astronomy

Ken Sakamura

Ken Sakamura is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ken Sakamura rather than just read about it. In short: Ken Sakamura (坂村健, Sakamura Ken; born 25 July 1951 in Tokyo, Japan), as of April 2017, is a Japanese professor and dean of the Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design at Toyo University, Japan. He is a former professor in information science at the University of Tokyo (through March 2017).

Key takeaways

Ken Sakamura belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ken Sakamura to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ken Sakamura from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ken Sakamura (坂村健, Sakamura Ken; born 25 July 1951 in Tokyo, Japan), as of April 2017, is a Japanese professor and dean of the Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design at Toyo University, Japan. He is a former professor in information science at the University of Tokyo (through March 2017). He is the creator of the real-time operating system (RTOS) architecture TRON. In 2001, he shared the Takeda Award for Social/Economic Well-Being with Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds.

Career As of 2006, Sakamura leads the ubiquitous networking laboratory (UNL), located in Gotanda, Tokyo, and the T-Engine forum for consumer electronics. The joint goal of Sakamura's ubiquitous networking specification and the T-Engine forum, is to enable any everyday device to broadcast and receive information. It is essentially a TRON variant, paired with a competing standard to radio-frequency identification (RFID). Since the foundation of the T-Engine forum, Sakamura has been working on opening Japanese technology to the world. His prior brainchild, TRON, the universal RTOS used in Japanese consumer electronics has had limited adoption in other countries. Sakamura has signed deals with Chinese and Korean universities to work together on ubiquitous networking. He has also worked with French software component manufacturer NexWave Solutions, Inc. He is an external board member for Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (NTT), Japan.

Ubiquitous Communicator The Ubiquitous Communicator (UC) is a mobile computing device designed by Sakamura for use in ubiquitous computing. On 15 September 2004, YRP-UNL announced in Japan that it had begun producing a new model after creating five prototypes over three years. The model was used in trial tests circa late 2004. The new model, weighing about 196 grams, contains new features: RFID reader compatible for ucode, a two megapixel charge-coupled device (CCD) camera, a secondary 300,000 pixel camera for videotelephony, support for wireless network technologies, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and IrDA, VoIP phone feature, SD and mini-SD memory card slots, fingerprint authentication, and encryption coprocessor as options. It was expected to be sold for ¥300,000, $2,700.

Honors In May 2015, Sakamura received the prestigious ITU150 award from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), along with Bill Gates, Robert E. Kahn, Thomas Wiegand, Mark I. Krivosheyev, and Martin Cooper. The following is the citation given by ITU:

... Today, the real-time operating systems based on the TRON specifications are used for engine control on automobiles, mobile phones, digital cameras, and many other appliances, and are believed to be the among most popular operating systems for embedded computers around world. The R&D results from TRON Project are useful for ubiquitous computing. For example, UNL joined the standardization efforts at ITU-T and helped produce a series of Recommendations, including H.642 “Multimedia information access triggered by tag-based identification”. The idea behind H.642 series is based on de facto “ucode” standard developed by UNL for communication in the age of the Internet of Things ... For his achievements, Sakamura has won many awards: Takeda Award, the Medal with Purple Ribbon from the Japanese government, Okawa Prize, Prime Minister Award, and Japan Academy Prize. He is a fellow and the golden core member of the IEEE Computer Society.

References

External links Biography ITU150 Awards YRP-UNL release a ubiquitous-computing device (in Japanese)

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ken Sakamura

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ken Sakamura claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ken Sakamura before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ken Sakamura ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ken Sakamura

In research: Ken Sakamura appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ken Sakamura in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ken Sakamura is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1951 births, Academic staff of the University of Tokyo, Japanese computer scientists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ken Sakamura outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ken Sakamura in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ken Sakamura means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ken Sakamura out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ken Sakamura in simple terms?

Why does Ken Sakamura matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ken Sakamura?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ken Sakamura.