Hello
everyone, I’m Danu (M2) , Master Student in Interface Device Lab at Kanazawa
University.
In this post I want to share My experience when I attended a
technology exhibition event that took place in the city of Ogaki
I
took part in this activity when Prof. Akita informed him that he would be
participating in an event as an exhibitor at a technology exhibition called
Ogaki Mini Maker Faire 2022 Japan and needed help preparing things for this
activity. At first, I was doubtful because I couldn’t speak Japanese whether it
was possible to take part in the activity. However, Prof. Akita allowed me as
an international student to participate in order to gain experience and new
things in these activities.
Of
course, I’m not alone in this event. My 3 Lab mates Named Mr. Sabirin (D2), Mr.
Shiraya(B4), and Mr. Tokuda (B4) helped run this event smoothly.
As the
name implies, this event was held at Softopia Japan Center in Ogaki City, Gifu
Prefecture. This event lasts for 2 days, namely Saturday and Sunday, 3-4
December 2022.
Ogaki Mini Maker Faire 2022
So many technologies at this event maybe I will share technologies or projects that are very interesting to me.
1.Ros Rober by K_Miura
Mobile Robot Using Lidar and Ultrasonic Sensor
This project is a robot in the form of a 2-wheeled car where this robot can recognize or describe the circumstances around it, for example obstacles or walls. This robot uses Raspberry Pi as a microcontroller, lidar and ultrasonic sensors to detect whether there are obstacles around it and detects the distance between the robot and the object. Not only does it calculate the distance, but the shape of the surrounding conditions will be displayed using the ROS (Robot Operation System) application.
2. MicroMouse Robot by まついのまうす製作所
Micromouse Robot
Track or Maze for Micromouse Robot
Micromouse
is an autonomous small mobile robot where this robot can search and analyze
which path to take to reach the finish line. This robot is often used for
competitions. Equipped with a microcomputer and sensors, this robot will not
hit a wall and can be the fastest way to reach the finish line.
There are many other projects that are no less interesting, but I can’t share all of them. There was an unexpected moment for me when I visited one of the exhibitors named Ksasao (Brownie). I remember this name is a creator who made a very detailed tutorial about M5stickV, and I happened to use M5stickV when I was taking My Bachelor Degree. I am very grateful to him for being kind enough to share his knowledge.
Me (Danu ) and Kazuhiro Sasao ( @ksasao/ Brownie )
Lastly, thank you for reading this post, I hope you get new insights and can be useful in the future.
Written by Danu on Saturday December 17 2022, in Kanazawa, Japan.
Hello everyone, I’m Sabirin (D2), a Doctoral Student in Interface Device Lab at Kanazawa University.
In this article, I want to share my wonderful experience when visiting Ogaki Mini Maker Faire 2022.
One day, after a research seminar, Prof. Akita said he would participate as an exhibitor at a technology exhibition named Ogaki Mini Maker Faire 2022 in Japan. He invited students who wanted to attend the event.
At that time, I was interested and asked Prof. Akita if I possible to attend that event or not. Finally, I was able to attend that event. Other students also interested and join with me in that event, namely Mr. Danu (M1), Mr. Shiraya (B4), and Mr. Tokuda (B4).
This event was held for two days on Saturday and Sunday, 3-4 December 2022, at Softopia Japan Center in Ogaki City, Gifu Prefecture. It takes approximately two and a half hours from Kanazawa by train. Prof. Akita gave us (International Students) a translator device with the name Pocketalk. That device makes us easier to communicate with Japanese exhibitors.
I took a photo at the event entrance.
During the event, I had the opportunity to visit all the exhibition stands. The exhibitors showed their work neatly, and all were friendly to me as foreigner. Even though communication was a bit difficult because there was a language barrier between me, they explained as hard as they could until they did some additional action to practice their work directly to me. Because of that, I can understand how amazing their work is.
One of the exhibitors shows their work “Penguin Robot” to visitors.
I was curious why they made this work, and almost all the answers said that this is our hobby. Here I learned that if a hobby is pursued with a big heart, it can produce amazing and useful work. And also some of their works are beyond of my mind.
There were many good works displayed at the event, but in this article, I present three of the most memorable works:
1. Hand Gesture to Control Robot by Tsuda College Monozukuri
Hand Gestures control the mini robot.
This student community from Tsuda University demonstrated their work related to computer vision. They made a small robot that can be controlled using hand gestures. Hand symbols are shown on the camera, and the robot moves based on the gesture. Commands given via wireless communication. I think this is good work and can be applied to elementary school children’s education in recognizing hand gestures such as numbers, how to say stop, say hi, say bye-bye, and so on.
2. Learn Python programming with fun by STREAM Laboratory
The Exhibitors from STREAM Laboratory teach the kid how to make a game using Python.
This is a good movement for this community. They provide python programming learning services with the platform they built called STREAM LAB. The learning method is fun, students build interesting games based on the programming they make using the drag-and-drop feature. Besides students, adults who have an interest in the world of programming can join this class. Oh yes, what’s also interesting is that they teach programming for free. In my opinion, this is a good strategy for humanitarian movements to pursue as many new developers as possible in the future.
3. Entertaining AI by AI Zookeeper
AI Zookeeper shows Object Detection Project using Image Processing Node Editor.
This stand displays several works related to the Artificial Intelligence. They built an object detection application to recognize the hand symbols in the Naruto anime and convert them into meaningful kanji. This is very exciting, they use applications whose libraries are only used for certain purposes related to image processing. The name of the application is Image processing Node Editor. They say the application is open source so that they can use it as widely as possible. They also modified the vacuum cleaner that move according to the AI program using raspberry as the data processing.
I get many insights and inspiration during this journey. I am very grateful to Prof. Akita, who has given me the opportunity to be able to participate in that event, and also to Mr. Shiraya, Mr. Tokuda, and Mr. Danu, who accompanied and provided me with various conveniences during the trip.
Here’s a photo of our team at the Ogaki Mini Maker Faire
2022
From left to right: Sabirin (D2), Mr. Shiraya (B4), Mr. Danu (M2), Mr. Tokuda (B4), Prof. Akita, Mr. Saki, Mr. Suzuto.
Lastly, thank you for reading this article. I hope you get
new insight and inspiration as much as possible from here. See you.
Written by Sabirin on Friday, December 16, 2022, in Kanazawa, Japan.
