Chieko Asakawa
Chieko Asakawa ( Japanese 田 部 井 淳 子 Asakawa Chieko ; * 1958 in Tokyo ) is a Japanese computer scientist who is known for her work in the area of accessibility at IBM Research in Tokyo.
Life
Asakawa lost her eyesight from an injury at the age of 11 and was completely blind by the age of 14. In 1982 she earned a bachelor's degree in English literature from Otemon Gakuin University, Osaka, and then took a two-year computer programming course for the blind. In 1984 she was hired with a temporary position at IBM Research and became a permanent employee there a year later. In 2004 she received her PhD in engineering from Tokyo University .
research
Her research projects included developing a word processor for Braille documents, developing a digital library for Braille documents, developing a Netscape browser plug-in that converted text to speech and provided a more convenient web navigation mechanism for the blind. Their browser plug-in became an IBM product, the IBM Home Page Reader, in 1997. In five years it was the most widely used web-to-speech system available. She developed the voice-controlled smartphone app NavCog, which blind people can use to navigate indoor spaces. A lightweight navigation robot is her next project. It steers a blind person through the complex area of an airport and provides instructions and useful information, for example on flight delays and gate changes. The case has a built-in motor that can be moved autonomously and an image recognition camera to recognize the surroundings and Lidar (Light Detection And Ranging) to measure the distance to objects.
Awards
- 2003: Induction into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame
- 2009: IBM Fellow
- 2011: Women of Vision Award, Anita Borg Institute
- 2012: Keynote speaker at the fourth international conference on software development to improve accessibility
- 2013: Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon, Japanese Government
- 2013: ACM SIGACCESS Impact Award
- 2017: Elected as a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering
Web links
- Google Scholar Profile
- The blind woman developing tech for the good of others
- Chieko Asakawa in the computer science bibliography
- In a Few Years Nations May Need Us to Work Years Past Retirement Age
- Without Sight, a visionary leader
Individual evidence
- ↑ IBM フ ェ ロ ー の 浅川 智 恵 子 氏 、 全 米 発 明 家 殿堂 に - 視 覚 障 が い 者 用 ウ ェ ブ 読 み 上 げ 技術 で . CNet, January 26, 2019, accessed October 2, 2019 (Japanese).
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Asakawa, Chieko |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 浅川 智 恵 子 (Japanese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Japanese computer scientist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1958 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Tokyo |