Special issue on Real World Computing Project

This is a special issue featuring some of the outcome of the Real World Computing Project, which is a 10 year R&D project initiated in 1992 by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The Project covers two technological fields, namely, real world intelligence technology and parallel and distributed computing technology. The Project has been conducted in part by the Electrotechnical Laboratory (ETL) and primarily by the Real World Computing Partnership, which is a consortium comprizing 20 Japanese, Asian and Europian companies and public organizations. Since the Project is coming close to its goal, and its achievements are becoming visible, we believe that a comprehensive report of the outcome of the Project at this stage will benefit the reader. This is the objective of the present special issue.-