1) Overview of docomo Open House '24

"docomo Open House" aims to provide visitors with the opportunity to experience the new value that NTT DOCOMO's advanced technologies can provide to society, and to work with our partners to implement these technologies in society. This year's key message is "HATENA is a hint that leads to a better future," with 31 exhibits in 6 fields. Question panels expressing the developers' initial queries that led to the development of each technology were also displayed to present the possibilities of technology and the future from the perspective of each and every customer.

2) This year's highlights

docomo Open House'24 consisted of 31 exhibits in 6 categories: 5G Evolution & 6G, Communication, Urban Design, Transportation, Generative AI, and Metaverse XR, carefully selected from a wide variety of advanced technologies and projects. In the communication category, the latest "Human Augmentation Platform^®" technology, which aims for new forms of communication that share movements, sensations, and emotions in a natural way, was exhibited. The event enabled visitors to experience safe and secure AI customer service optimized for each individual customer.

3) List of featured exhibits

(a) FEEL TECH^® - Sharing Taste with the Human Extensibility Platform^®.

It is believed that the thoughts and feelings that people want to communicate only make up around 10% of their total consciousness. Therefore, we started with the idea of using a network to support communication that would enable people to understand each other more deeply.

This technology consists of three components: a sensing device that captures taste data, a "Human Extension Platform^®" that estimates and shares individual differences in taste sensitivity, and an actuation device that reproduces taste. Based on the analysis and quantification of the taste you want to convey using the sensing device and the data of approximately 25 items to estimate how other people and you perceive taste, the taste you perceive is converted into data using a unique algorithm on the "Human Extension Platform^®" so that other people can perceive the taste you are perceiving. The actuation device reproduces the five basic tastes of taste: sweet, salty, umami, sour, and bitter, using standard solutions. These three configurations make it possible to share with others through the "Human Extension Platform^®" the tastes that cannot be successfully communicated in words.

This technology can be used for virtual experiences within the metaverse space, which until now has been a visual and auditory world, as well as in movie and animation content. By utilizing the flavor that the author wants to convey in the content, richer content can be realized and users can look forward to a new experience, with an unprecedented sense of reality.

Taste is an indispensable sense for enriching our lives. In the future, by extending this technology to the communication of emotions and the sharing of other senses, we will contribute to the enjoyment of diversity and the resolution of social issues such as harassment.

While the main focus of the exhibition was on the sense of taste, FEEL TECH^® also possesses technology for sharing the sense of touch and is expected to be used in technologies that emphasize the senses, such as in medicine and traditional crafts.

The "FEEL TECH^®" Exhibit at docomo Open House '24: the world's first technology to share the sense of touch according to how other people feel, using a human augmentation infrastructure that provides new value in the 6G era - also enables the recording of the sense of touch and sharing it with other people.

https://www.docomo.ne.jp/info/news_release/2023/01/25_00.html

Exhibit at docomo Open House '24 / Next Generation Contents
Developing the world's first technology to share the sense of taste on a "human augmented infrastructure" that provides new value in the 6G era.
https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2023/1221_00.html

(b) Metacommunication space where AI and humans coexist seamlessly

©ユキヲ・COMICメテオ／邪神ちゃんドロップキック世紀末編プロジェクト

While e-mail and chat rooms have become widespread, there has been an increase in communication errors, such as misinterpreting others' words, and a sense of the lack of nuances in conversation, leading to a feeling of blandness. To address this situation, NTT DOCOMO is developing "MetaMe^®," a metacommunication space that aims to realize communication in which people can feel more emotion.

By combining the "Another Me^®" component technologies (zero/few-shot speech synthesis, personalized dialogue, Another Me platform, etc.), which reproduce individuality, with the LLM value-added platform, voice DX platform, customer understanding technology, and other technologies that allow people to interact with each other using voice, AI analyzes the values and tendencies of the user, and NPCs (non-player characters) can become conversational partners that empathize with the user.

This technology is used to match users with other users who share the same values and content that is predicted to have a high affinity with the user. The system is being considered for use by artists and influencers who wish to create fan communities, as well as consumer-oriented companies that expect to meet new customers.

Furthermore, we are developing a virtual space platform, "DOOR" provided by NTT ConoQ and "MetaMe^®," that can be connected to "MetaMe^®" and go back and forth through user IDs.

In addition, a booth at the "docomo Open House 24" venue introduced "Virtual Events for a New Era with Super Multiparty Connection Technology," a technology for creating excitement at live music and sports games in virtual spaces.

・Development of Next-Generation Avatar UX Technology to Create Connections with People - Test Implementation of Human Digital Twin Technology in MetaMe^®, a Communication Service Provided by NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
https://group.ntt/en/newsrelease/2023/02/01/230201a.html

・Development of Personalized Dialogue Reproduction Technology for Efficiently Reproducing Personal Speech in Large-Scale Language Models - Application to NTT's LLM "tsuzumi" Enables Low-Cost Generation of a Digital Alter ego of the Individual - | News Release | NTT (group.ntt)
https://group.ntt/en/newsrelease/2024/01/17/240117a.html

(c) AI customer service enabled by communication AI

This AI customer service technology combines NTT's research and development of tsuzumi and other AI technologies to support customer behavior by reading not only the customer's words, but also non-verbal information such as emotions, situation, and attributes.

Existing chatbots and AI have not been able to respond to customers in a way that is tailored to their individual and situational needs. Despite the variety of customer situations, they often give the same answers, which does not necessarily mean that they are satisfying customers.

To solve these problems, technology is needed to understand individual feelings, situations, and attributes, and to reflect them in the response to customers. Therefore, we applied our voice DX platform to estimate customer emotions, the CX analysis technology / docomo Sense to understand customer needs, and the LLM value-added platform to generate responses to customers. It enables a variety of responses, such as empathetic interactions when a customer feels anxious or introducing video services to customers who enjoy movies or dramas.

Using this technology, we can respond to customers' emotions, make proposals that exceed their expectations, and respond flexibly according to the situation, thereby providing precise support for customer behavior. We aim to contribute to the business of our partner companies that face challenges in their contact with customers.

・NTT Develops Personalized Dialogue Reproduction Technology to Efficiently Reproduce Individual Speech in Large-Scale Language Models
～NTT's LLM "tsuzumi" enables low-cost generation of digital alter egos of individuals
https://group.ntt/en/newsrelease/2024/01/17/240117a.html

(d) Reaching the Era of Apps to Cure Diseases, NTT DOCOMO's Digital Therapy

This technology aims to monitor the lifestyle habits of patients with dyslipidemia (a medical condition featuring abnormal blood lipid levels, including cholesterol and triglycerides) using a smartphone application "prescribed" by a physician, and to encourage individualized, real-time improvements. This is expected to enhance the effectiveness of treatment and prevent serious diseases such as arteriosclerosis.

It is estimated that there are 20 million dyslipidemia patients in Japan, and appropriate treatment can help prevent arteriosclerosis and other diseases. The technology, focusing on the need to support lifestyle improvements critical to treatment, employs NTT's AI technology to encourage walking by predicting and suggesting achievable step counts based on the user's past activity, weather, mood, and schedule, aiding in exercise habit formation and dietary lifestyle improvements. The user can then walk beyond the number of steps that he or she is likely to be able to take, thereby developing an exercise habit while enhancing self-efficacy. In addition, by supporting the improvement of lifestyle habits related to diet, the system aims to improve the values of neutral fat and cholesterol, which are indicators of dyslipidemia, and is expected to curb medical costs by preventing the symptoms from becoming more severe.

・Developed a prototype version of a therapeutic application to help dyslipidemia patients improve their lifestyles
https://group.ntt/jp/newsrelease/2024/01/15/pdf/240115aa.pdf

(e) EV relay that connects radio waves - supporting communication infrastructure with the power of electric vehicles

NTT DOCOMO, NTT, and Nippon Car Solutions, Inc. are working together to research and develop a mobile base station power relief system that utilizes electric vehicles as a way to strengthen disaster countermeasures involving power outages.

In Japan, where many disasters occur, it is a socially important initiative to secure power for base stations and maintain communications infrastructure, even in times of disaster. The starting point for this project was the idea of utilizing electric vehicles (EVs), which NTT DOCOMO expects to use as company vehicles in the future, in times of disaster.

In the event of a disaster with power outages, the EVs, which are normally used as company cars, are sent to base stations where power outages are expected, and the power stored in the EVs is transferred to the base stations by EV rechargers to maintain power at the base stations.

The system consists of an AI vehicle dispatch plan created by a patrol route generation technology based on deep reinforcement learning, which is being researched and developed by NTT, and EV location information, storage capacity, and driving data collected in real time by Nippon Car Solutions, Inc.

The technology is also being used to speed up calculation time, which has been a problem with conventional route generation.

In the future, we are considering using this technology outside the company, such as for supplying electricity to evacuation centers in the event of a disaster, in cooperation with local governments.

・Launch of Demonstration Experiment of Base Station Power Supply Rescue System Using Electric Vehicles - AI Distribution Planning Provides Safe and Reliable Communication Services with Speedy Power Supply during Power Outages.
https://group.ntt/en/newsrelease/2024/01/12/pdf/240112aa.pdf

^※1FEEL TECH and MetaMe human extension platform are registered trademarks of NTT DOCOMO.

^※2Another Me is a registered trademark of NTT.

4) Related Links

docomo Open House'24
https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/corporate/technology/rd/openhouse/

NTT's version of a large-scale language model「tsuzumi」
https://www.rd.ntt/e/research/LLM_tsuzumi.html

Metacommunication "MetaMe^®"
https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/corporate/technology/rd/openhouse/openhouse2023/exhibition01.html

FEEL TECH^® - Sharing Taste with the Human Extensibility Platform^®
https://www.docomo.ne.jp/english/info/media_center/pr/2023/0125_00.html