Ryohei Egusa

Development of an Automatic Location-determining Function for Balloon-type Dialogue in a Puppet Show System for the Hearing Impaired.

People with hearing impairments have a tendency to experience difficulties in obtaining audio information. They have difficult to watch puppet shows. In this study, we have undertaken the development of a dialogue presentation function in a puppet show system for the hearing impaired. The dialogue presentation function that was developed is an automatic location-determination system for balloon-type dialogue. The balloontype dialogue turns the lines of dialogue into text and displays it as balloons in the background animation of the puppet show. This function automatically places the balloon-type dialogue in the vicinity of the locations of the puppets. In the evaluation test, 24 college students with a hearing impairment were used as participants, and a comparison was made between a system that implemented the automatic locationdetermination function for balloon-type dialogue and a system that did not implement said function. These results indicate the effectiveness of the location tracking function for balloon-type dialogue as a means for ensuring access to audio information in puppet shows.

Preliminary Evaluation of a System for Helping Children Observe the Anatomies and Behaviors of Animals in a Zoo.

In order to support children’s scientific observation in zoos, we developed a system for helping children to observe the anatomies and behaviors of animals. This system provides viewpoints for observation via animations. Observing the anatomies and behaviors of animals is related to scientific observation. As a case study, we developed a system for learning about penguins and held a workshop at Kobe Municipal Oji Zoo. At the workshop, 19 elementary students used the system and observed how penguins swim and walk along with the skeletons of their legs and flippers. We examined the evaluations of children’s enjoyment of this system. They responded to five items on their feelings about using this system on five-point scales. The number of affirmative responses was found to be more in number than neutral or negative responses. Children were able to enjoy using this system for observing the anatomies and behaviors of animals in a

Full-Body Interaction-based Learning Support to Enhance Immersion in Zoos - Evaluating an Electrodermal Activity Response Support System.

We are developing a learning support system for zoos that enables children to learn through body movements. For children, the zoo is an important place for science education outside of school. However, learning methods in zoos are mainly limited to observing exhibits and explanations. In addition, when children want to observe animals that are hiding, they can neither touch nor observe them. Therefore, in this study, we develop a body-experience-based learning support system that can be applied in zoos. The system measures the learners’ body movements using a sensor, and provides a sense of immersion in the environment where animals live by adapting the surroundings based on these movements. In the first stage of this project, we have developed a prototype that allows learners to jump with animals, and enables children to efficiently learn animals’ physical characteristics. In this paper, we describe the results of our experimental evaluation of by measuring physiological responses.

A Forestry Management Game as a Learning Support System for Increased Understanding of Vegetation Succession - Effective Environmental Education Towards a Sustainable Society

At present, there are many environmental problems, and environmental education is necessary to realize a sustainable society. The most important element of education is practical application of what has been learned, as this will deepen our understanding of the topic. As a part of environmental education, field work is conducted to encourage children to learn vegetation succession. However, because vegetation successions occur over an extended period of time, it is difficult for children to observe and participate throughout an entire vegetation succession cycle even if they do field work. Thus, as a step toward effective environmental education for a sustainable society, we developed a learning support system for children to better understand vegetation successions. This learning support system enables simulated forest management over a period of hundreds of years, providing users the opportunity to observe and learn which factors encourage and hinder plant growth in forests. The system simulates a period of approximately 300 years, and regularly scores the skills of the user according to the state of the forest. The changing score encourages the user to optimize forest management. As a first step of system evaluation, college students were asked to participate as users. Consequently, the participants suggested that this system can enhance understanding of, and problem-solving skills regarding, vegetation successions.

Development of Gesture Recognition Sub-system for BELONG - Increasing the Sense of Immersion for Dinosaurian Environment Learning Support System.

We are developing an immersive learning support system for paleontological environments in museums. The system measures the body movement of the learner using a Kinect sensor, and provides a sense of immersion in the paleontological environment. Conventional systems are only able to recognize simple body movements, which is insufficient to completely immerse learners in the paleontological environment. On the other hand, when they need to perform complicated body movements, learners move their bodies eagerly while thinking. This emphasizes the importance of developing a sub-system capable of recognizing complicated body movements. In this paper, we describe a sub-system developed to recognize the body movement of the most important learner in the immersive learning support system.

SATOYAMA: Time-limited Decision Game for Students to Learn Hundreds Years Forestry Management.

Global environmental problems continue to worsen. In this situation, it is important to understand and experience changes in the natural environment in realistic ways. However, it was difficult to experience these changes in real time because they happen over large time scales. To overcome this problem, the authors developed a game-like learning tool that enables players to learn about vegetation succession. This game is Windows-based and enables players to simulate the conservation of SATOYAMA, rural natural areas. The player selects the actions within a designated time and the vegetation succession of the SATOYAMA changes according to that action. At the end of this game, the score is based on the SATOYAMA conserved by the player. Thirty-seven students participated in this experiment whose result suggested that this game would enable children to develop an interest in vegetation succession and motivate them to learn about it.

Development of Experiential Learning System based on the Connection between Object Models and Their Digital Contents - Collaboration between Tangible Interface and Computer Interaction.

Experiential learning is effective for educating children. However, there are many issues associated with this technique. In this study, we describe the development of a learning support system using which learners can experience touching and viewing in real and virtual environments. In the first stage of our study, we develop a larval mimesis experience system consisting of a Kinect sensor, larval models, and load sensors. The system is controlled using Arduino. Using the proposed system, learners can exercise full body interaction in the virtual environment; specifically, they can experience how larva models are observed in the real environment. The operation of this system was experimentally evaluated by learners from a primary school. The results indicate that the system is suitable for the use of children. In addition, the effectiveness of the learning support was evaluated by using a questionnaire. This paper summarizes the development of the proposed system and describes the evaluation results.

Implementation and Evaluation of Accessible Caption System in Universal Puppetry: A Case Study on Hearing Impaired Children at the Elementary School of Deaf

This study tested and evaluated two functions developed as a part of the balloon-type caption display system in a universal puppetry. Two functions are the automatic location-determining function and the emotional expression function. The automatic location-determining function is feature that make captions positioned according to the positions in which the puppets move. And emotional expression function changes the shape of balloons that represents emotions such as joy, anger, sadness, and pleasure. We conducted the evaluation experiment. Participants are fifteen students with hearing impairments from the elementary school of deaf. The result shows the effectiveness of the automatic location-determining function and the emotional expression function as a means to compensate for vocal information in puppetry for hearing impaired children.

Children's Evaluations of a System Supporting Observation of Anatomies and Behaviors of Animals in Zoos

In order to support childrens observation and taxonomic judgment in zoos, we developed a pilot system to provide animated visualizations of the anatomy and behavior of penguins. Nineteen children observed penguins and a penguin skeleton. We examined the childrens evaluations of this system by conducting interviews. Most evaluations were positive; for example, the system helped children understand penguin anatomy and behavior, which they could not observe just by watching live penguins. From childrens evaluations, the system was found to be useful.

Supporting Zoo Visitorsź Scientific Observations with a Mobile Guide

This study proposes an observation guide to support zoo visitorsâx80x99 scientific observation of animals in motion by providing viewpoints through animations. One of the difficulties that visitors experience when observing animals is that they do not sufficiently understand the functions and behavior of the body parts of the animal they are seeing. The guide aims to enhance visitorsâx80x99 understanding by resolving this issue through the use of animations of the functions and behaviors of parts of animalsâx80x99 bodies. To evaluate the guide, we had kindergarteners and elementary school students use its contents on seals while observing their hind flippers, noses, and claws at the Asahiyama Zoo. Our finding was that the guide was an effective means to enhance the childrenâx80x99s understanding of the functions and behaviors of these parts of the body.