rick@cs.arizona.edu (Rick Schlichting) (03/20/91)
[Dr. David Kahaner is a numerical analyst visiting Japan for two-years under the auspices of the Office of Naval Research-Asia (ONR/Asia). The following is the professional opinion of David Kahaner and in no way has the blessing of the US Government or any agency of it. All information is dated and of limited life time. This disclaimer should be noted on ANY attribution.] [Copies of previous reports written by Kahaner can be obtained from host cs.arizona.edu using anonymous FTP.] To: Distribution From: David K. Kahaner ONR Asia [kahaner@xroads.cc.u-tokyo.ac.jp] Re: Hitachi 1991 Technology Exhibition, Tokyo 16 March 1991 ABSTRACT. Over 100 exhibits illustrating Hitachi's high technology plans for the next 2-5 years are described. SUMMARY. Every three or four years Hitachi organizes an exhibition of new ideas that they are working on now or will be working on in the future. A very few are actual products, some are in development and within a year or two will be commercialized, others represent very basic research that will be continuing several decades into the future. A technology exhibition was presented last fall in London and in the U.S.; an updated and more complete exhibit was presented from 4-9 March 1991 in Tokyo. Attendance was limited to Hitachi employees, invited guests, and a few press. Hitachi rented two floors of Tokyo's Science Museum to display well over 100 exhibits in nine major categories. I spent most of one day there and took copious notes. Nevertheless, it was impossible to capture all the details of exhibits ranging from city-wide heating systems to biomedical laboratory instruments. I had already seen and reported on a few of the projects during visits to various Hitachi labs, although all of those have been much improved for this show. These included an updated version of Hitachi's PDE solver, a silicon wafer neural net computer and some applications of the CTRON standard. Certainly there was quite a lot of effort given to displaying everything in an interesting and attractive manner. Below is a summary of most of the exhibits along with my own comments where they are appropriate. A fair fraction of the exhibits were completely new to me, or far out of my field of expertise and for these I have only made note of key information. In each major category I've listed a few of the guiding principles Hitachi used to frame the exhibits. Each exhibit was numbered, such as C1-3. For queries about these please use the numbers, and to the extent that time allows I will try to obtain additional information on any of special interest. I was impressed with the knowledge of the exhibit staff, often these were the researchers involved in the project, and several of them invited me to visit their labs--which I intend to do. Nevertheless, there was very little time to discuss serious technical details given the press of exhibits and people, and consequently some of my comments are very brief. It is really impossible to generalize about this, except to note that Hitachi is focusing on energy and electronics technologies, and developing new materials, systems, and software to support them. A few threads stand out in my mind. (1) Rapid advances in consumer product technology is a feeder (both financially and in terms of creative energy) for more complex systems. Two wonderful examples. (a) The drive to produce color flat panel displays. I was astonished to see the really brilliant colors in the B32LXT laptop that is already in the market. This has an eight color VGA display. But even more interesting was the exhibit of an even newer flat display with 64 colors and more than 1K x 1K resolution. This one is still a prototype and its battery pack only has about one hour's charge. (b) Miniaturization for color video camera. One of the most impressive examples was a color camera that was hooked to a monitor, showed excellent quality and was substantially smaller than a pack of cigarettes, 9 by 8 cm. It incorporates a special signal processing chip. Again, still a prototype. (2) ISDN is being used as a base for any number of clever products, such as hospital information systems, and full motion color video phones. There were many examples of multimedia applications. Here too, high resolution TV, ostensibly a consumer product, will be used in very advanced ways. (3) Robot technology. Multipurpose robots, some integrated with multimedia workstations and embryonic vision systems. (4) AI, fuzzy logic, expert systems, neural nets, and similar computer science ideas are now firmly embedded in larger applications where they are used as tools. (5) Device technology. A number of the exhibits took advantage of some of the same basic research. I've been asked if work on supercomputers with worldwide sales in the hundreds was a worthwhile investment for Japanese companies. How about using GaAs research from the latter to help build TVs? (6) I was disappointed to see almost nothing new about supercomputers except movies of simulation runs that were made on existing equipment. Actually, by the time I got to this exhibit I was pretty much done in, and skipped most of the videos. There was nothing about parallel computers either except as related to communications (ATM switch, etc.). A. CITY (Development, construction, operation, administration. Exhibits focused on supply of energy, management of urban facilities, urban traffic control, environment control.) A1-1. Hitachi's approach in harmony with global environment. Higher efficiency heating/cooling systems that decrease environmental impacts, substitutes for or abolishment of chlorofluorocarbons. Water treatment control to improve hydrospheric environment. A2-2. District heating and cooling system. Forecasting load patterns throughout the year. Manufacturing of largest capacity refrigerators. Example is system use in the new Tokyo metropolitan center, the world's largest municipal government complex. A2-3. Software for cogeneration. Produces both electrical power and heat. New software integrates power generation, heat recycle, heat generation, and control equipment. Can produce rough building layouts, heat balance diagrams, decide on rate of power generation, etc. Incorporates AI and "learning functions". A3-4. Elevator information control system for intelligent buildings. Provides data communication between elevator and maintenance company. In addition LCDs in elevator allow maintenance and passengers to communicate. When not used for maintenance LCD provides news and weather. Passengers waiting outside can see reservations, waiting time, amount of congestion, etc. A3-5. Area management system. Integrates electricity, air-conditioning, water, sewage, hazard prevention, security, etc., in a multi-building environment (such as a city). Integrated facilities management such as section accounting, conference room reservations and scheduling also provided. A3-6. Urban traffic system. Example is management of sets of parking lots, with automatic learning of movement characteristics of people and autos, automatic navigation, etc. Software uses fuzzy logic. A4-7, A4-8, A4-9, A4-10. Automobile electronics. Various examples of displays, engine and other control and monitoring systems to adjust fuel injectors, fuel/air mixture, etc. Smaller electrical devices such as alternators and starters. Optical-fiber gyroscope, map matching, etc., for auto navigation (best route), along with flat panel color displays. A5-11. Amenity air-conditioning system. Uses both radiation and convection for heat load transfer. Air is enhanced with fragrance, fitontsid, enriched oxygen, etc. A5-12. Pop-up mechanism exterior light. Light goes up and down according to illumination around it to keep landscape looking good. A5-13. Active noise control system. Local active noise control in a three dimensional sound field using multichannel loudspeakers and digital signal processing. Impressive demo in a noisy convention area. B. OFFICE (Harmonization of humans, office machinery, and office environment.) B1-1. Creative and enjoyable office. A number of new technologies shown here, including several TFT (thin film transistor) color LCDs, Yuragi lights, personal air conditioners, flexible tables and desks, etc. Also, anyone who has strung electrical and computer wiring below raised floors will be impressed by the extremely well designed interface wiring system. B2-2. Knowledge-based color document filing system. Full color documents containing text and pictures are scanned at 400 dpi and stored on optical disks. Adaptive compression of color regions, documents can be annotated with voice. On a window based workstation users can retrieve with only fragmentary or ambiguous information. Concepts and relations are stored as a concept network (which can be displayed) to get from abstract queries to file information. System allows knowledge-base browsing, and colloquial spoken sentences representing query conditions. B3-3. High-resolution presentation system. Uses optical disks for storage and preparation on workstation. Image data are highly compressed, and visual effects can be added. B3-4. Full-color high-resolution printer. Uses thermal dye transfer to print at 300 dpi onto A4 size coated paper, at 265 levels per color, photo quality. About 30seconds per sheet. B4-6. Stacked optical disk file. Uses five rigid disks with independently accessible multi-head for each surface. Total capacity is 30Gbytes, 64Mbit/s transfer rate per channel, 150ms access time. Obviously useful for image data, digital video recording, etc. B5-7. Man-machine interface with input integrated flat panel display. Uses an attached stylus to write on the panel. Looks like a large desk- sized version of the Sony Palmtop computer. B6-8. Interactive hyper document (IHD). Allows exploration of a database if users are reading or writing a document. IHD has an area called field, which is an association between a field and another field or database. By tracking this association, data related to data input to the field can be retrieved. B7-9. Automatic form processing system. Form layout is scanned and dotted data is transformed into character strings and ruled lines. Various kinds of knowledge can be incorporated. Multiple forms can be linked. Uses some knowledge-base techniques. B8-10. Multi-color TFT laptop pc. Contains 64 color A4 size TFT backlit, liquid crystal display. Microprocessor is 386SX, but interesting part is the display, 640x480 VGA of exceptional brightness and viewability. B9-11. High-resolution color TFT-LCD. A 10.3 inch diagonal, 1120x780 pixels. Can show 512 colors with a contrast ratio of more than 100. Brightness level is 100 cd/m^2, 45 degree viewing angle, and 50ms response time, fast enough for realtime monitoring. Up to 4096 colors can be realized. Brilliant! C. HOME (Home electronics products for futuristic lifestyles.) C1-1. Amenity air-conditioner. Uses temperature, humidity, air purity information from resort areas, has deodorizing and oxygen enrichment technologies. C1-2. AI-fuzzy controlled central vacuum cleaner. Outdoor installed. Uses AI-fuzzy control to adjust suction power in response to load changing at the suction inlet. Has brushless motor. C1-3. Fully automatic wash and dry laundry. Washes in conventional top loading position, then tub rolls and becomes drum-type dryer. Integrated functions-just turn it on. In space conscious Japan this will be a hit. C1-4. Food center refrigerator freezer. Humidity controlled compartment and concentrated nitrogen gas section to keep foods better. C2-5. Digital still-picture recording videocamera. Video camera with extra function snapshot button. While recording a still can be taken and stored. A video printer can be attached to produce a high quality copy of a snapshot. C2-6. Home-use wide-aspect video system. Imaging and recording devices (cameras, recorders, VCRs, VDPs, TV receivers). Can be applied to NTSC signals allowing display on wide aspect ratio screen (16:9). For example, a 46 inch wide aspect hi-res TV can receive NTSC signals including cinema shaped signals and horizontally compressed signals from a wide-aspect camera as well as HDTV signals. Has digital signal converter to adjust picture shape to match dimensions of screen. C2-6(2) Home-use HDTV-VCR. Maximum recording time of 150 minutes on 0.5inch small size cassette for baseband HD signals. Single channel recording method, uses small 62mm drum and simplified tape transport to keep costs down. C2-6(3) High vision receiver. Broadcast satellite (BS) tuner for MUSE system, MUSE decoder, and wide display. The BS tuner uses a GaAs device. The MUSE decoder uses custom LSIs developed by NHK. Has freeze, strobe, sharpness, etc. C2-6(4) Wide-screen videocamera/recorder. A 500 line wide-screen camera/recorder at about the same price as standard 500 line unit. Uses single-chip CCD imager with 795x485 pixels for 1.7:1 aspect. Conventional 4:3 aspect is also available as is everything between. C3-7. Extra-slim LCD rear projection display. 100 inch diagonal but 1.1 meter deep. Contrast ratio 100:1. C3-8 Multiple-function ceiling mounted luminaire. Includes different color temperature flourescent lamps and halogen lamps. Combinations can be memorized and selected by remote control. Halogen spot can vary direction. C3-9 Variable direction spot. Halogen lamp. Dichroicmirror reflector to reduce heat to lighted objects. Remote control intensity and direction. C3-10 Electric table. Glass art table can heat and cool foods. Even contains a built-in concealed microwave worked by a mouse. C3-11 Personal refreigerator for living room use. Round table height, cooled by thermoelectric device for silence. Door opens when touched. Will come to you by remote control (so you don't miss anything on TV). Internal rotation table around a light pole so you can see interior. Glass top will cool articles placed on it. C4-12. 36inch direct view HDTV for home use. Uses BS tuner as in (C2- 6(3)). C4-13. Laptop VCR with 10inch LCD color monitor. LCD has 1920x480 resolution, 7000cd/m^2 backlit system, 400 line S-VHS, VHS HiFi sound with 90dB dynamic range. For business presentations. C4-14. Digital signal processing videocamera. About 9x8cm, one chip LSI. Uses 3 line color matrix circuits. Look for this to be used in camera/recorders in the near future. A real hit at the exhibit. C4-15. Portable CD-ROM player. A4 footprint, 70mm high, with 5inch color thin film transistor (TFT) display. C4-16. Video printer. Uses thermal dye transfer, photo quality. Speed is about 50 seconds (fast for TDT). Has RGB and Centronics interfaces. C5-17. Toward 2nd generation EDTV. Fully compatible extended definition TV, horizontal resolution improved about 50%. Uses Fukinuki hole. Impressive picture quality; to me, nearly as good as HDTV. D. MEDICAL/HEALTH CARE (Imaging and medical information systems.) D1-1. Regional medical information system. Links together large medical facilities, such as hospitals, medical associations, etc., in a city or other area. D1-2. Personal health care system. Designed for small clinics. Stores data on small optical database (collaboration with UCLA). D1-3. Remote medical image information system. Integrates motion pictures, text and voice data. Consists of a B-ISDN network & multichannel workstation with associated software. Supports realtime interaction using medical records, medical images, and voice communication. Co-editing and telepointing of images and text data between distributed workstations, and visual interaction with a TV phone in the workstation's windows. In the demonstration, a general doctor calls a specialist. Using a small TV camera, the GP illustrates symptoms on a patient. Specialist and GP can point to places on the screen and see each other's pointers. Patient data, including X-rays are brought up from a data base. Video phone also displays both doctors in a window. D2-4. Advanced hospital information system. Integrated information from medical affairs, accounting, drugs, food services, etc. Uses AI to help process medical records. Also medical image capabilities--realtime high definition digital radiography, picture archiving, 3D image diagnosis. D2-5. Workstation for medical doctors. Registration and reference of multimedia records, I/O with some AI assist, data processing (computation) of lab results, data security. D2-6. 3D image processing system. Uses 2 CPU, a standard workstation and a special purpose image processor (48 MIPS). Processes data from MRIs and X-CTs. Allows various image manipulation, segmentation, cut-paste, region growing, and almost real time 3D display. D2-7. Picture archiving and communication system. For managing large numbers of digital images. Uses 12inch (448Gbyte) optical disk library, image processing workstation with 1000 scan lines, 100Mbit/sec fiber optical network. Could be connected via a LAN to CT, MRI, Digital Subtraction Angiography, Digital Radiography, etc. D3-9. Ultrahigh-speed magnetic resonance imaging system. Using echo planar imaging for cardiac studies. Power requirements much lower than earlier versions. Data acquisition time is 40ms so that several 2D frames of a single heartbeat can be obtained. D3-10. Advanced ultrasonic cardiac imaging and measurement technique. With non-aliasing doppler measurement capability of 5m/second. D3-11. Minimally invasive cardiac imaging using dicromatic X-ray. Uses intravenous coronary angiograph radiation, iodine filter for rapid energy switching. Detector is X-ray image intensifier TV with oscillating mirror for high speed dichromatic images. Experiments in a dog's heart clearly showed coronary arteries. D4-12. Sonodynamic modality for therapeutic treatment. D4-13. DNA analysis. Realtime fluorescence detection with long wavelength fluorophores. Does not require radioisotope labels. Detection limit is 10^(-19) mole/spot. D4-14. Multichannel neuromagnetometer. Uses 31 channel superconducting quantum interference device magnetometer (SQUID). D4-15. Highly sensitive immunoassay technology. Uses laser fluorescent particle counting technology. Claimed to be provide highly sensitive measurements of hormones, tumor markers, etc., in low concentration. D4-? Realtime digital radiography. Uses high resolution X-ray image intensifier and 2100 scan line TV camera. E. INFORMATION NETWORK (Hardware and software relating to telecommunications, broadband ISDN, multimedia, AI, and machine translation.) E1-1. Broadband ISDN group tele-working system. A prototype is the medical consultation system (D1-3). E2-2. Broadband ISDN system. Composed of ATM switching systems, ATM subscriber loop systems, and ATM terminals. ATM can support up to 600Mbit/sec. The ATM switch board has throughput of 5Gbit/sec using 0.8mu-m CMOS LSIs, shared buffer memory switch. Control processor uses CTRON. SDH frame termination LSI, cell synchronizing LSI, access control LSI for IEEE 802.6. N-ISDN and IEEE 802.3 are included. Video CoDec and B-ISDN are built into the multi-media terminal. E3-3. High-capacity photonic ATM switching system. Protype of photonic ATM switch, with 4x4 space division optical switch array. Capacity of 9.6Gbit/sec. E3-4. Coherent optical frequency division multiplexing transmission system. Has 1.2Gbit/sec x 32 channels using coherent optical frequency division multiplexing. Can realize CATV which can distribute more than 32 channels of HDTV signals. E4-5. High security information network system. Uses IC cards to realize personal base access management in a network. Each cardholder can generate a cryptographic key common to all persons with specific IDs. E5-6. Strategic Information System. Uses neural network, fuzzy logic. Can support large scale database. E6-7. Machine translation. Between Japanese and English on H2050 workstations and Hitachi mainframes. Uses word co-occurrence knowledge- based semantic processing. I asked the staff to convert the demo text from Japanese to English and then convert that back to Japanese. This seems like a reasonable thing that one would want to try but they were unable to manage it. They have promised to do it off line and send me the results. E7-8. Creative presentation system. The next step in desk top publishing, with hypermedia, allowing color changing, optional parts attached, etc. E8-9. Integrated voice and data LAN system. Multimedia (voice, data, image), access integration to LAN at 4Mbit/s and ISDN, 600 meter cable length, and several hundred terminals capability. E9-19. Digital color full-motion videophone. Connects to an ISDN line (2B+D) allows simultaneous image and voice. Compact with built-in CoDec. F. MANUFACTURING SYSTEM (Next generation human friendly production environment, flexibility.) F1. Human friendly factory. General idea of factory supported by machines that harmonize with human motion and thinking. Manufacturing systems in such a factory integrate design, production and fabrication. F2. Conceptive design. 3D idea sketches, design daemons (who work autonomously and cooperatively with designers), global curved surface modeller with pin-matrix display. F3. Custom made planning. Sales expert system used photorealistic environment model created by 3D image processing. Neural net based estimation system projects delivery date by learning past manufacturing performance. Production planning system adjusts operation using simulation with graphical interface. F4. Flexible assembly center. Uses autonomous robots, plural arm robots, table robots, and parts/tool feeders. Uses visual and force sensor feedback. Good demonstration involved two robots constructing paper airplanes by selecting sheets of paper, placing templates and then cutting around them, pasting various pieces together to form a plane and finally placing the finished plane on a table. Particularly interesting because of the large variety of tasks each robot was required to perform. F5. Image based operation. Excellent example of task planning. A design database and vision system are linked. Human operator can access detailed dynamic information about objects (dimensions, location, drawings, etc.) by pointing to the object image in the TV viewer. In other words, operator points to a TV image of a real table, (a window on a workstation), system decides that "it's a table" and brings up internal representation data about table. Operator can activate the robot image on the viewer and specifies the process, for example illustrating that he wants object A to be moved to position B (this is done graphically using TV data). Commands are translated into a seven degree of freedom robot arm. Subsequently, the robot will do this even if A and B are repositioned slightly. G. ENERGY (Safety, easy to use, environmentally harmless.) G1-1. Programs for global environmental problem solutions. Low NOx combustion (emission about 100ppm in NR-2 burner), direct NOx reduction, CO2 reductions, etc. G2. Nuclear energy. Hitachi is a large producer of nuclear power plant components. G2-2. Preventive Maintenance planning support 3-D CAE system for nuclear power plant. G2-3. Advanced boiling water reactor. Joint with Toshiba and GE. G2-4. Integrated digital monitoring and control system. G2-5. Nuclear fuel cycle and advanced reactor development. Advanced thermal reactors and fast breeder reactors. G3. Robot technology for plant maintenance and inspection. G3-6. Intelligent manipulator. Dual arm manipulator, autonomously adapts and plans by searching for and following collision free paths to objects to be manipulated. The most interesting part of this manipulator is that it can alter its arm structure by changing joints. The idea is that this goes where it is needed in a compact form (unfriendly environment, small tunnel, etc.) and then puts itself more or less together to do the job required. G4. Power generaton and power delivery. G4-8. Advanced combined cycle power plant. G4-9. New substation system. G4-10. Advanced computer control system for power distributing network. G5. Next generation technology. Supercontucting technology. Worlds largest helical superconducting magnet to be installed. Other examples of superconducting technology. G5-11. Large fusion experimental equipment. Various examples of activities in the Large Helical Device project. G5-12. Superconducting mangetic energy storage system. H. ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY (Computer technology, nano-electronics, biotechnology.) H1. Computer technology. Making life easier for humans. General H1-3. Numerical simulation workbench: visual PDEQSOL. A real step forward from the DEQSOL that I reported on earlier. Now runs on a Unix workstation with very friendly X-windows front end. I was told that IBM has expressed interest. H1-4. Animation-oriented visual programming language. By manipulating graphical icons a user can write a program. Nice demo showing how a secretary would use this to write a program to perform office tasks. H1-5. BiCMOS processor. High performance bipolar transistors combined with standard CMOS devices on the same chip. A 32 bit microprocessor has been built. Also resarch work in sub-micron BiCMOS technologies. H1-7. Superconducting microcomputer. Prototype has been fabricated consisting of 4bit cpu and 1kbit RAM. Can run 1Gop/sec with 50mW power dissipation at liquid helium temperature. Key technologies are: good uniformity of Nb/AlOx/Nb Josephson junctions, 3-stage pipeline architecture, all DC-powered memory system, low inductance superconducting packaging. H1-8. Neurocomputer. Uses 8, four inch wafers, with 1152 neurons. This was described earlier, but now it is running. Impressive demo of it learing my signature and then verifying it. H1-9. Advanced memories and 64Mbit DRAM. Also 1Mbit SRAM with data- holding current of 3muA, 4Mbit DRAM with access time of 35ns fabricated with BiCMOS technology. H1-10. Quantum wave approaches toward future devices. Work on 0.1mu-m fabrication technology and quantum devices. Hitachi claims that 0.1 fabrication will be necessary to build 1Gbit chips. Beautiful demo of what 0.1mu-m means. A four inch wafer was shown with a map of the world (continent outlines are clearly seen). Using 0.1 X-ray lithography, a map of Kyoto was placed on this. An electron microscope photo of this clearly shows the streets in the city. Hitachi claims that at this scale, the streets are about 0.1 wide. H2-11. Ultrahigh density magnetic disk technology. 300 million bit/cm^2 disks were developed, about 20 times greater than current mag disk storage capacity. H2-12. Bloch line memory. Bit density is 2Gbit/in^2. H3. Advanced scientific instruments. Toward nanometer or atomic order resolution. Shows spin-polarized SEM, electron beam tomography, analytical TEM, STM/AFM. H3-16. Observation of magnetic microstructure. A new microscope detects directions of the magnetic dipole moments of electrons emitted from a sample. Spatial resolution of 0.1mu-m in 3D samples. H3-17. Micro-magnetc field measurement. Using electron beam tomography. Demo shows image of magnetic gap of 0.4mu-m. H3-19. Observation and analysis in nanometer area. Cold field emission TEM. H3-20. Atomic scale observation of surface structure. Achieves atomic resolution by SCM. H4. High temperature superconductors. Basic research for coil and thin film device using hi-Tc. H4-22. Electronic states of superconductors. YBa2Cu3O7 eletronic states determined by pseudopotential and density functional methods on supercomputer. H4-23. High temperature superconducting thin films for switching devices. Confirmed to work as switching element on an OR circuit. H4-24. Hith temperature superconducting coil. Using Ti-based superconductor with critical temperature of 120K. Multilayered pancake coil wound by the wire generated a mag field of 500 gauss in liquid nitrogen. H4-25. Meissner levitated linear motor car. H4-26. Ultrahigh sensitive amorphous image pickup tube. Collaboration with NHK, 1000 times higher sensitivity than present (SATICON). H5. Space. Space station will be built in latter half of '90s. H5-27. Navigation and guidance control system. Combines global positioning system, optical fiber gyro, computer, and actuators. H5-28. H32 on-board computer. 32bit fault tolerant computer. A hybrid IC consisting of a MPU, FPU, DMAC, gate array, SRAM, ROM in 74^2mm package. H5-29. Heat resisting materials for orbiting plane. Thermal protection layer formed on carbon-fiber reinforced carbon by plasma-assisted high- rate deposition. H5-30. Smart tele-operation system. H5-32. Isothermal heatng furnace for space stations. No moving parts, light weight, low power, durable. H5-33. Electrophoresis facility for space. For separation of bio- materials. H6. Biotechnology. General H6-34. One-to-one biological cell fusion apparatus. H6-36. Amimal cell culture system with image processing. H6-37. Computation principles of the brain. Neural networks, etc. I. COMPUTER-SIMULATED VISUALIZATION (Supercomputers plus HDTV.) I didn't see any of these, as my head was swimming by this time. The films included I-1. Golf ball at impact. I-2. Eddy formation in turbulent flow. I-3. Magnetic driving force dynamics in linear motor transportation. I-4. Reconstructed silicon surface. I-5. Amenity in air-conditioned room. I-6. Water purification in lakes and marshes. I-7. Propagation of tidal waves. I-8. Simulation of ozoze destruction by chlorofluorocarbons. ----------------END OF REPORT---------------------------------