From fuzzy control to fuzzy multimedia information technology

In the middle of 1980's in Japan the fuzzy technology became a central issue for mainly process control and the year 1990 became a so called "fuzzy-home-electronics year". These technologies are mainly based of if-then rule based fuzzy inference with instrumentation (i.e., sensor and actuator) engineering. Then the neural network technology was merged in fuzzy technology in 1991 and again many consumer products were sent to the real market in Japan. Such neuro-fuzzy technologies are classified into 9 categories. In 1993 chaos technologies were also taken part in research and development of such high-tech issues. Other technologies, e.g., chaos, genetic algorithms, and artificial life, are also studied by company engineers. These kinds of practical, technological aspects mainly in Japan are discussed first. Then the concept of Fuzzy Multimedia Intelligent Communication System (FuMICS) is proposed. It is a human friendly communication interface and is able to handle fuzzy information in the fuzzy knowledge base where the multimedia information is integrated. It consists of five modules: 1) Observation Unit, 2) Norm Base, 3) Fuzzy Knowledge Base, 4) Multimedia Information Transmitter, and 5) Supervisor.