Hitomi Tsujita

Complete fashion coordinator: a support system for capturing and selecting daily clothes with social networks

For some people, selecting the clothes you wear is sometimes tedious, difficult and requires you to remember what you have previously worn. While there are many fashion SNS (Social Networking Services) sites and related research devoted to addressing certain aspects of this issue, there is no system that combines both the automated cataloguing of ones own clothes with near real-time recommendation by their social network. In this paper, we propose a novel system which allows users to easily organize and optimize their daily clothing selection based on historical data. By combining historical information about what the user has worn with several options such as the users planned activities and the weather, it can help the user in coordinating what to wear. In order to simplify and automate the capture, storage and cataloging of image of the users clothing, we propose a system which allows for the automatic and standardized capturing of a persons clothes by simply hanging an item on a hook built into a cabinet. Furthermore, by utilizing the internet and common SNS sites, it allows friends, family living apart and/or romantic couples to seamlessly share the catalogued photos of their clothes, initiate conversation and help select what is appropriate to wear.

CU-Later: a communication system considering time difference

Despite the widespread use of technology for social communication across distance, a number of barriers to such contact still exist. One such barrier is the problem of communicating with people in different time zones. To address this problem, we propose the CU-Later system which considers the time difference between two locations. CU-Later is a system which allows synchronizing activities across time zones by displaying recorded video of a remote activity after a time shift. As one example of its use, the system connects two remote dining tables and lets users see and hear each other having dinner despite actually having done so at different times. We discuss the design of this system and a preliminary field test of time-shifted video.

HappinessCounter: smile-encouraging appliance to increase positive mood

As William James stated, and confirmed by several psychological studies, the act of smiling positively affects on our mental status -- we become happier when we laugh. In this paper, we propose a new digital appliance that naturally encourages the act of smiling in our daily lives. This system is designed mainly for people living alone, who may have difficulty realizing when they are in low spirits andor difficulty in making themselves smile. Our HappinessCounter combines visual smile recognition, user feedback, and network communication. We installed this system in a home with a single occupant, and the system had positive effects on the users mood.