Masashi Nakatani

Smart glasses with a peripheral vision display

This paper describes a design for smart glasses with a peripheral vision display. We show that users are able to perceive information from our device. We explore different animation patterns. The recognition rates for over 8 patterns are over 80 %. We also evaluate if users can recognize the patterns still while watching a video (for 5 patterns a recognition from the user of over 90 %), 7 users with in total over 637 patterns shown. In an first application case, we just focus on notification. Yet as related work shows, user interactions utilizing peripheral vision.

Personalized record of the city wander with a wearable device: a pilot study

In this paper, we proposed personalized guided walking holidays in the city with wearable devices, which aim to provide a personalized service based on ones interest [Figure 1]. We firstly hypothesize that ones heart rate rises when he/she sees something he/she is curious about, and then test this using our developing prototype device. We conducted an experiment with four participants, in popular holiday walking areas such as Akihabara and Asakusa area in Tokyo. The data suggests that heart rate is significantly higher when participants see what they consider an interesting spot when compared with spots they are indifferent towards, implying that our concept is supported by quantitative physiological data responses. Perspectives of this research direction are discussed in terms of the relationship between city and human emotions.

Too hot, too fast! Using the thermal grill illusion to explore dynamic thermal perception

Thermal perception is important in the experience of touching real objects, and thermal display devices are of growing interest for applications in virtual reality, medicine, and wearable technologies. In this paper, we designed a new thermal display, and investigated the perception of spatially varying thermal stimuli, including the thermal grill illusion. The latter is a perceptual effect in which a burning sensation is elicited in response to touching a surface composed of spatially juxtaposed warm and cool areas. Using a computer controlled thermal display, we present experiments in which we measured temporal correlates of the perception of spatially inhomogeneous stimuli, or thermal grills. We assessed the intensity of responses elicited by thermal grill stimuli with different temperature settings, and measured the response time until the onset of burning sensations. We found that thermal grills elicited highly stereotyped responses. The experimental results also indicated that as the temperature difference increases, the intensity increases monotonically, while the response time decreases monotonically. Consequently, perceived intensity was inversely correlated with response time. Under current physiological explanations, responses to thermal stimuli depend on tissue heating, neural processing, and the spatial distribution (or juxtaposition) of surface temperatures. The results of this study could help to inform models accounting for these factors, enabling new applications of the thermal grill illusion.

Extra-normal interactions in mediated virtual environments: An investigation of an audio-visual crossed-sense modality

Here, we propose that the use of unusual crossed-sense-modality couplings can be exploited to engineer non-realistic but potentially beneficial VEs providing high degrees of interaction and presence, and provide new avenues for enhancing the experience and utility of single- and multi-user VE technologies. We report users reactions to mediated environments in which the sound of their voice is represented via a frequency-to-color-mapped visualization. Users reported a sense of interaction and enjoyment, but results from a preliminary user study have yet to show a clear link with presence. We discuss the next stages of the research which will investigate how mixed-sense modalities contribute to co-presence and collaboration in multi-user environments.