Masayuki Kitazawa

A new method of 3-D movie based on 2-D photo images for the virtual playing catch system

In this study, the authors propose a 3-D movie method based on 2-D photo images for the virtual playing catch system. In virtual system reality of visual information is the most important. A photo image is superior to a model made of polygons at the point of reality. So, the proposed method employs 2-D photo images of objects constructing a virtual world of that virtual system. These objects are a background, a partner and a ball. The partner and the ball move in the virtual world. To do so, their 2-D photo images are cut off from the video films in which these real objects were shot in advance. The images of the partner and the ball, the foreground objects, are sequently pasted on the background with binocular disparity. These composite images are separately presented to a players left and right eyes through a head mounted display (HMD). Thus, the player can see a 3-D movie of the partner and the ball in the virtual world. The proposed method has the advantage of simple and high reality. The performance of this method is demonstrated in this paper.

Human expert's visual inspection in fish drying

Fish drying is a manufacturing for which human skill is crucial. Automatization of that process is attempted by employing knowledge which is obtained from observing human experts way and performing necessary measurements. In every experiment, more than one hundred fishes were dried. And a vast amount of data was obtained. Thus a set of basic drying equations is obtained. Based on those experiments and outcomes, additional experiments were made in order to acquire information about fish appearance. Here in this paper, those results will be described. Two video cameras and a colorimeter were employed for measuring dryness, chromaticity and brightness. An experts procedure and judgement of products were introduced for automatizing the drying procedure. What factors can be applicable for evaluating dried fish is gradually understood by a novice, through observing a human experts way and sharing the same situations with him, again and again. Such ideas are rather directly utilized for determining necessary drying time and evaluating the quality of products.<<ETX>>

Experience-based vehicle operation

Abstract The basic idea behind the present methodology for automated automobile operation lies in building an experience-based system for state regulation of more general systems. In automobile operation, human skill is effective instead of academic knowledge, to quickly learn how to operate a real automobile; that is, experiencing, together with common sense. Control strategy is obtained by the vehicles own experiencing using a few pieces of basic common sense. That is, a piece of common sense works as a sort of qualitative rule. Thus, the vehicle will come to smoothly trace its desirable trajectory with accumulation of experience.

Measurement and analysis of human characteristics on distance perception for man-machine interface of teleoperation systems

The distance information is very important to operate a teleoperation robot in the teleoperation system. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to realize a distance man-machine interface, in order to present the distance information, because the human perceptive distance is different from the actual distance, and also the spatial scale of the real world is different from the virtual world. Therefore, it is very important to measure and analyze human characteristic of distance perception for the man-machine interface of teleoperation systems. In this study, the characteristics of human distance perception are measured, and a mathematical model of human distance perception is proposed. The results suggested that the human perceptive distances are larger (smaller) than the actual distances, if with using (not using) tactile information. The experimental results provide useful basic data to design the distance interface of teleoperation systems, and to investigate the human mechanism of distance perception.

Development of a Following-Type Force Display for the Virtual Catch-Ball System.

In our previous study, a virtual catch-ball system was designed. The virtual catch ball system consists of pitch ball, catch ball and Head Mounted Display (HMD) subsystems. For the catch ball subsystem, the force display of simple structure, large movable area, high safety and low cost is required. Some kinds of force display systems were already proposed by other researches so far. However, the motion range of those force displays is considerable small, or the large mechanical parts are necessary to attain enough motion space. In this study, the authors proposed a following-type force display for the virtual catch-ball system. The force display consists of a force unit, a rotary motion unit and a vertical motion unit. The proposed force display can generate the force in the different directions of the vertical and the horizontal plane, and the merits of this system are large motion range, high safety and low cost. The performance of the proposed force display is demonstrated by several basic experiment.