Masahiro Koge

COMS-VR: Mobile virtual reality entertainment system using electric car and head-mounted display

We propose a novel virtual reality entertainment system using a car as a motion platform. Motion platforms present a sensation of motion to the user using powerful actuators. Combined with virtual reality content, including surrounding visual, auditory and tactile displays, such systems can provide and immersive experience. However, the space and cost requirements for installation of motion platforms are large. To overcome this issue, we propose to use a car as a motion platform. We developed a prototype system composed of a head mounted display, a one-person electric car and an automatic driving algorithm. We developed and tested immersive content in which users ride on a trolley in a virtual space. All users responded quite positively to the experience.

Enhancement of Motion Sensation by Pulling Clothes

Stimulation of the vestibular and somatosensory systems has been proposed as a way to enhance motion sensation in combination with visual movement. However, such systems may be large with limited presentation areas. Here, we propose a method of enhancing motion sensation by pulling clothing. Our system uses DC motors and force sensors to present traction force and cause skin deformation. We investigated whether users perceived the presented sensation as acceleration, or another physical quantity, and found that they matched it with velocity. We also conducted a user study to see whether immersion of gaming contents could be improved by our clothes-pulling system.

VisuaLift Studio: Study on motion platform using elevator

We present a novel setup called VisuaLift Studio for developing virtual reality content with a motion platform that employs an ordinary elevator and augments the subjective movement of said elevator using sensory illusion of movement induced by vision. A prototype system of VisuaLift Studio consists of an elevator, an acceleration sensor, a microcontroller, a laptop PC, and a head-mounted display (HMD). The experiment demonstrates that it is possible to control the perceived direction of the elevator by providing optical flow through the HMD (visual stimulus), regardless of the real direction of the elevator (physical stimulus). On the other hand, comparing the intensity of subjective movement between the case of visual and physical stimuli and the case of only visual stimulus, the former exhibits significantly stronger sensation of movement, even in the case where the directions of both stimuli are inconsistent.

HapPull: Enhancement of Self-motion by Pulling Clothes

The realism of audiovisual media with self-motion, such as racing games and movies, is enhanced by the sensation of bodily motion. In various studies, this sensation is presented by actually moving the user’s body in accordance with the audiovisual motion. However, such devices tend to be bulky, and compact devices can only simulate one sensation. In our previous study, we proposed a simple and effective system for simulating self-motion. The compact system uses DC motors and string to pull the user’s clothes and thus elicit both skin sensation and deep sensation. However, the system only pulls the clothes backward. Here, we present our improved system named HapPull, which pulls the user’s clothes both forward and backward and presents torque by pulling the clothes diagonally. We investigated whether users perceived the presented sensation as acceleration or velocity, and found that the physical sensation that is related to the traction force created by our system depends on the nature of the visual stimulus.

Jorro Beat: Measurement of Physical and Perceptual Characteristics of Shower Tactile Display

We have developed a system that provides tactile st imuli by controlling the water flow of the shower t o enrich the music experience in the bathroom. User studies have revealed that the music experience while taking a shower was enhanced, particularly when the music has character istic beats or melody. However, the previous system can simply switch between ON and OFF, and sophisticated tactil e expression was not possible. In this paper, we ma de a new shower type tactile stimulation device by controlli ng the water flow of the shower in an analog manner . W evaluated the performance of our prototype both physically an d perceptually, by measuring pressure and discrimin atio threshold of the flow rate by the shower.

2A1-A09 Shower Tactile Stimulation Device in the Bathroom(III) : User Study of Effect on Improvement of Music Experience

We have proposed and developed a system to provide tactile stimulus to enrich music experience in the bathroom by controlling the water flow of the shower. In this paper, we conducted a user study to verify the effect on improvement of music experience by the shower tactile stimulation device. The result showed that music experience while taking a shower was improved. In particular, songs that have a characteristic beats or melody were effectively enhanced by the tactile stimulation of the shower.

Auditory Feedback for Ear Picks

We often clean others’ ears for the purpose of hygiene and communication. However, this activity has a risk of injuring the ears from applying too much force because it is difficult to grasp the movement and position of an ear pick. To solve this problem, we present novel techniques to provide cues for grasping behavior of the ear pick using auditory feedback. We implemented two techniques: (1) direct feedback of scratch sound and (2) conversion of force applied to the ear canal to audible signal. We conducted two experiments to study whether these techniques can help users control the exerted force. Contrary to our expectation, the results of the first experiment showed that the direct feedback of scratch sound had no helpful effect on force control. However, the results of the second experiment showed the marginally significant effect that the conversion of force applied to the ear canal to audible signal reduced force. This result indicates that the audification of the force helps users to control the force.