Dr. Katsushi Ikeuchi received his bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from Kyoto University in 1973, and his Ph. D. in information engineering from the University of Tokyo in 1978. The same year, he joined the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a doctoral researcher. From 1980, he was a researcher and later a senior researcher at the Electrotechnical Laboratory, Ministry of International Trade and Industry. From 1986, he was an associate professor and later a research professor at the Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University. From 1996, he was a professor at Institute of Industrial Science and Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, the University of Tokyo. Since 2015, he has been active as a senior researcher at Microsoft Research Asia in Beijing and as a senior principal research manager at Microsoft in Redmond.

In the field of “computer vision,” a technology able to recognize and interpret the external world from images fed into a computer, Dr. Ikeuchi has conducted an in-depth exploration of basic theory, including brightness analysis. In particular, he developed a solution called “smoothness constraints” for solving the inherent uncertainty in the “shape from shading” problem to estimate surface shapes from the shading of an object. This solution is used for different types of analysis, such as motion analysis. It is now considered a standard solution to various problems in the computer vision field. His original paper that referred to smoothness constraints, published in the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence, was selected as “one of the most influential papers in the last decade.”

In the field of robotics, Dr. Ikeuchi also proposed a novel framework called a “task model” for understanding various human behaviors. Using this model, he developed robots that can teach themselves how to perform different tasks by observing humans performing the tasks, such as assembling two cubes or polyhedrons, assembling machine parts, tying strings, and dancing employing “whole-body motion.”

In addition, Dr. Ikeuchi has made outstanding achievements by applying the method used for computer vision to the digital preservation of cultural assets. He digitalized a large number of large-scale cultural assets, such as the Great Buddhas of Nara and Kamakura, the ancient burial mounds in Kyushu decorated with painted murals, and Angkor monuments in Cambodia. These digital models have been used in the opening scenes of an NHK period drama, as illustrations used in history textbooks for senior and junior high school students, as well as in exhibits at the Tokyo National Museum and Kyushu National Museum. The data on the Kyushu ancient burial mounds assisted in their restoration after the Kumamoto Earthquake. The modeling and analysis of dances using the robot trained to observe and learn from human behavior and the technology for digital preservation of cultural assets, both of which Dr. Ikeuchi developed, have been indispensable for the creation of the “e-Heritage” research field. In e-Heritage, which involves the humanities and sciences, researchers digitally preserve, use, and analyze both tangible and intangible cultural assets.

For the achievements mentioned above, Dr. Ikeuchi has received numerous awards, including the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, the Achievement Award from the IEICE, the Okawa Award, the Funai Award, the Contribution Award from the Information Processing Society of Japan, IEEE PAMI Distinguished Researcher Award, IEEE PAMI Marr Award, and IEEE RAS KS-Fu Memorial Best Transaction Paper Award. In addition, he has been a devoted advocate of engineering societies both in Japan and abroad, serving as vice president of the IEICE’s Information and Systems Society, vice president of the International Association of Pattern Recognition (IAPR), and president of the Asian Federation of Computer Vision Societies. He held important posts, including as a member of the Science Council of Japan and vice president of ITA Japan.

As described above, his contributions to the electronics, information and communication field have been outstanding, and we have no reservations in recommending him as a recipient of the Distinguished Achievement and Contributions Award.