Achievements and Activities of the BEANS Project
The research organs of the BEANS Project, currently
comprising four research centers (Life BEANS Center, Life
BEANS Center Kyushu, 3D BEANS Center, and Macro BEANSCenter) and the head office of the BEANS Laboratory, havebeen conducting R&D on biomaterial integration processes,organic material integration processes, 3D nanostructure
fabrication processes, and large-area continuous
micro/nanostructure fabrication processes and have beendeveloping a knowledge database on hetero-functional
integrated device technology. This fiscal year, the G-device
Cooperative was added to the BEANS Project for the purpose ofdeveloping an advanced sensor network system andenvironmentally friendly fabrication processes. Thus far thisyear, the BEANS Laboratory has published its research findings
at national and international academic conferences such asµTAS 2010 through approximately 60 presentations and hascompleted applications for 8 patents. In order to further
publicize the achievements of the BEANS Project, weparticipated as an exhibitor in the 21 s t Exhibition
Micromachine/MEMS and held the 4th BEANS Project Seminar,
both of which took place at MicroNano 2010 on July 28–30.
Some of the BEANS achievements were also published innewspapers, journals, and other print media and covered on
television.

(2) The 4th BEANS Project Seminar
The seminar was held in MicroNano Conference Area B on
July 29 (Thursday). Following greetings by Tomio Suzuki,
executive director at NEDO, and Atsushi Yusa, president andproject leader of BEANS, Sub Project Leader Hiroyuki Fujita,
a professor at the University of Tokyo, gave a lecture entitled“The Shape of BEANS Revealed.” Thereafter, the center
directors (Associate Professor Shoji Takeuchi, ProfessorChihaya Adachi, Associate Professor Masakazu Sugiyama,
Professor Masaaki Kimata, and Group Leader Toshihiro Ito)gave clear and concise presentations on researchachievements at their respective centers to date. After a brief
recess, the invited lecturer Yoshihiro Shibuya, a director atINPIT, talked about the expectations for BEANS from an
intellectual property perspective. While the seminar lasted aconsiderably longtime, the assembled
audience
ofapproximately 300people, many ofwhom were standing,remained in theconference
area
throughout.

1. MicroNano 2010 at Tokyo Big Sight(1) 21st Exhibition Micromachine/MEMSThe
exhibition
provided a venue foreach BEANS research
center to showcase its
R&D
achievements
through posters andactual demonstrations.
Since
thisyear’s
exhibition coincidedwith the project’s
interim evaluation year,
our objective for theexhibit was not simply to attract the attention of passersby, but
to introduce our research achievements in exhaustive detail.
Therefore, the exhibit space that surrounded the lone beanstalkrising upward at the booth’s entrance was densely packed withthe following exhibits: (1) futuristic devices the BEANS Projectis working to make a reality with the aim of contributing topeople, lifestyles, and the Earth, (2) an introduction to ourefforts at creating intellectual property, (3) Japan’s first public
showing of fiber-like large-area pressure sensors, research on
nanostructured fiber substrates, and a simulation of nonvacuum deposition , (4) photographs depicting low-damage
neutral beam etching, models for elucidating the mechanism of
supercritical films, trench capacitors, patterning using peptides,
and true 3D machining, and (5) actual glowing microbeads
related to a hybrid cell doll created from hydrogel beads and a
glowing ear that reflects changes in blood sugar level. During
the exhibition, visitors were often seen asking questions andenthusiastically engaging the attendants in conversation.

2. Media Coverage(1) An article entitled “Developing Robots with a Sense ofSmell” by the Life BEANS Center’s Shoji Takeuchi, professor at
the University of Tokyo, was published in the Proceedings ofthe National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) of the U.S.A. The
story was also picked up by Japanese television on August 24,
beginning with the NHK’s morning show Good Morning, Japanand later on the evening news, and on the same day waspublished in eight major national newspapers and trade
journals, who mentioned the Center’s previous press release
issued in June of last year and entitled “Is Your Ear Glowing?!
Developing a Blood Sugar Sensor That Glows Under the Skin.”
The foreign press was particularly enthusiastic in its coverageof this latest story, and related articles were also posted on
science and technology Web sites and published in the journal
Nature Materials. The BEANS Project was once again in thespotlight when the PNAS picked up the article on the glowing
blood sugar sensor. Some of the foreign press also recorded
video footage of the BEANS Project booth at the Exhibition
Micromachine/MEMS held in July that appeared on the online
news site DigInfo TV and in a health-related segment during
America’s ABC network news program.
(2) On August 27, Nikkei Sangyo Shimbun published an article
linked to Koji Miyazaki, associate professor at the Kyushu
Institute of Technology and member of Life BEANS Kyushu,
entitled “Thermoelectric Materials That Generate Electricity
through a Small Temperature Difference, and Their
Applications in Wearable Electronics.”6