"Invention music", an idea method that draws out awareness << Interview with Ken Ueki >> [Inventors who create the future]

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Ken Ueki (provided by Yonago City) who inserts an endoscope into a medical simulator robot jointly developed by Tottori University Hospital.

For the second special issue on "Inventors Creating the Future," we interviewed Ken Ueki, a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, Tottori University, who publishes "Invention Music." Invention music is an idea method that draws out inventions by accumulating awareness, and anyone can invent by using that technique.

Work to create a painless and safe endoscope

Ken Ueki, a gastroenterologist and specialist in medicine, is working to come up with and spread "invention music," which is an idea that creates "inventions." What is the impetus for connecting inventions with medical care that seems distant at first glance? Mr. Ueki is working on the development of an "endoscope" that is patient-friendly and safe to use. An endoscope is a medical device that can observe lesions inside the gastrointestinal tract without damaging the body. A tube with a built-in camera at the tip is inserted into the human body through the mouth, nose, and anus for observation. However, this endoscope often irritated the back of the throat at the time of insertion, and I often encountered a patient with a face that seemed to suffer from the vomiting reflex. Furthermore, if you try to force the endoscope that hits the wall of the intestine to the back, not only will it be painful, but there is also the danger that the intestine will tear. "Why does it hurt so much? Is it possible to have a safer endoscope?" Mr. Ueki began to think about this all the time while he was in the clinic.

Mr. Ueki is currently conducting research and development under the theme of "an endoscope that looks wide, moves well, and has a finger-like antennae." He is self-propelled in the intestine and is trying to make an endoscope with a function such as notifying the pressure load with a buzzer by a pressure sensor (provided by Mr. Ueki).

Mr. Ueki, who has been fond of inventions since he was a child, has thought that new things and technologies can be created by combining existing things and viewpoints. In addition, he attended academic meetings in fields other than medicine to get hints on his development, and realized that "there are many advanced technologies in different fields just because I do not know them." He became aware of the possibility of creating new products and values by combining the knowledge and skills that different fields already have. By accumulating his own experiences and discoveries, he said that four techniques for creating inventions, "invention music," were born.

Addition, subtraction, multiplication and division techniques that anyone can create inventions

What exactly is an invention? Is it something that only a special person with a special talent can do? Mr. Ueki says, "Invention is not a talent, but a technique," and anyone can invent it by using the four addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division techniques of "Invention Music." For example, a pencil with an eraser can be said to be an invention that realizes a small convenience by combining a pencil and an eraser. Even in the medical field, there is an example of the birth of a technique that enables magnified observation by adding the function of a microscope in addition to viewing the lesion with a camera. If you use the idea of "adding" something, you can find infinite hints for invention. And the technique for creating inventions is not limited to the idea of addition. There are also techniques for subtraction, multiplication, and division. For example, slippers that are too small to fit in size have gained popularity because they encourage to stand on tiptoe and can be expected to have a dieting effect. This is an example of an invention that was unexpectedly triggered, but Mr. Ueki explains this as the idea of "subtraction" to reduce the size of things.

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