We will introduce the process we have taken to ensure safety and security for people and the earth. The first approach is to realize a training simulator that uses VR visualization to improve workplace safety. When we started research and development in 2001, the cost of using VR was very high. VR hardware was expensive, and the software to run it was not widespread. Although we had the ability to develop VR software independently, the cost of VR software became a major obstacle, and there was a lack of demand for continued use of VR, making it difficult to continue VR as a business. At that time, we thought about what application would be worth the high cost of VR. We considered using VR as a means to improve human safety in fields related to human life. We have found value in using VR to reproduce dangerous events and events that are costly and impossible to realize in real space. As we proceed with the development of VR application fields, we find one challenge after another, such as maintaining concentration when using VR, realizing natural and intuitive operability without losing concentration, a mechanism for immersion and fatigue that allows you to stay in the VR space, and expressions that affect people’s emotions. By solving each of these issues, VR can be used as an effective tool. In 2012, we started developing software development tools to recreate disaster events in VR space and realize a mechanism for disasters to occur through human operations.
As we proceed with the development of scenarios for negative physical experiences during disasters in line with the needs of society, we find further obstacles. We realized that vision and hearing alone cannot be used to increase the physical experience and make people feel negative emotions, so we developed units for the senses of balance, touch, pain, force, and smell. Furthermore, we realized the importance of properly controlling and experiencing stimuli through the five senses in order to effectively generate negative emotions in people. We conduct research and development with the utmost importance on preventing the occurrence of mental disorders by properly controlling negative sensory stimuli. Based on these policies, we have experimentally derived appropriate solutions for negative stimuli while conducting research and development on a limited scope of use in cooperation with specific organizations to ensure people’s safety and realize a means to improve danger sensitivity. In the future, we will conduct research and development using biochemistry to realize a means to increase people’s motivation by using negative stimuli through the five senses.