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Although social skills are important, to increase these skills is difficult. In this paper we propose an experimental system that lets a user "feel" the appropriate distance between him/her and another person in order for social interaction to take place in an optimal setting. We created wearable thermal devices that transmit thermal information to the person wearing them and linked them to an edutainment system called "Thermo-society". "Thermo-society" is a system that creates thermal sensory spots around people in an open space. Thermal sensory spots are generated based on the knowledge of proxemics. Through an experiment, we analyze people΄s behavior in the space. As a result of the analysis, we estimate the average distance between two users in the same group is 1.45meters. We noticed in our experiment that people, when playing Thermo-society, allow strangers to come in personal distance in 44.4% of the cases, which suggests that our system increases the potential for social interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal sensation is a kind of a haptic sensation and is very familiar feeling. However it is difficult to realize a thermal display which gives realistic thermal feedback because thermal characteristic has a larger ambiguity and is late-response. Alternatively, thermal feedback could be used as a new channel for the transmission of imaginary characteristics. We are aiming to add characteristics to the existing space by providing people with location-dependent thermal information. By manipulating thermal information presented to people, we can change implicit partitioning of the space without physically reconstructing it. ″Thermotaxis″ is a system that gives sensations of cool and warm to users by controlling thermoelectric devices wirelessly. In this system, the space is characterized as being cool or warm. Users experience the difference in temperatures while they walk in the space. Preliminary analysis shows that people stay close in the area of a comfortable temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We developed RFID woven textile and a customized textile inspection machine with an automatic map making function. These developments have potentials to extend location aware systems in real use. In this paper, we present a process of the development of RFID, the developed map-making system and an accuracy of the automatically made map and time saving effect. And we outlined two prototypes of human activity detection using RFID textile. One is a pilot application of a tracking system using 19-meter coated RFID textile as a carpet. A person΄s tracking is detected by shoes that RFID readers were embedded. Another one is a pilot application of a human-activity tracking system using RFID textile wear. By wearing it, the predefined behaviour is detected by embedded RFID readers in the environment. In section 6 conclusions and future works are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A conventional movie watching method is to view movies in front of a large screen such as theaters. Conventional presenting images in fixed position have a problem that it is easy for audiences to lose their spatial sensation of existing movies. In this paper, we propose a novel movie watching method in order to improve presence in existing media contents using virtual reality technology. We assumed when frames are presented with shooting angle based on audiences΄ looking position, their presence will be much higher. To represent the camera-shooting angle, we used a optical flow method. We proposed a movie watching viewing method based on the reconstructed camera shooting angle which is presented with a moving projector or a wall screen. We thought that our method made it possible to reconstruct lost spatial in movies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor play is an important activity in young children΄s lives which should be encouraged. Cultural and social demographic data inform of decreasing numbers of children and shortage of playgrounds around urban areas. Technological advancements such as television and computer games have influenced children΄s recreational activities so that they prefer to play indoors rather than outdoors. In order to motivate children to play outside we propose technologically supported play tool titled `SoundTag΄. This is a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based wearable system that uses sound interaction. We deployed two types of SoundTag system. The first one is the interactive wearable system with sound feedback. And the second one is interactive sound feedback with sound recording system. In this paper, we detail the concept of the system and related design theory. A pilot experiment with the first SoundTag system is reported where we observed the system in use. And followed by the observation of the experiment, the second SoundTag system is deployed and the preliminary experiment is reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A research on biometry based on human brain activities has lately become attracted and emerging. In this study, we investigate the feasibility of personal identification based on photo retrieval using three-channel electroencephalogram. Nine photo images were randomly presented one after another to five subjects without training. The Principal Component Analysis and the Linear Discriminant Analysis were applied to perform the simulation of the personal identification. The algorithm correctly identified 82.5, 93.0, and 100.0 % of the subject using EEG activities with 5, 10, and 20-times averaging, respectively. This study reveals a future possibility of photo retrieval tasks to realize the personal identification system using human brain activities, which will yield rich controls of machine for the users of brain-computer interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, we have many chances to operate cellular phone to browse e-mails or web sites. However, operating cellular phone in transit may cause dangerous conditions. This paper describes the ergonomic evaluation of hands-free input interface for wearable computing. The Interface is designed to operate the computer by mimetic muscle movements, which are detected by piezo films attached to the surface of the skin. In order to evaluate the input interface using facial actions, we measured user΄s behavior and mental state by wearable measuring device. The user΄s behavior is observed by the CCD camera and pedometer, and user΄s mental workload is measured by the RRV (variance of R-R intervals of ECG). We evaluated the efficiency of the developed interface by comparing with cellular phone, which can connect to the Internet. We proved that the input interface using mimetic muscle movements has high compatibility between computer operation and daily activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information visualization is an effective method to grasp a complete view of huge data. In the field of genome science, researchers are faced with a large biological data set analysis. Large biological data set are accumulated in public web sites. They want to grasp whole view of the data and extract biological meanings from the data. We have taken an information visualization approach for supporting genome data analysis. In addition, we have chosen a wide viewing angle display, a wall type display which enables us to experiment virtual environment, as a display of visualized data. A wall type display has an ability to present large amount of data in the broad view. It will help users to see the data summary and to detect abnormal regions. In this paper, we discuss human genome data visualization using a wall type display. We could present a human chromosome data on the wall. This could help genome researchers to browse the data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our previous study, a method that allows dynamic interaction with an elastic object, which is called impulse response deformation model, has been proposed. An advantage of the method is that the order of complexity is lower than other approaches that solve equations of deformation models in real time; hence the method enables haptic interaction with more complex object. In this paper, an extension of the model that enables efficient computation of elastic deformation in interaction with surfaces, such as floor and wall, is discussed; unlike point-based interaction in our previous studies, pre-recorded response to impulse force that is applied by surface rather than point is used for the computation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electroencephalogram signals of steady-state visual evoked potentials were recorded for three subjects in immersive virtual environment. A machine learning technique of support vector machine with single trial EEG data for 1.0 seconds resulted in 92.1 % of averaged recognition rate in selecting a virtual button among two. The online demonstrations in CAVE showed good performance in position control of a simple 3D object. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An approach to haptic interaction and simulation of motion and deformation of elastic object is proposed. In our approach, the motion of an object is defined by changes of kinetic momentum and angular momentum after impulse force is applied to each degree of freedom, and the deformation of the object is defined by a set of temporal deformation patterns after impulse force is applied to each degree of freedom, which we call extended impulse response deformation model. The time complexity of computing interaction force is independent of the complexity of the model. This feature is advantageous for time-critical applications. Also, the time complexity of computing object deformation is linearly proportional to the complexity of the model. Through implementation of a prototype environment and evaluation of its performance, the feasibility of the proposed approach is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are needs recently to push information technology beyond the desktop environment. It is because even decades after the proliferation of information technology, it still, by large, confine the users in its own domain. Conventional IT confined users to the desktop and virtual reality technology confined the users onto specialiced devices such as the HMD, large screen display room, or the CAVE. Our vision is to push for the ubiquity of IT beyond the mobile cell phone media. This paper discusses several requirements for the real IT vision. Spefically we are interested in the characteristics of display technologies that suit our vision. We will describe several key technologies that have been developed within this requirements, and our most recent work in this field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientists in the data mining field are constantly faced with the challenge of finding useful information from a huge amount of information. We have to analyze the data until we can get the appropriate information. We have to select one part of the data, compare them against each other, or arrange them in certain order. This approach is also known the trial and error approach. A trial and error approach requires the users' judgment, for example, to correctly set certain parameters; it is an approach that place importance not only to the end result, but also to the process in achieving the end result. In this paper, we propose visualization methods to visualize past working history for supporting trial and error approach in data mining. We use our methods to visualize web browsing logs and data browsing logs in genome science fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large number of the world's cultural heritage sites and landscapes have been lost over time due to the progress of urbanization. Digital archive projects that digitize these landscapes as virtual 3D worlds have become more popular. Although a large numbers of studies have been made on reconstructing 3D virtual worlds, the previous methods have been insufficient, because they require significant effort. In this study, we propose a new method of reconstructing a 3D virtual world only from photo images that requires little intervention. The idea is to reduce the learning curve of the software need and automate the method as much as possible so that we can digitize as many heritage sites as needed. In our approach, we first reconstruct 3D models from single 2D photos using an image based modeling and rendering(IBMR) technique. After reconstructing models from all the available photos, we connect the 3D models into one unified 3D virtual world. Specifically, we implemented a seamless connection algorithm that supports free viewpoint translation. And we demonstrated the reconstruction of part of a cultural heritage site based on our system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]