The Universal Communication Research Institute of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) has successfully developed a 21-language, fast and high-fidelity neural text-to-speech technology. The development of this technology has made it possible to synthesize one second of speech at high speed in just 0.1 seconds using a single CPU core, which is about eight times faster than the conventional methods. This technology also enables fast synthesis with a latency of 0.5 seconds on a mid-range smartphone without network connection.

Our brain learns and remembers actions differently based on the level of decision uncertainty

A study published online in the journal Nature Human Behaviour challenges the belief that identical physical actions are governed by the same motor memory, regardless of the decision-making process involved. Researchers from the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) and HONDA R&D Co., Ltd. have discovered that the brain differentiates and stores motor memories based on the level of uncertainty experienced during decision-making.

– NICT promotes global partnerships in AI –

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) today established the GPAI Tokyo Expert Support Center as the third GPAI Expert Support Center in the world following those in Paris and Montreal. The Japanese government proposed the establishment of an organization in Tokyo that supports AI experts affiliated with GPAI, and it was approved at the GPAI Ministerial Council in December 2023.

- World's first measurement of vertical cloud motion from space -

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA, President: Hiroshi Yamakawa) and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: Hideyuki Tokuda) have released the first images from the Cloud Profiling Radar (CPR) on board Earth Cloud Aerosol and Radiation Explorer (EarthCARE) (Japanese nickname: Hakuryu ), which was jointly developed with the European Space Agency (ESA), and launched at 7:20 a.m. (JST) on May 29, 2024. The CPR is the world’s first spaceborne Doppler radar in the W-band (94 GHz) and was jointly developed by JAXA and NICT.

- Achieved with novel technologies to open new wavelength regions for future optical communication infrastructure -

An international joint research team led by the Photonic Network Laboratory of the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.), demonstrated a record-breaking aggregate optical transmission bandwidth of 37.6 THz to enable a new data-rate record of 402 terabits per second in a commercially available standard optical fiber.

— Major Step Toward Realization of 5G Communication from Stratosphere —

TOKYO, JAPAN, May 28, 2024— SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation, NTT DOCOMO, INC., the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) ,and Panasonic Holdings Corporation (Panasonic HD) jointly announced today that they have successfully conducted a 5G communication verification test in the 38GHz band from an altitude of approximately 4km using a small Cessna aircraft operated by Kyoritsu Air Survey Co., Ltd. simulating the eventual use of High-Altitude Platform Stations (HAPS) . The demonstration was the first of its kind in the world.

- The proportion of women hired for Permanent Researcher position in FY2024 reached 41.7% -

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.) conducts staff recruitment based on diversity promotion. In particular, we have been actively promoting the recruitment of female Researchers and Research Engineers, and the proportion of women in the total number of people hired for Permanent Researcher position in FY2024 has reached 41.7%.

- Probabilistic method reduces optimal gate sequence search time by orders of magnitude -

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT, President: TOKUDA Hideyuki, Ph.D.), RIKEN (President: GONOKAMI Makoto, Ph.D.), Tokyo University of Science (President: Dr. ISHIKAWA Masatoshi), and the University of Tokyo (President: FUJII Teruo, Ph.D.) succeeded in developing a technique to quickly search for the optimal quantum gate sequence for a quantum computer using a probabilistic method.

TOKYO (April 23rd, 2024) -THine Electronics, Inc. (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 6769, “THine”), National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (“NICT”), and Hiroshima University, a national university corporation (“Hiroshima University”), jointly announced the successful development of 20 gigabits per second (20Gb/s) QPSK wireless transmission technology with the world's first mixed-signal baseband demodulator technology, which would have a great advantage to achieve more power-efficient wireless data transmission for higher-speed appreciations.

The National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (hereinafter referred to as "NICT") will be conducting a Request for Information (RFI) regarding transportation means to deploy a small satellite into low lunar orbit being developed by the ongoing " Lunar Terahertz Surveyor for Kilometer-scale Mapping” project entrusted by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications of Japan.