CEO Tomomi Sato's "Words of Joy" Featured in a Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Special Feature
kotai2003A comment from Tomomi Sato, CEO and Representative Director of TOMOMI RESEARCH Inc. (headquarters: Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture), appeared in the special feature "Words of Joy from the 38 Winners of the Small and Medium Enterprise Excellent New Technology and New Product Award" in the morning edition (pages 20 to 21) of Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, Japan's national industry newspaper, on Friday, May 8, 2026. We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank our customers, partner companies, and everyone in our region and industry.
Featured in a Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun Special Feature
The feature covers the 38th Small and Medium Enterprise Excellent New Technology and New Product Award, organized by the Resona Foundation for Small and Medium Enterprise Promotion and co-organized by Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, Ltd. It presents the "words of joy" of each of the 38 winners, and we were introduced as a winner of the Encouragement Award in the General Category, under the heading "Tomomi Sato, President, TOMOMI RESEARCH (Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture)."
The award was given to TR-300, our high-speed, continuous 3D × AI inspection system. Having our CEO's own words featured in a newspaper read by people in manufacturing across Japan is a great encouragement to everyone at the company.
Please note that because the feature appeared in the print edition of Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, we cannot provide a link to a web article here. For reference, the publication details are: Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun, morning edition, May 8, 2026 (special feature, pages 20 to 21).
CEO Sato's Comment in the Feature
CEO Sato contributed the following comment to the feature. Along with the joy of receiving the award, it explains in the developer's own words which challenges TR-300's technology solves.
We are truly grateful to receive the Encouragement Award. Our TR-300 acquires surface shape in real time with our proprietary high-speed 3D processing, while products keep flowing along a continuous conveyor line. Scratches and dents that were hard to distinguish from dirt in conventional 2D inspection can be accurately separated and detected using 3D shape information, enabling stable automatic judgment even for glossy products and curved shapes. Without depending on visual inspection by skilled workers, it achieves uniform 100% inspection that does not vary from person to person, at up to 30 items per second. In development, we struggled to balance illumination control with the processing load at a high level, but we overcame this through accumulated proprietary technology and a parallel processing design. We will continue to contribute to stable quality and labor savings on the factory floor.
— Tomomi Sato, CEO and Representative Director, TOMOMI RESEARCH Inc. (as printed: "Tomomi Sato, President, TOMOMI RESEARCH")
The TR-300 Technology Behind the CEO's Comment: Inspecting "While Moving" and "In 3D"
CEO Sato's comment compactly condenses the technical core of TR-300. Let us add a little more detail, unpacking the technical terms along the way.
"While products keep flowing along a continuous conveyor line": Inspection While Moving
Conventionally, inspection that images a product surface in 3D has assumed that the workpiece (the object) is stationary. By combining our proprietary 3D imaging technology FORESIGHT STEREO® with a line scan camera and our own illumination control, TR-300 makes it possible to acquire 3D shape continuously on a moving line. Being able to inspect without stopping the production line brings a major practical benefit on the factory floor.
"Accurately separated and detected using 3D shape information": Capturing Anomalies That Were Difficult in 2D
By controlling illumination from multiple directions, TR-300 acquires information on the surface relief of a product in 3D (technically called "normal vectors," information indicating the orientation of the surface). As the comment says, this lets it accurately separate and detect, as differences in shape, scratches and dents that were difficult to distinguish from dirt or patterns in conventional 2D (flat) inspection. Stable automatic judgment is possible even for glossy parts and products with curved surfaces.
"Uniform 100% inspection that does not vary from person to person": Addressing Inconsistent Inspection Quality and Labor Shortages
In quality assurance on the factory floor, many processes still have to rely on visual inspection by skilled inspectors. Yet securing inspectors grows harder every year, and variation in human judgment is an unavoidable challenge. Combined with our anomaly detection engine E3 ENGINE®, TR-300 achieves uniform 100% inspection that does not vary from person to person. Through inspection automation, we aim to help achieve both stable quality and labor savings.
Closing
Having our CEO's comment featured in Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun is entirely thanks to the customers, partner companies, and everyone in our region and industry who have supported us. We thank you once again from the bottom of our hearts.
As CEO Sato wrote at the end of the comment, we will keep contributing, from the technology side, to stable quality and labor savings on the factory floor. Rooted in Fujisawa and Kanagawa, we will steadily refine technology that serves Japanese manufacturing. We look forward to your continued guidance and support.
Contact
For technical consultations, adoption inquiries, or press inquiries about TR-300, our high-speed, continuous 3D × AI inspection system, please use the contact form on the TOMOMI RESEARCH Inc. official website (https://www.tomomi-research.com/en/), or reach us by email (info@tomomi-research.com) or phone (Tel: +81-466-54-9003). Please feel free to contact us.
