Research activities for applying quantum computers, the next-generation of computing technology capable of making huge volumes of calculations at much higher speeds, to the real world is accelerating.
Capabilities of the technology, which had been regarded as a dream calculator, have gradually advanced along with progresses in its development.
There are also moves to apply quantum computing to such purposes as high efficiency in product distribution and financial fields.
Quantum computers make calculations based on quantum mechanics, which are laws of physics that work only in extremely minute scales.
While conventional computers display information based on an elementary unit called a bit comprising 0 and 1, quantum computing uses a special unit called a quantum bit, which can display both 0 and 1 factors at the same time.
Therefore, it is expected that quantum computers will be capable of processing huge volumes of information at very high speeds.
-- Garbage collection routes
In Tokyo's Marunouchi district, skyscrapers stand in line like a forest. From the business district where a large number of company employees work, a huge volume of garbage is discharged everyday.
It is a big task for the district to efficiently collect garbage.
In March, Tokyo-based Mitsubishi Estate Co. and Groovenauts Inc., a Fukuoka-based start-up specializing in artificial intelligence technologies, announced that by reviewing the number of garbage-collection vehicles and routes, the total running distances of the vehicles can be reduced by about 60% from the current level.
The companies reached the conclusion via calculations by a quantum computer and an AI program.
There are as many as a 27-digit number of routes for the garbage-collection vehicles to run through 26 buildings in the Marunouchi district one by one.
Finding the most efficient route from among them is an extremely complicated calculation, and it is the biggest advantage that quantum computers are suitable for doing that.
An official of Groovenauts said, "We want to contribute to more comfortable conditions of a city area by combining quantum computing and AI."
-- Eyeing 'post-coronavirus'
The quantum computer used by Groovenauts was developed by D-Wave Systems Inc., a Canadian start-up. The model of quantum computers is based on a method called, "quantum annealing," which was developed by Hidetoshi Nishimori, a specially appointed professor of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
The method is advantageous in searching for the best combinations from among huge numbers of options in a choice.
This type of computer is also utilized in research of the new coronavirus. Sigma-i Co., a Tokyo-based start-up that originated in Tohoku University, proposed that quantum computers can be utilized to help with the transportation of patients.
The company also studies how the distribution of goods, which has largely increased in the wake of stay-at-home requests amid the coronavirus outbreak, will change in the "post-coronavirus" years.
Masayuki Ozeki, 38, president of the start-up and associate professor of the university, said, "Quantum computing can be a silver bullet for this complicated society to be more efficient."
-- New risks
Quantum computing is also attracting attention in such fields as the financial service and chemistry.
Keio University and domestic major banking groups now study whether quantum computers can be utilized in the future for deciding the prices of financial derivative products that immediately coincide with changes in the markets.
The quantum computer that the team uses was made by IBM Corp. of the United States. It is a type called "a quantum gate" method. While the quantum annealing method is limited to a certain range of usage, the quantum gate method can be used for many kinds of calculations.
In October last year, Google Inc. of the United States announced that its quantum gate computer succeeded in resolving a mathematical problem, which they say conventional supercomputers would take 10,000 years to answer, in three minutes and 20 seconds.
Currently, the model of quantum computers face many technological hurdles for it to be widely used in society. But the impact of its many capabilities and super high speed will be large.
Still, the appearance of these super-performance quantum computers could create new risks.
Tomoki Tanaka, 33, a member of the research team from Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, said, "It is possible that secret codes, which are essential for financial transactions, may be decoded in short time."
Shunpei Uno, 36, chief consultant of Mizuho Information and Research Institute Inc. said, "To rightly judge how [quantum omputers] will be utilized in the financial industry in the future, the entire industry needs to learn about them, first of all."
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