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Santoku Corporation: A Giant Step Ahead to Managing Disasters & Realizing A Safe Society

Santoku Corporation was established in 1953 and is headquartered in Tokyo. Its IT department was established by Susumu Matsuda. The product page is https://rimm.ai.

Susumu majored in mechanical engineering and studied vehicle manoeuvring stability simulation analysis by feedback control theory. In 1987, he got a job at an electric manufacturer and developed an online system for remote control of semiconductor manufacturing while learning the architecture of the CPU. After that, he specialized in the research and development of machine vision processing functions including optical systems while developing control design, firmware, and control software for semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

He transferred to the current company in 2001 and started a visualization service using VR for research institutes to understand social needs while supporting the development of research institutes, safety-related railway accident response training simulators, nuclear power plants, anti-terrorism protection training simulators, decommissioning work training simulator for judgement and action promotion in the event of a disaster.

When The Chief’s Digest reached out to Santoku Corporation for our recent issue to feature some of the most innovative companies out there, we had the pleasure of interacting with Director Susumu Matsuda on how the knowledge of medical and biology be brought together with engineering and use it to realize a mechanism that could aid in safe and efficient safety information transmission. Below is an excerpt.

The Birth of An Idea to Influence Human Biological Emotions Through VR

In 2013, Susumu devised the basic idea of RiMM while developing a training simulator. It improves the versatility of the simulator software and reduces the development period and cost. After that, in 2016, he commercialized a VR disaster experience system that allows one to experience occupational accidents as a package. 

While exploring social needs for VR, the theme that was finally derived was “safety and reassurance that directly touches the human heart according to the biological characteristics of humans” and RiMM aims to realize it. The VR experience system applies robot technology to reproduce the sense of touch, smell, and balance. It is a mechanism that creates a scary sensation and improves danger sensitivity by directly stimulating the five senses of an individual. From the beginning of development, a mechanism is implemented to adjust the stimulus intensity at the time of experience by various methods to prevent post-traumatic PTSD. 

RiMM And the Unique Approach to Human Experience 

Negative emotions are guided by a mechanism that adds negative sensations to the body. Susumu’s interests lay in understanding the process through which humans experienced things. He studied the process from the biological science perspective while trying to comprehensively grasp the concepts and elements of sense engineering, neural engineering, brain chemistry, and psychology. “The method of elucidating the safety and security of human beings concerning their biological mechanism is a very unique approach, which is the essential idea of RiMM,” says Susumu.

The figure shows the safe circulation cycle considered according to the concept of RiMM. RiMM makes the body remember the work.

A: A skill training simulator is developed first. They are custom-made applications built according to specifications. Now we have newly developed products that emphasize versatility and expandability. 

B: The KY video, which is a case study of occupational accidents, is an accident reproduction video that has been expressed using original deformation technology since 2005 and an intuitive method. 

C: It is a disaster experience product that projects the danger in the event of a disaster and improves the sensitivity to danger. 

D: These are products that promote awareness of disaster occurrence per the market demand of “Is it possible to provide education to make people aware?” 

To answer the market’s question on what will we supply next, we will always take new actions in consideration of comprehensive support for safety. Moreover, we have completely reviewed human safety from the biological science side. Based on that, we have established safety methods for each process that humans experience and started conceptual research on an integrated safety integrated circulation cycle that provides the services,” Susumu added.

E: To help respond to natural disasters better, this simulator developed in 2015 is for promoting judgment and behavior in the event of a disaster. 

F / G / H: DIG diagram training simulation, which further enhances resilience in the event of a disaster, has been under development since 2017 and has been prototyped and evaluated over and over again. 

Even now, Santoku is continuously developing products and methods that realize “flexible strength and ability to recover” with the theme of resilience. Susumu goes on to explain how the concept of a comprehensive safety cycle was created through twenty years of research and development. He says, “We are devoting ourselves to pursuing the safety and security of people and the earth by studying the processes that humans experience through sense engineering, neuroscience, brain chemistry, and psychology, and bringing together all the technologies.

The RiMM Concept of Safety

The RiMM concept of safety corresponds to four disasters – general accidents, occupational accidents, natural disasters, and man-made disasters. Santoku focuses on finding ways for people to maintain their activities with safety and reassurance. As a part of its most recent goals, the firm is looking to improve the completeness of the RiMM safety comprehensive circulation cycle and develop methods corresponding to that circulation cycle. Additionally, Santoku will develop methods to improve disaster response capabilities by increasing resilience in the event of a disaster. 

Speaking of the mechanism for the safety comprehensive circulation cycle, Susumu says, “We will find ways to improve disaster response capabilities while reducing unknown disasters by sharing information in a way that anyone can experience disaster information. By sharing disaster information, unknown disasters will gradually decrease, and we will take a step forward to realize a safe society.” 

The Man Behind RiMM’s Success

Susumu Matsuda, Director

I believe people need to work together to deal with various disasters. To create a safe and secure society, we need the cooperation and wisdom of various people. We want to ensure utmost safety for individuals, including the global environment in which they live, and we wish to do that by realizing a means of directly interacting with various people and touching their hearts.”