Research on Planning Support System
Using Schematic Chart

My talk is rather fundamental. It is a given that human resources must be developed, so I'm considering keyboarding, programming and diagramming from the bottom. I am looking at three axes; the body axis, the mind axis and the sensibility axis for computer literacy education. The body axis is for keyboarding, the mind axis is for programming, and the sensibility axis is for diagramming. These three axes must be harmonized and developed in a computer-based society. I'd like to talk about each of the three elements and axes.

I'll start with keyboarding. Though keyboarding is very easy to learn, most people don't learn it. For example, one can learn basic English touch-typing skills or kana input in one hour of practice. This is also true for elderly people as well. At most, several hours' practice is enough to build touch-typing skills, but people don't believe it so they search for other methods of input, such as voice recognition. Since hearing is affected by age, voice recognition becomes very difficult for elderly people. Yet, touch-typing can very easily be practiced.

Another concern about keyboarding is that the current method for inputting Japanese characters requires an interactive kana-kanji conversion; the kana is input, then the kanji is selected. I believe this is a barrier for many people. However, it can be eliminated with the 2-stroke method, a touch-typing that I use, but most people don't. Let me show you an example of how kanji can be input using this method, which was developed by Toyohashi University of Technology. It is very fast and required no interaction to get the kanji input. Common kanji characters can be typed directly without consulting a dictionary.

As for programming, literacy education must be changed to computer literacy. In conventional literacy, the text needs to be interpreted by a human being. Nowadays, computers may also interpret the text, which, I believe, truly represents the meaning of computer literacy. My recent research is on how the Japanese language may itself be a programming language. I believe that it is a very good programming language by its nature.

The final matter is the sensibility axis and diagramming. The usual Western process for idea creation is a top-down approach. The Japanese culture requires a bottom-up approach. The KJ method is very famous. A computer can support the KJ method, so creative work may be recorded, which is a very important issue. Thus, my research is focused on how these three axes must be harmonized and properly developed considering the human concerns in a cyberspace society. Thank you very much.