Page 35 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2021

EXPLORING THE ESSENCE OF COMMUNICATION TO REACH THE HEART

Takeshi Yamada

NTT Communication Science Laboratories, Japan

ABSTRACT can simply create a new category. Therefore, learning can be
made more efficient by flexibly increasing, or even
With the aim of achieving communication that reaches the decreasing, categories as needed in accordance with data
heart, researchers at NTT Communication Science characteristics even for large volumes of data.
Laboratories have been exploring the essence of
communication since its founding 30 years ago. They have 2.1 Optimal partitioning
been creating technologies that approach and exceed human
abilities in such fields as media processing and data science. Sharing the meaning of information by such flexible human-
They have also been discovering basic principles that lead type category learning of multidimensional relational data on
to a deeper understanding of humans in fields such as a computer is essential for establishing mutual understanding
cognitive neuroscience and brain science. This article between a human and a computer. For example, the products
introduces the laboratories’ recent activities in pursuit of the that each customer has purchased can be recorded as a
essence of communication. history of purchased data in binary matrix form as shown in
the left of Figure 1. In the binary black-and-white matrix,
Keywords – Artificial intelligence, haptics, illusion, while it may look like grayscale under limited resolution, a
language acquisition black or a white dot indicates whether a customer purchased
a product or not, respectively. If the rows and columns of the
1. INTRODUCTION matrix are sorted appropriately, the hidden block structure is
revealed as shown in the right of Figure 1, which corresponds
This year marks the 30-year anniversary of NTT to categorization of both customers and products. This type
Communication Science Laboratories (NTT CS Labs), of categorization is thus obtained by finding an optimal
which was founded on July 4, 1991. Throughout these 30 rectangular partitioning of a two-dimensional data matrix
years, its researchers have been exploring the essence of with various size of blocks. An efficient learning technique
communication and conducting basic research to enable based on a Bayesian nonparametric model was proposed that
communication that reaches the heart. The essence of adjusts the optimal partition in accordance with the given
communication is inherently multifaceted. In addition to input data from among an infinite number of combination
conveying information accurately and efficiently, it includes patterns in rectangular partitioning [1].
the deepening of mutual understanding by sharing the
meaning of information as well as underlying intent and
emotion by devising creative methods of conveying
information, allowing the creation of a spiritually rich
society by fostering heartfelt contact. This article introduces
the laboratories’ recent activities in pursuit of the essence of
communication while taking a look at past research.

2. AUTOMATIC CATEGORIZATION AND
CONCEPTUALIZATION

Humans learn by grouping similar things into categories,
which facilitates advanced cognitive activities such as
thinking, inferring, decision-making, and communication.
While it is difficult to individually remember all of the Figure 1 – Rectangular partitioning of purchase
objects one has seen up to the present, they can be history data
remembered in a compact form by grouping them into
categories. In addition, if something that one encounters is
different from any category that one has already learned, one

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