Fusako Kusunoki

Participatory Design of UKIYO-E Game for Children to Support Art Appreciation Based on Interacting with Pictures

We are developing an art-appreciation system that will provide learning information about pictures while generating interest in the pictures themselves. This system can provide learning information on pictures by talking to an artist or people portrayed in the pictures using voice recognition. Furthermore, the system operates through movement and location of the user, and it generates sensation such that the user feels he/she is in the pictures, thus actively appreciating the pictures. As the first step toward this system, we have developed a system that provides learning information to the user by actively talking using ukiyo-e. Here, we quantitatively evaluate this system for primary schoolchildren and determine whether the user is interested in the pictures while talking to the pictures using voice recognition measured by electrodermal activity. In this paper, we summarize the current system and describe two evaluation results.

KIKIMIMI - Voice Separation System for Automating Post Evaluation of Learning Support System

A learning support system with a body experience has a favorable influence on learning in children because they obtain a sense of immersion. It is important to evaluate the learning effect of a learning support system. However, the learning effect of the learning support system was almost evaluated manually in previous research. The authors propose an evaluation system called “KIKIMIMI” for automating the post-evaluation of a learning support system by reactions from the learner’s voice. In this paper, we report the validity of KIKIMIMI as a system for automating a post-evaluation.

BESIDE: Body Experience and Sense of Immersion in Digital Paleontological Environment

We are developing an immersive learning support system for a paleontological environment within a museum. The system measures the physical movement of the learner using a Kinect sensor, and provides a sense of immersion in the paleontological environment by adapting the surroundings according to these movements. As the first stage of this project, we have developed a prototype system that allows learners to experience the paleontological environment. Here, we evaluate the operability of the system, degree of learning support, and sense of immersion for primary schoolchildren. This paper summarizes the current system and describes the evaluation results.

Depth information based separation of moving speakers' voices from mixed recordings

This paper proposes a method for separating the voice of a signal person from the voices of multiple speakers in a mixed recording. When the sounds of multiple speakers are present when a voice recognition system is operating, the quality of speech recognition decreases. The proposed method separates the sound of multiple speakers using signal processing techniques and a microphone array. The position of the speaker is also required; however, the microphone array cannot be used for this purpose. Consequently, the position of the speaker was determined using the Kinect V2 depth image sensor. An experiment was performed to separate a signal voice from many voices. The results of the experiment show that, it is possible to separate two voices using the proposed technique.

Science Education Enhancement within a Museum using Computer-human Interaction Technology

We are developing an immersive learning support system for paleontological environments in museums. The system measures the physical movement of the learner using a Kinect sensor, and provides a sense of immersion in the paleontological environment by adapting the surroundings according to these movements. As the first step toward realizing an immersive learning support system for museums, Yoshida et al. developed and evaluated a prototype system. However, their system cannot learn about certain paleontological features such as the names of extinct animals and their characteristics. Therefore, we developed an improved version of this system that allows for an enriched knowledge of paleontological environments, focusing in particular on extinct animals and plants and the ecological environment. Here, we evaluate the systemâx80x99s learning assistant and immersive features insofar as they are directed toward children in primary school. This paper summarizes the current system and describes the evaluation results.

BESIDE: Immersive System to Enhance Learning Within a Museum

We are developing an immersive learning support system for a paleontological environment within a museum. The system measures the physical movement of a learner using a Kinect sensor and provides a sense of immersion in the paleontological environment by modifying the surroundings according to these movements. As the first stage of this project, we have developed a prototype system that enables learners to experience paleontological environments. We evaluated the operability of the system, the degree of learning support, and the sense of immersion for primary schoolchildren. This paper summarizes the current system and describes the evaluation results.