ayumi
Ayumi's short story
🇬🇧 🇯🇵

This cat, whose name was Ayumi, lived in the laboratory where I studied for Ph.D. Ayumi was a clearly white female, and had odd eyes, i.e. one of her eyes was blue and the other was gold. Her name Ayumi, which means "steady steps of walking," is a usual name for Japanese women, is the name of a box used to collect money for coffee from the members of the laboratory. This is because "Ayumi-box" is a famous charity organization in Japan.

Ayumi urinated in garbage in the laboratory and was inspected by the administration of the department. She was then banished from the university and went away.

However, this portrait of hers had been used as a sample image for image processing researches in the laboratory. She appeared on many scientific papers of international journals written by the members of the laboratory. She once appeared on the cover page of an issue of an international journal.

Many members, including myself, of the laboratory completed their Ph.D. theses with her help, and this portrait was used in the laboratory and laboratories where the alumni of the laboratory were working.

Thirty years have passed since we met Ayumi. I wish she lived in happiness.

 

 
ayumi eye

Supplement 1:
This photo shows Ayumi's right eye. It is magnified and its brightness is modified. It is found that the photographers are reflected on the eye. There was no digital camera anywhere at that time, and it required an expensive CCD camera and a big computer to take a digital photo.

 

Supplement 2:
Ms. Lena Sjööblom-Soderberg, a former playmate, was awarded for her contribution to image processing researches, because her photo as a playmate has been widely used as a standard image.