Future Creation Laboratory
Creating Value for the Future
The world is constantly in a state of change, and these changes bring about new value systems for societies and their citizens. The Future Creation Laboratory is engaged in research activities designed to create future value, meaning “the technologies and concepts for supporting the well-being that future societies and people believe to be important.”
Rather than simply emphasizing product functions and performance, our common goal is to improve quality of life in terms of both mind and body by supporting people’s health and vitality, and by contributing to the realization of a society abundant in empathy and peaceof mind.
The concept of Social IN, the corporate philosophy of Olympus, truly embodies the mission of the Future Creation Laboratory.
HIKARI-HI Technology
The Future Creation Laboratory is proceeding with more than 10 research projects under the four domains of bioscience, humanware, optical nanotechnology and ubiquitous energy. These research projects were not generated by market needs or “technology seeds” that are so often identified as the wellsprings of research. Rather, the source of the ideas being explored is the sense of future value that takes shape in the mind of each member of the Laboratory team when he or she imagines future society and the lifestyles of the people living in it. While respecting the independence of one another’s research collaboration is formed naturally when common targets are established. HIKARI-HI* Technology is what we call coordinated research that can be accomplished through such collaboration.
Open Research to Generate Future Worth
The many elements needed to create new value are developed within various researchers and research institutes that work together for its creation by performing their respective roles. Practicing open research is our most important R&D policy.
For example, through visualizing the future value needs of people living in an advanced IT society, we drew up an outline of new ubiquitous services. To turn this into reality requires a broad base of research initiatives, and Olympus is currently engaged in numerous collaborative efforts including those with the University of Tokyo Environmental Information Laboratory and the Chuo University Human Media Lab, as well as various projects with other corporations. These efforts led to successful experiments in outdoor environments in which we provided timely information services that could inspire people’s minds toward a more motivated lifestyle. We will continue to widen our research network and advance with research initiatives aimed at commercialization of these services.
We believe in the importance of envisioning the future and proposing new value before developing new technologies. This requires knowledge of the humanities and social science, including such fields as cognitive psychology. We will continue to promote an open research environment, aiming to create new ideas and possibilities that arise from a fusion of knowledge beyond conventional frameworks and established knowledge regarding technology and the humanities.
Changing People and Changing Themes in an Unpredictable Future
While it may be possible to predict some trends in the short term or in one’s personal life, the future in general is unpredictable because its possibilities are boundless. For this reason, we do not intend to predict the future but rather envision its creation. As we strive to create, each and every one of us will act as autonomous individuals, and at the same time, freely collaborate as cells within a greater body. Through these activities, our people and our research themes will continue to be transformed. This is the very essence of the Future Creation Laboratory.
End of main content
