Atsushi Hiyama

Elderly user evaluation of mobile touchscreen interactions

Smartphones with touchscreen-based interfaces are increasingly used by non-technical groups including the elderly. However, application developers have little understanding of how senior users interact with their products and of how to design senior-friendly interfaces. As an initial study to assess standard mobile touchscreen interfaces for the elderly, we conducted performance measurements and observational evaluations of 20 elderly participants. The tasks included performing basic gestures such as taps, drags, and pinching motions and using basic interactive components such as software keyboards and photo viewers. We found that mobile touchscreens were generally easy for the elderly to use and a weeks experience generally improved their proficiency. However, careful observations identified several typical problems that should be addressed in future interfaces. We discuss the implications of our experiments, seeking to provide informal guidelines for application developers to design better interfaces for elderly people.

Indoor Marker-based Localization Using Coded Seamless Pattern for Interior Decoration

Because marker-based position tracking system is inexpensive and easy to use, it has the potential to make the system more feasible for homes or businesses and broaden the current suite of augmented reality (AR) techniques. To apply marker-based systems to homes or businesses, blending markers with environments naturally is important. Our innovative approach to marker-based 3D position tracking uses seamless patterns encrypted with positional data. Although users can obtain 3D positional data by processing marker images similar to many existing marker-based systems, our markers are designed with interior decoration in mind. That way they can be installed in walls, floors, or ceilings. Unlike existing systems whose fiducial markers were designed first and foremost to be processed by computers, ours are visually attractive. By integrating positional information within the interior design, our system enables users to enjoy the benefits of position tracking without being constantly aware of the systems presence. We developed a method for making patterns in which positional information is encrypted and a method for calculating the 3D position of a user by decoding those patterns. We then constructed a system using three patterns that were made by the proposed method and evaluated that system

Particle Display System — Virtually Perceivable Pixels with Randomly Distributed Physical Pixels —

In this study, the authors propose and implement a particle display system (PDS) that consists of hundreds of randomly distributed pixels. The wireless capability of this system enables each node to move freely without distant limitation of the use of wire cables. The authors also propose effective visual presentation techniques for a display system with randomly distributed pixels. One of the optimization techniques involves the extension of a well-known phenomenon where humans can perceive two-dimensional static or moving images from a set of high-frequency flashing one-dimensional pixel arrays, such as LED arrays, as a characteristic of a humans vision system. While this technique can only extend the virtual resolution of a display in a direction perpendicular to the aligned pixels, our technique enables the display of multi-directional scrolling of two-dimensional images with randomly distributed pixels. In addition, the advantages of presenting information on a display with nonuniform pixel distribution and virtual pixels with fast flash of pixels are discussed. The proposed techniques help in reducing the cost of installing a large-scale display and the time taken for the initial preparation of the setup, which involves carrying large pixel arrays and determining the precise size and shape of the display.

Communication pedometer: a discussion of gamified communication focused on frequency of smiles

Communication skills are essential in our everyday lives. Yet, it can be difficult for people with communication disorders to improve these skills without professional help. Quantifying communication and providing feedback advice in an automated manner would significantly improve that process. Therefore, we aim to propose a method to monitor communication that employs life-logging technology to evaluate parameters related to communication skills. In our study, we measured frequency of smiles as a metric for smooth communication. In addition, smiling can improve happiness even if a smile is mimicked. Ultimately, we provided feedback results to users in a gamified form and investigated the effects of feedback on communication.

Social platform for sharing accessibility information among people with disabilities: evaluation of a field assessment

Accessibility information can allow disabled people to identify suitable pathways to reach their destinations, but it is difficult to obtain new accessible pathway information rapidly because of limited local information disclosure. Thus, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive system that acquires barrier-free information from various sources and makes that information available in an intuitive form. In this study, we aimed to develop a social platform to obtain and present appropriate information depending on the users situation, such as the users disabilities and location, and to share the barrier-free information provided by other users.

R2D2 w/ AIRR: real time & real space double-layered display with aerial imaging by retro-reflection

In the advent of a new age of natural user interaction with 3D gesture recognition cameras (e.g. Kinect, Leap Motion, Intel Real Sense, etc.), it is expected to display a floating image on top of a flat display to directly manipulate rendered objects and to utilize 3D interface with a full function. To present floating images with a conventional 2D display, researchers have studied diverse, passive re-imaging techniques to converge the displayed image in a midair. For instance, Repro3D [Yoshida et al. 2011] combined a peppers ghost technique with a retro-reflective multi-array-projection to augment a floating, motion-parallax image with real scenes at the back of a half-mirror. Smoot et al. [Smoot et al. 2011] demonstrated a volumetric scanning mid-air display by a rim driven varifocal beam-splitter and a high-frame rate LED display. HaptoMIRAGE [Ueda et al. 2014] applied three large fresnel lens in a lateral direction to construct a wide-angle-view autostereoscopic display with a haptic feedback. Monnai [Monnai et al. 2014], Kim [Kim et al. 2014] and Maekawa [Maekawa et al. 2006] employed micro corner mirror arrays to form a clear real image with a wide range of focal points.

T-echo: Promoting Intergenerational Communication through Gamified Social Mentoring

Intergenerational social mentoring, a mentoring system on social medium between the elderly and the young, will be the one of the platforms for the elderly to make use of their potential. The elderly could have more chances to communicate their knowledge and experience accumulated through their life to the next generations, and the young could try more challenges under the wisdom of crowds. Such systems should 1) have senior-friendly interface, 2) support the rich context-aware communication, and 3) blur some intergenerational gaps. In this paper, we propose “T-echo”, a new trial system for intergenerational social mentoring. T-echo is based on the two concepts: “growing gamifictaion” and “calendar-based interface.” The field study 15 elderly joined showed that the calendar-notebook interface was friendly for the elderly and have rich contexts for mentoring. Furthermore, growing gamification could be a good mediator between the elderly and the young.

Particle display system: a large scale display for public space

In this paper, the authors propose a large-scale display for public spaces. The display is based on the particle display system (PDS), which consists of hundreds of randomly distributed pixels. PDSs can be realized with random distributions, unlike traditional displays that require ordered matrices. Effective visual presentation techniques for a display system with randomly distributed pixels are employed to overcome the drawbacks and even realize advantages. The proposed display system can be used in applications in large spaces and public art and architecture facade displays, owing to its features described in this paper. In addition, the authors report the design principle and an implementation of a life-size prototype of a large ceiling display.

GBER: A Social Matching App which utilizes Time, Place, and Skills of Workers and Jobs

The worlds population is graying at an unprecedented rate. Promoting senior engagement in the workforce is essential to enhancing senior QOL and mitigating aging-related problems of society by maintaining and encouraging their health, strength, and skills. We argue that we need an innovative matching system of senior workers to jobs. However, effective and appropriate matching and retrieval methods have not been established. We will first introduce four user interfaces that extract user information and label jobs. Then, we will examine the algorithm used to match workers with jobs and to update work profiles. Based on our theory, we built an online consumer-to-consumer/provider matching platform, GBER, where senior workers can find local jobs. We analyzed the log data we collected through our pilot study in Kashiwa, Japan, over seven month with 92 senior users. Our results demonstrated a viable approach to increasing senior involvement in their communities.

Training Archived Physical Skill through Immersive Virtual Environment

The basic of training physical skills is to imitate instructors motion. Observation is the very first step to copy the motion of instructor when at the beginning of learning sports of artisanship. However, beginners face difficulties in imitating at the start since they do not have somesthetic image of the movement. In order to help learning physical skills, we propose Immersive virtual environment using head mounted display that indicates 3D motion of instructor super imposed on learners body. By using this system, learners try to match its own form to instructors 3D model to imitate instructors motion from first person view in virtual environment. At the early stage of this research, we tried to transfer pitching skill in baseball. We evaluated the effectiveness of proposed system by measuring throwing distance.