Science & Tech · Science & Environment · 3 hrs ago
Tokyo researchers explore invisibility, robotic limbs and digital consciousness
Two University of Tokyo scientists are exploring technologies inspired by Ghost in the Shell, the Japanese science-fiction series.
Professor Masahiko Inami has made a cloak that appears to blend into its surroundings by reflecting light and displaying an image of the background.
This is an early form of optical camouflage, not true invisibility.
Inami has also developed Jizai Arms, a wearable system that lets users control up to six additional robotic arms.
He designed it to explore how people might interact with robotic limbs and with one another in a future cyborg society.
Associate professor Masataka Watanabe is studying how consciousness works and hopes to preserve his own digitally after death.
Uploading a human consciousness remains a research goal, and Watanabe hopes to test links between biological and artificial brain hemispheres.
Two University of Tokyo scientists are exploring technologies inspired by the science-fiction series “Ghost in the Shell.”
Masahiko Inami developed optical camouflage that uses projected background images and retroreflective material to make a person appear to blend into their surroundings.
Inami also developed Jizai Arms, a wearable system that lets users control up to six additional robotic arms.
Masataka Watanabe is investigating whether human consciousness could one day be digitally preserved or uploaded to a machine.
- Who
- University of Tokyo scientists Masahiko Inami and Masataka Watanabe.
- What
- They are exploring optical camouflage, wearable robotic arms and the possibility of digitally preserving consciousness.
- When
- The article was published on October 25, 2026; a photograph shows Inami wearing Jizai Arms on July 15, 2026.
- Where
- The University of Tokyo in Tokyo, including its Komaba Campus.
- Why
- Inami designed Jizai Arms to explore interaction in a future cyborg society. Watanabe aims to study consciousness and digitally preserve it.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Inami was photographed wearing the Jizai Arms system at the University of Tokyo's Komaba Campus.
Mainichi EN published its report on the researchers' work.
- Institution
- University of Tokyo
- Optical camouflage
- Uses retroreflective material and a projected image of the background
- Jizai Arms
- Wearable system that allows users to control up to six additional arms
- Masahiko Inami
- Professor at the university's Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology
- Masataka Watanabe
- Associate professor specializing in cognitive neuroscience at the university's Graduate School of Engineering
What people are saying
A jizai system must have a sense of agency -- something that gives the sensation that it can be perfectly controlled by myself.
Just as octopuses and chameleons change their body color to match their surroundings, if we project a three-dimensional image that perfectly matches the background, it would essentially appear transparent.
As a scientist I want to decipher the neural mechanics of consciousness. I think it's the most challenging problem in modern science.
I think that's the beauty of having a digital world.