess in communicating with completely locked-in patients. Then we commercialized this instrument. We found a connection between brain science and ethics. Brain science of ethics: Where do ethics come from? Also, the ethics of brain science: Can we read people’s minds?

We succeeded in controlling a model train, by just thinking.

In order to do these kinds of things, we had to create an instrument, so we developed a 1kg wearable instrument.

Why brain science in the 21st century? Wiring many fields, cultivation of sociability, foundation of generosity, literacy eduction for all, cultivation of creativity in innovation, efficient learning and education for changing societies and organizations.

Brain science must be the security for well-being.

[Dr Koizumi is doing an "evaluation" of Chris. Optical topography. The optical cap collects brain signals with optical fibers.]

CA: It’s worth noting that before I did this, this morning, I had a full head of hair.

[The instrument is being placed on Chris’s head. Silence, as Chris focuses on the numbers as part of the test. He is now writing a series of things on a sheet of paper.]

HK: OK, experiment is finished.

[They are diplaying Chris's brain activity in a 3D model on the screen.]

HK: Your brain is working very well.

CA: There are a couple of things that are interesting to notice. We were doing addition. Addition is memorization, not math; if we were doing division, that would have shown brain activity.

What’s special about this technology is that it’s not very invasive, unlike FMI.

HK: Ultrasound is very difficult to get through the skull and get high resolution.

CA: Thank you for the education.