Shinichiro Eitoku

Embodied basis of invariant features in execution and perception of whole-body dynamic actions—knacks and focuses of Roll-and-Rise motion

Abstract This paper attempts to discover the invariant features in a whole-body dynamic task under perturbations. Our hypothesis is that the features are useful both for execution and recognition of a task, and have their origin in human embodiment. For the sake of concreteness, we focus on a particular task named “Roll-and-Rise” motion, and carried out a multi-approach investigation. First, an analysis of motion capture data of human performance is presented to show its invariant features. Next, we show that such invariants emerge from the underlying physics of the task, using simulation data. These invariants are actually useful for generating robot motion, which has been successfully realized with an adult-size real humanoid robot. The experimental data are analyzed to confirm the temporal localization of invariant features. Lastly, we present a psychological experiment which confirms that these timings are actually important points where human observers extract crucial information about the task.

Study on design of controllable particle display using water drops suitable for light environment

Controllable particle display has been proposed, that controls the position and blinking patterns to yield a visual representation and the representation to touch these particles. Additionally, as an example of its implementation, a controllable particle display using water drops as the particles was proposed. In this system, objects are represented by projecting images upward onto falling water drops designed to form a plane surface, depending on the positions of the water drops. However, this method has a problem in terms of the brightness of the object. In this paper, we propose a method by which images are projected onto falling water drops at an angle, and users observe the images from in front of a projector.

An ontological approach to lifelog representation for disclosure control

In services using lifelog collected continuously and over a long period of time, disclosure control is essential in order to deal with the privacy because this lifelog includes confidential information which users are unwilling to disclose freely. This paper proposes an ontology model for disclosure control needed to handle each users lifelog. The user is able to easily set disclosure rules on his/her diverse data collected from various data sources. Features of the proposed model are as follows: (1) Values can be differentiated by their context, (2) Various time expressions can be handled and (3) Disclosure attribute is set on each lifelog item (fine-grained control). We show an example of implementation and the result of experiments using an implemented system.

Urgent information presentation using listed sign language

This paper proposes a listed sign language system that combines written expressions in table form with sign language fragments. The system generates urgent video style messages that offer rapid, certain, and easy understanding for environments such as railway carriages. We developed a prototype of the system and conducted an evaluation experiment. The results show that the system improves the level of understanding urgent messages. Participants confirmed that the messages scored highly in terms of ease of understanding, high accuracy, rapid understanding, and sense of security.

Impact of sign language movie and text layout on the readout time

In an emergency such as an earthquake, it is important to give information in different formats that permit everyone to realize rapid assimilation. In public spaces, information is presented to the hearing impaired in text as well as sign language movies. In this case, it is considered that the readout time and impression of the information depend on the layout of sign language movies and text used. However, there are no comprehensive guidelines on the proper layout of sign language movies and text. This paper focuses on optimizing the layout of text and sign language movies to decrease the readout time of the hearing impaired and the normal hearing. Tests show that the optimal spatial separation between the text and its accompanying sign language movie depends on their relative position. They also indicate that the readout time depends on the separation between the line head of text and the center line of the translator in the sign language movie.