Hiroshi Ishii (computer scientist)
{{Short description|Japanese computer scientist}}
{{BLP sources|date=February 2012}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2013}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Hiroshi Ishii
| image = Hiroshi Ishii cropped 2 Hiroshi Ishii 20130406 1.jpg
| caption =
| birth_place = Tokyo
| workplaces = Massachusetts Institute of Technology
| alma_mater = Hokkaido University
| fields = Computer Science
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)
| known_for = Tangible User Interfaces (TUI)
}}
{{nihongo|Hiroshi Ishii|石井 裕|Ishii Hiroshi|born 1956}} is a Japanese computer scientist and a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is also Associate Director of the MIT Media Laboratory.
Early life and education
Ishii was born in Tokyo and raised in Sapporo, Japan. He received a Bachelor of Engineering degree in electronic engineering (1978), and Master of Engineering (1980) and PhD (1992) in computer engineering, all from Hokkaido University in Sapporo.
Career
File:Hiroshi Ishii 20130406 1.jpg
Ishii worked at Japan's NTT Human Interface Laboratories in Yokosuka, where he made his mark in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) in the early 1990s.{{cite web |url=http://www.horizonzero.ca/textsite/invent.php?is=3&file=14&tlang=0 |title=HorizonZero Issue 03 : INVENT |website=www.horizonzero.ca |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061010055806/http://www.horizonzero.ca/textsite/invent.php?is=3&file=14&tlang=0 |archive-date=2006-10-10}}
During his time at NTT, he co-authored two papers. In 1990 he and Kazuho Arita created the "TeamWorkStation." This device allowed users to record their desk and broadcast it to another user in a video conference, similar to a service like Zoom or Discord.{{Cite web |title=TeamWorkStation |url=https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/teamworkstation/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=tangible.media.mit.edu}} His second project at NTT was the "ClearBoard", which was published in 1992. This piece of technology allowed to users to write on a see-through white-board like device that allowed them to maintain eye contact while collaborating.{{Cite web |title=ClearBoard |url=https://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/clearboard/ |access-date=2025-05-20 |website=tangible.media.mit.edu}}
In 1995, he joined the MIT Media Laboratory as a professor of Media Arts and Sciences, and founded the Tangible Media Group and started their ongoing Tangible Bits project.{{Cite news |last=Schenker |first=Jennifer L. |title=Interview Of The Week: Hiroshi Ishii, MIT Multimedia Lab |work=The Innovator |url=https://theinnovator.news/interview-of-the-week-hiroshi-ishii-mit-multimedia-lab/ |access-date=July 18, 2023}}
In 1997, Ishii pioneered Tangible User Interfaces (TUI) in the field of human-computer interaction with the paper "Tangible Bits: Towards Seamless Interfaces between People, Bits and Atoms",{{Cite book|chapter-url=http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=258715|doi = 10.1145/258549.258715|chapter = Tangible bits|title = Proceedings of the ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human factors in computing systems|year = 1997|last1 = Ishii|first1 = Hiroshi|last2 = Ullmer|first2 = Brygg|pages = 234–241|isbn = 0897918029|s2cid = 462228}} co-authored with his then PhD student Brygg Ullmer.
In 2012, he extended his vision of HCI to "Radical Atoms", a hypothetical future generation of materials which can change form and properties dynamically and computationally, becoming as reconfigurable in the physical 3D world as pixels on a 2D graphical user interface (GUI) screen. Ishii's inFORM display, released in 2013, is a tactile tabletop device for prototyping interfaces, with an appearance compared to a pin board.{{cite web|title=MIT Invents a Shapeshifting Display You Can Reach Through and Touch|url=https://www.fastcompany.com/3021522/mit-invents-a-shapeshifting-display-you-can-reach-through-and-touch|date=November 12, 2023|access-date=2025-03-07}} The TRANSFORM, a larger-scale shape-changing table, received the A'Design Platinum Award in 2015.{{cite web|url=https://news.mit.edu/2015/transform-wins-adesign-platinum-0403|title=TRANSFORM wins A'Design Platinum}}{{cite web|url=https://competition.adesignaward.com/ada-winner-designer.php?profile=142975|title=Hiroshi Ishii - A' Design Award Winner}}
Ishii was elected to the CHI Academy in 2006. In 2019, he received the SIGCHI Lifetime Research Award.{{cite web |url=https://sigchi.org/people/award-recipients/ |website=SIGCHI|title=Award Recipients}} He was named to the 2022 class of ACM Fellows, "for contributions to tangible user interfaces and to human-computer interaction".{{cite web|url=https://www.acm.org/media-center/2023/january/fellows-2022|title=Global computing association names 57 fellows for outstanding contributions that propel technology today|publisher=Association for Computing Machinery|date=January 18, 2023|access-date=2023-01-18}}
{{Asof|2025}}, he teaches the class [http://mas834.media.mit.edu MAS.834 Tangible Interfaces] at the Media Lab.{{Cite web|url=http://tangible.media.mit.edu/person/hiroshi-ishii/|title=Tangible Media Group | Hiroshi Ishii}}
External links
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Category:Japanese computer scientists
Category:Human–computer interaction researchers
Category:Ubiquitous computing researchers
Category:MIT School of Architecture and Planning faculty
Category:Hokkaido University alumni
Category:Scientists from Tokyo
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