First, can we start with each of you introducing the work you’ve been involved in so far? I joined Rion in 2009. In the ten years thereafter, I was actively in-volved in the development of sound and vibration-related products —specifically, sound level meters and vibration level meters. In 2019, I was assigned to work at the site where we manufacture sound and vibration measuring instruments. It’s not part of my duty to create new items. Instead, I work on redesigning already-available products —for exam-ple, adding new functions or responding to discontinued parts and end-of-life issues.I joined Rion in 2008. At first, I worked on developing medical instru-ments. I continued doing that for about ten years till I was moved to the Manufac-turing Engineering Section in 2019. Like Ms. Shinozaki, I’m in charge of dealing with discontinued parts used in our products and responding to inquiries and requests from customers. My next question is, how do you think Rion will contribute to society in the future, say, ten years from now? Can you share any of your visions? In my field of expertise, medical instruments, Rion can contribute to society by making progress with biosensing technologies. For example, at the present time, in order to conduct a hearing test on a child suspected of having a hearing impairment, we have to attach electrodes to their forehead, and sometimes we also have to medicate a fussy child to put them to sleep during the test. However, if we could create a biosensing device with a sensor inside that looked like a cap, we could do the test simply by having the child place it on their head. That would dramatically reduce stress for everyone involved. In the future, I hope we can develop a technology for automatically testing a person’s hearing, without even requiring them to respond to the sound signals during the test. I envision a future in which Rion offers an instrument or technology like that.What technologies would be required to develop such an instrument?by exploring the relationship between sound and biological responses. If we can identify the biological res ponses closely associ ated with sound, we can develop the sensing and analysis technologies for the response that will allow Rion to offer a unique and stress-free hearing test.And how about you, Ms. Shinozaki? How do you see Rion contribu-ting to society? I think we’d probably start My work in volves environ-mental instruments, so my vision con-cerns the future of noise measurement at construction sites and on roadways. Measurements used to be performed manually by someone operating a sound level meter in many noisy environments. Now, with noise mapping technologies, we’re seeing a growing automation of fixed-point measurements. Given the shrinking working population predicted for the future, I hope to see continuing automation in infrastructures like this. In light of this, I envision a day in the future when the city is covered in an in-creasing number of acoustic sensors. The large amounts of data collected by these sensors could be used by AI to perform analysis from more multidi-mensional perspectives for a variety of applications. We previously discussed the same subject in our Medical Instru-ment Division. We’re often exposed to noise without even realizing it. However, constant noise exposure may be detrimental to our hearing. If at some point we can use noise mapping technologies to monitor the noise environment through personal smartphone applications, we may be able to use the data obtained to evaluate the impact of noise exposure on individuals. Eventually, that could lead to ways to prevent noise-induced hearing loss. I believe that the field of medical instruments has enormous potential to benefit society in the future.I’ve never really given much thought to the connection between medical and environmental devices. But maybe we can integrate sensing tech nolo gies, AI, remote control, and smartphones so medical and environmental devices evolve in tandem. It would be a quintessential Rion achievement if our effort could help both fields advance at the same time. From a similar perspective, I do have an idea for handling product in-quiries and requests for repairs from our customers. Rion provides a wide range of products in the sound and vibration 10The Now and Future of RionHaruna ShinozakiManufacturing Engineering Department, Environ-mental Instruments Division. Over the ten years since she joined Rion in 2009, she has devoted her time to developing products related to sound and vibration. She’s currently involved in making de-sign changes at the manufacturing site.FUTURE TALK FUTURE TALK Future TechnoloFuture Technolo
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