Nobuyuki Kukimoto

Evaluation Experiment on Eye-to-Eye Contact in Remote Communication with Tiled Displays Environments

In remote communication over the Internet, we consider that non-verbal communications such as eye-to-eye contact in the real world in addition to the existence of co- researchers by transmission of a video in real scene is important. However, it is difficult to realize communication by eye-to-eye contact because camera which used to shoot participant in remote communication is located at the side or top of display equipment. In this paper, we have constructed the scalable tiled displays environment in two points via LAN. In these environment, we have conducted experimental verification on the effect for eye-to-eye contact by changing the position of camera on frame of LCDs on tiled displays. In these experiments, we have found to have a high tendency to discriminate gazers direction of eyes in the case that camera is located at close position for direction that an estimator faces on the front. In addition, the accuracy rate in case that camera is bottom position became lower than case of top position. From above results, we have showed experimentally that each participant enables to turn direction of eyes to a camera in a natural way become important factor for realization of eye-to-eye contact in remote communication.

HyperInfo: Interactive Large Display for Informal Visual Communication

In an office or laboratory, the informal communication that suddenly occurs in a face-to-face meeting sometimes takes the form of a heated discussion or important information sharing. Visual information, such as pictures and graphs, facilitates the fast and accurate communication of an intention between people. Therefore, visual information should be shown quickly in this situation so that the conversation is not interrupted. This paper presents Hyper Info, a system that allows various types of content to be presented simultaneously. Hyper Info consists of a high-resolution large display, touch interaction device, and smartphone as a controller, and its operation is intuitive. The purpose of Hyper Info is to facilitate communication that utilizes visual information. Moreover, in Hyper Info an HTML rendering engine is applied that allows various types of content to be shown. We show that the advantages of a large high-resolution display are that some contents can be temporarily moved into a corner so that they do not overlap other contents and that contents can be expanded if necessary.

Layered Graph Drawing for Visualizing Evaluation Structures

An evaluation structure is a hierarchical structure of human cognition extracted from interviews based on the evaluation grid method. An evaluation structure can be defined as a directed acyclic graph (DAG). The authors propose a layer-assignment method that is part of the Sugiyama framework, a popular method for drawing DAGs, to satisfy the requirements for drawing evaluation structures. Their evaluations demonstrate that the layered graph drawing produced by the proposed layer-assignment method is preferred by users and aids in the understanding of evaluation structures.

E-Grid: a visual analytics system for evaluation structures

In this paper, we introduce E-Grid, a visual analytics system to aid in the understanding of human cognitive structures. E-Grid supports an evaluation structure that is a type of cognitive structure extracted using the evaluation grid method (EGM), which is a qualitative research method based on semi-structured interviews. The EGM is used to clarify user requirements in several fields of applications, such as environmental psychology, marketing research, and decision support. The importance of understanding user requirements is increasing in modern society because of the diversity of individual’s senses of values. E-Grid is designed to satisfy the requirements of EGM experts. In E-Grid, graph drawing and network analysis techniques are employed and users can explore an evaluation structure with the support of visual analytics techniques. The performance of E-Grid was evaluated in a case study using real data and feedback from EGM experts. Through this evaluation, it is demonstrated that the features of E-Grid make it an efficient and effective tool for the analysis of evaluation structures.Graphical Abstract

Minimizing the Number of Edges via Edge Concentration in Dense Layered Graphs

Edge concentration in dense bipartite graphs is a technique for reducing the numbers of edges and edge crossings in graph drawings. The conventional method proposed by Newbery is designed to reduce the number of edge crossings; however, it does not always reduce the number of edges. Reducing the number of edges is also an important factor for improving the readability of graphs. However, no edge concentration method with the explicit purpose of minimizing the number of edges has previously been studied. In this study, we propose a novel, efficient heuristic method for minimizing the number of edges during edge concentration. We demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method via a comparison using randomly generated graphs. We find that Newberys method fails to reduce the number of edges when the number of vertices is large. By contrast, the proposed method achieves an average compression ratio of 47 to 82 percent for all generated graph groups. We also present a real-world application of the proposed method using a causality network of biological data.

Implementation of a decision support system using an interactive large-scale high-resolution display

In this research, we propose and evaluate a decision support system using an interactive large-scale high-resolution display. This decision support system supports the summarization and decision-making of a large amount of disaster information during the occurrence of a large-scale natural disaster. Municipal employees at the disaster control headquarters can display disaster information on the large-scale display with a touch or flick on a laptop or tablet. To evaluate the operability, readability, functionality, and necessity of the decision support system, we surveyed 23 municipal employees in the disaster prevention division using a questionnaire. The system received a great evaluation in all the evaluation items.

Tele-immersive collaborative virtual environment for intuitive interpretation

The purpose of tele-immersive collaboration is to enable people in separate locations to work together effectively by the Virtual Reality (VR) technology facilitating the human intuitive insight and interpretation. Consequently, it is important to cogitate with figures and characters as well as voice communication in Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE). In this paper, we constructed tele-immersive CVE with annotation capability and free-hand drawing of characters and figures into Immersive Projection Technology (IPT) environment. In addition, participants from remote sites connected over a Wide Area Network (WAN) were enabled to interact with each other by sharing annotations via a PDA application. Moreover, we developed applications for scientific visualization and, for intellectual work based on KJ Method inside a tele-immersive CVE. From these results, we are able to maintain essential information for thinking by making annotation on IPT environment, and have proved the system can support intuitive understanding in remote collaborative work.

Agenda Setting in Policy-Making Using Visualization Techniques

In this talk, we will clarify roles of visualization techniques which are mandatory to employ a scientific method in policy-making. Currently, many countries are investing heavily in policy-making process development through the ICT for this purpose. In the policy cycle, there are many opportunities in which a scientific method can be effectively applied especially in the agenda setting. In the phase, it is important to visualize a cognitive structure in a citizen. We focus on the evaluation grid method to figure out the citizens requirement. Once we construct the cognitive structure represented by a graph in which nodes and arcs are represented as constructs and relationships between them, respectively, we can develop a predictive cognitive model which will be useful in the agenda setting. For this purpose we employ multivariate visualization techniques which can figure out meaningful relationships in the cognitive model.

Open Government Data Visualization System to Facilitate Evidence-Based Debate Using a Large-Scale Interactive Display

In this study, we develop an evidence-based debate system using visual information to represent Open Government Data, which allows governments and ministries to distribute public data. This system allows citizens to engage in debates using Open Government Data to enhance life and business. The debates must be directed toward evidence-based decision making because they have major effects on many citizens. These decisions require extensive debate, because the evidence will be different for each stakeholder. Therefore, we focus on the use of visual media because it provides a common language among stakeholders. To display the large volumes of visual media required by various stakeholders to facilitate debate using different forms of evidence, a large-scale display is required for presenting various types of content simultaneously. Thus, we develop an interactive display system with a touch screen interface and a smart phone controller to allow simultaneous operation by multiple users. The display presents visual information using a web rendering engine, which allows the presentation of various types of visual media such as graphs, text, and pictures. Furthermore, it is expandable so that users can develop specialized applications. The results of a user study confirm that the display of multiple visual media is useful for making comparisons, although intellectual layout suggestion function will be required in order to facilitate informal communication with visual media.

Method for practical utilization of tiled display on scientific visualization

Ultra high resolution image and gathering multiple images to tiled display improves effectiveness of scientific visualization application. In this paper, we introduce our applications of tiled display in detail. We investigated two kind of scientific visualization applications. The first is auto layout function that uses meta-information included into images. The second is high seed parallel volume rendering for tiled display. These two applications take advantage of the characteristics of the ultra high resolution of tiled display.