Casio announced a joint lunar exploration development project with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), using its “visible light communication” technology to track exploration robots on the lunar surface. The technology, originally developed in the mid-1990s for console games, failed to commercialize due to insufficient camera performance but is now a core element of Japan’s space projects. Industrial technologies once sidelined are experiencing a revival driven by growth in AI, space exploration, and autonomous driving. IBM’s mainframe systems, deemed “obsolete” with the rise of PCs and cloud computing, have been repositioned as critical infrastructure due to surging AI demand, evolving into high-performance AI servers. Microsoft’s Kinect, launched in 2010 and discontinued due to a lack of compatible game content, has gained new value in the AI era, with its depth recognition and 3D sensing used in obstacle-avoidance sensors for autonomous robots and vision cameras for automated cargo loading. Sony, facing growth limits from the stagnant global smartphone market, developed “intelligent sensors” with built-in AI processing capabilities that select and analyze necessary information autonomously.