| Yoshiaki SHIRAI |
Throughout the above career, Professor Shirai has spearheaded research into computer vision (CV). He was the first to develop a range data input device and, in 1970, he implemented the world’s first visual feedback combining object recognition and manipulation. His paper on the latter subject won a Best Paper Award from the Pattern Recognition Society in 1973. At the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of MIT, under Professor Marvin Minsky, he conducted research into polyhedron recognition based on a non-hierarchical method which was more robust than the conventional hierarchical pattern recognition. His paper on that subject was the first paper by a Japanese author to be published in “Artificial Intelligence Journal.”
After returning to Japan, Professor Shirai continued his research into image-based object recognition whilst concurrently being engaged in a large-scale project on Pattern Information Processing System. He developed a range data input device based on slit light projection and conducted the world’s first automatic object recognition based on distance information. Next, he led a large-scale project on robots for hazardous environments and also supervised research and development as a leader in the Electrotechnical Laboratory. After moving back to academia, he undertook research into high-reliability stereographic vision, outdoor scene understanding, time-varying image processing, robot vision, and human interfaces. He was granted the status of fellow by the International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR), Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, the Robotics Society of Japan, Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence and the IEICE. In 2012, he received the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Rosette.
Within the IEICE, Prof. Shirai has served as chair of the Technical Committee on Pattern Recognition and Media Understanding, advisor to that committee, editor-in-chief of the English-language “Transactions D,” director of the IEICE, and president of the Information and Systems Society, and he is a recipient of the IEICE’s Distinguished Achievement and Contributions Award.
He has also held a number of public posts in Japan, including: president of the Japanese Society of Artificial Intelligence; vice president of the Robotics Society of Japan; director of the Information Processing Society of Japan; member of the Science Council, Ministry of Education; associate member of the Science Council of Japan; member of both the 21st Century Center of Excellence Program Committee and Global Center of Excellence Program Committee, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science; and university evaluation member and Degree Awarding Review Committee member, National Institution for Academic Degrees and Quality Enhancement of Higher Education.
Professor Shirai has also held important positions in the international sphere, including vice chair of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, editor of “IEEE Transactions of Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence,” program chair of the first IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS), chair of the Executive Committee for the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV), general chair of the Asian Conference on Computer Vision (ACCV), and vice chair of the International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR).
As can be seen from the above resume, Professor Shirai has been a trailblazer in the fields of computer vision, image processing, pattern recognition and artificial intelligence, driving research in these fields over many years. Today, these fields are making remarkable progress and producing many commercial applications. The contributions made to the IEICE and to the development of the electronics, information and communication fields by Professor Shirai have been truly notable; accordingly, we recommend that he be designated a fellow, honorary member of the IEICE.
