In the coming age it is essential for everyone to be able to utilize advanced technology freely. Interface – the concept of facilitating communication between man and machine – will make this possible. The Hitachi Group Pavilion focuses on this theme with myriad displays on the fruits of technological development and the future that they will help realize.

INTERFACE THEATER This circular rotating theater is divided into four stages, and the audience revolves around these stages. Every five minutes the theater revolves 90° to reveal a different presentation.

After the approach stage, in which you are treated to a pleasant show of lasers and music, your seat will quietly move you to the first stage, which is a musical show of the history of scientific development presented through robots and imagery. The second stage, depicting future life that is certain to become a reality thanks to science and technology, is an amusing treatment through animation. The third stage is the highlight, taking you on a journey through outer space and showing you Halley's comet. The show is created through the world's first three-dimensional color computer-graphic images, synthesized with stereophonic sound.

Interface Theater is the first at any expo to use an automated entrance ticket-dispensing system. Pick up a ticket early so you have time to look at the other displays before the show starts.

INTERFACE PLAZA This plaza on the pavilion's first floor has three areas. The Robot Art Corner has a new-generation industrial robot sculpting ice, and a robot with artificial rubber muscles who will amuse you with his clowning. At the Electronic Photography Corner you can superimpose your own picture on an image produced courtesy of Nippon Television, and take home a photo printed out by a high-speed, high-resolution printer.

The News Media Corner features a news system for the near future. The latest news from the Yomiuri Newspaper's new media distribution system, and Nippon Television's news videos will be displayed on a large screen. Another feature sure to attract attention is the Tsukuba Satellite Newspaper, printing out news stories from the Yomiuri Newspaper that have been relayed by satellite from the story locations.

EVENING LASER SHOW In the evening in front of the pavilion, a laser graphics show features seven-color laser beams projected from a pyramid-shaped laser tower with lights shooting along an integrated circuit pattern. It's an event you won't want to miss.

CD 5 Set 9 #30

The Hitachi Pavilion really stands out in my memories of Expo '85. The main theatre was much like the Carousel of Progress introduced at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair, with the audience rotating around several stages. The ice-carving robot was a real hit, and while I couldn't understand the accompanying narration, the crowd did and they really reacted to it. The show started with a block of ice arriving on a conveyor belt, and after the robot set to work on it, with chips of ice flying everywhere, it ended with a pretty fair ice sculpture of an eagle. It was an impressive display of computer controlled machinery, done in a fun and entertaining manner.