From inside out to outside in: Needs for holistic sensing and comprehensive engineering

Abstract

In the 20th century, engineers paid efforts to realize products which customers wanted. In short, engineering in the 20th century was inside out. Engineers focused their attention to the quality of a product. As situation did not change appreciably, they could foresee the use conditions and good quality was evaluated adequately by customers. But as we enter the 21st century, changes come to occur very frequently and extensively. Engineers cannot foresee the use condition anymore. It is a user who knows what is happening now. In order for them to flexibly and quickly adapt to these changes, users have to sense what is happening and make an adequate judgment. Then, they can make a right decision to cope with the changing situations. For this purpose, holistic sensing is necessary, but current sensor technology is application- or case-specific. But if we look back, there are examples which give hints for developing such holistic sensing. And to secure fast adaptability, we have to develop comprehensive engineering at the same time to fully utilize the information from holistic sensing.