Hironori Egi

A tangible experiment support system with presentation ambiguity for safe and independent chemistry experiments

We propose a tangible experiment support system that facilitates safe and independent chemistry experiments. For safe experiments, the system displays messages that alert a student to avoid a possible accident based on the operational context. Simultaneously, the system is designed to facilitate active thinking, in which the key concept is multiple interpretations of a message, to avoid dependency on the system in future experiments. The concept of an information presentation with three-dimensional ambiguity, i.e., semantic, spatial and temporal, is presented. A prototype application A3 (A-CUBE) is presented, which extracts various operational contexts in a chemistry experiment from the usage of experimental apparatus and materials. We report the usability experiment and discuss the feasibility of a presentation with ambiguity for active thinking. Additionally, the design principle of a message with semantic ambiguity and future work are presented.

DACS: distance aware collaboration system for face-to-face meetings

Mobile and ubiquitous computing is now put into practical use, with the spread of wireless communication environment and digital devices that are suitable for mobility. People often come together with these devices, and make a team to share information in order to work cooperatively. In this paper we propose DACS (Distance Aware Computing System) that supports collaborative situation as face-to-face meetings. We will introduce the concept of physical distance between users to simplify the operations. Services are easily presented by DACS without any additional operations and users only needs to approach a certain working place with their terminals, and are able to gain information from neighboring devices, or are able to cooperatively use devices settled in meeting rooms. Several applications to support face-to-face collaborations are implemented, and from the experiments total significance of DACS is shown.

Alerting accidents with ambiguity: a tangible tabletop application for safe and independent chemistry experiments

We propose a tangible learning system that facilitates chemistry experiments in a safe and independent manner. The system displays messages that alert a student to avoid a possible accident based on the experimental context. Here, we introduce the way of information presentation with three-dimensional ambiguity: semantic, spatial and temporal. Also, a prototype tabletop application named A3 (A-CUBE) is presented, which extracts various contexts in a procedure of a chemistry experiment. Finally, we report on an evaluation experiment to measure its usability and to test the feasibility.

Analyses of Comparative Gaze with Eye-Tracking Technique for Peer-Reviewing Classrooms

This paper focuses on peer-reviewing classrooms, which is a helpful activity for teachers to improve teaching skills, involving students in their course, and using chalks and slides better. This kind of activities mainly consists of a lecture that is open to other teachers and a reflective discussion with the teachers after the lecture. In order to encourage such activities and make them more fruitful, we introduced an eye-tracking technique to understand visual attention of the experts on the actual classroom observations. Beginners on classroom observations are also measured and compared with the experts. From the results of the experiments, a trend of comparative gaze on the elements in classroom like the teacher, the slides, and the students is typically found among the experts. Peer-reviewing with recorded video files from four angles is also being evaluated. These trends may be applied to training programs in faculty development.

AccelPen: Detecting Writing Action with Pen Acceleration Toward Learning Support Systems

This paper describes grasping a state of students and visualizing it with sensors that detect their writing action. The style of studying is being diversified with the spread of utilizing distance education and e-learning systems. Character of students like their interest and preference is also being diversified. With these reasons, it is getting difficult for a teacher to understand status of students objectively in a large classroom. We introduce measuring acceleration of a pen with wireless sensors and establish the method to detect the kinds of their behavior while studying. The result of this research can be applied to designing various teaching support systems.

Spatial connectedness of information presentation for safety training in chemistry experiments

This paper focuses on a principle in presenting safety-related message on the table for a chemistry experiment support system. It is important for students to acquire applied skills to conduct experiments without the system in the future, as well as avoiding a danger in front of them.. We conducted an eye-gaze analysis to find out the effect of spatial connectedness of a message to a hazardous object. The results suggest a design principle against the strength of spatial connectedness in terms of visual search range, possible reaction time and the number of interpretations against a presented message.

Grasping contextual awareness inside aworkspace at the entrance to support group interaction

This research focuses on the entrance of a workspace, where two or more rooms are connected. We propose ASGate (AtmoSphericGate), which conveys change of the state inside the workspace to the members who approach the entrance. This system gathers and stores awareness information from various sensors, and displays the information on the screen integrated into the door. AS-Gate expresses change of the state inside the workspace using colors and animation, and enables members to perform effective works and to facilitate communication. We implemented this system and evaluated effects on the group interaction.

Designing a System of Generating Sound Environment for Promoting Verbal Communication in Classroom

In this study, we developed a system that generates a sound environment that encourages verbal communication among students in a classroom. A lively classroom is essential for student communication. When a classroom is quiet, students may be reluctant to ask questions. Here, the goal is to lower the utterance threshold; thus, we designed a system that plays conversational noise when quietness is detected in a classroom. The playback device comprises a directional microphone, a speaker, and a single-board computer. We introduced the system to an actual classroom and found that changes in sound pressure level were dependent on the location in the classroom and the phases of the lecture. The sound pressure level was investigated and compared relative to subjective student evaluations.

AccelChalk: Detecting Writing Actions with Chalk Acceleration for Collaboration Between Teachers and Students

In this research, we design a system to detect the writing behavior of teachers on a chalkboard. The developed system uses a smart chalk holder with a three-axis accelerometer (AccelChalk) and is used in actual lectures for evaluation. A technique for determining the physical state of learners by using behavior identification has been developed earlier. It has been suggested that this technology could be used to estimate the state of learners in a classroom. We believe that it can also be applied to detect writing behavior on a chalkboard. From an experiment with teachers, the overall recognition rate exceeded 80% in the detection of writing behavior on chalkboard in actual lectures. The teachers suggested that the proposed system was useful for reviewing their lectures. In future work, it will be necessary to make the shape of the AccelChalk more sophisticated.

A fundamental study for participating in multiple teleconferences

The purpose of this research is to support office workers to participate in multiple teleconferences simultaneously. In order to achieve this goal, we have investigated how people understand multiple voices that differ in conditions of overlapping rates. We have evaluated comprehension of the context and the keywords in multiple voices, which is necessary for the users to participate in multiple teleconferences. In addition, we have described the psychological load of the users by using NASA-TLX as the workload index and the physiological load by examining the brain waves of the users. From the experiment, we can show three factors. First, we found more than half of the examinees understand the context when the voices are overlapped completely. Second, little of no difference is observed in the level of comprehension of keywords, between when the voices are half overlapped and overlapped completely. Third, it can also be suggested that examinees are more uncertain of their answers when the voices are overlapped completely compared to when they are only half overlapped. As for the load of the users, our results suggested that imperfect overlap amplifies the psychological load. Based on these results, we will discuss the necessity of selecting appropriate overlap rates and design the environment of multiple teleconferences.