Shogo Fukushima

Pull-navi: a novel tactile navigation interface by pulling the ears

Previous studies on navigation for walking have mainly used visual or acoustic sensations, which are not intuitive and can even be dangerous because they may block visual and auditory information from the surrounding environment. Some other studies have used tactile stimulation, which is more intuitive and less annoying, on the hand or arm to generate a pseudo-pulling force [1][2][3]. However, the devices tended to become large and heavy. Maeda [4] achieved walk navigation by using Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation, but such electrical stimulation to the head has some clinical challenges for practical daily use.

Augmentation of material property by modulating vibration resulting from tapping

We present a new haptic augmented reality system that modulates the perceived stiffness of a real object by changing the perceived material with vibratory subtraction and addition. Our system consists of a stick with a vibrotactile actuator and a pad with an elastic sheet. When a user taps the pad, the innate vibration resulting from the tapping is absorbed by the elastic surface. Simultaneously, the vibrotactile actuator provides the intended vibration, which represents a modulated perceived material property such as rubber, wood, or aluminum. The experimental results showed that the participants were able to discern the three materials by tapping.

Ants in the Pants

Nobody likes to imagine that insects are crawling over them. Many of us would become horrified to realize that a feeling ticklishness on the skin was caused by insects. However, many of us have had the experience of playing with ants when we were children. This might indicate that an apparently disagreeable sensation can sometimes changes to being a funny, thrilling, or even a pleasant experience. The aim of our work is to highlight this fact, and to create a new entertainment that we have, named “Ants in the Pants” (Figure 1). This is a system composed of a visual display with a touch senor and a wearable tactile display.

Chilly chair: facilitating an emotional feeling with artificial piloerection

In audio-visual entertainment such as listening to music, game playing, and viewing movies, people frequently seek a richer experience. However the improvement in experience that can be obtained by improving audio and visual quality is reaching its limit.

Ants in the Pants -ticklish tactile display using rotating brushes-

We created a new entertainment called ldquoAnts in the Pantsrdquo. A user can see many ants moving around on a visual display. The userpsilas hand is placed into a tactile display in the form of a glove that has a matrix of small motors with brushes inside it. When the user places their gloved hand on the visual display, the user can feel a sensation as if ants are crawling up their arm. We have tested the system with more than 500 participants. In response to a questionnaire, about 75% of users responded that the experience was ldquoenjoyablerdquo and 54% that it was ldquorealisticrdquo. Moreover, our work was able to entertain most people regardless of their reaction to the experience. We believe our ldquoAnts in the Pantsrdquo opened the door to a new type of ldquouncomfortable, creepy but enjoyablerdquo entertainment.

Palm touch panel: providing touch sensation through the device

We present a novel touch sensitive handheld device, called Palm Touch Panel, which provides electro-tactile feedback on the back of the device thus simulating the sensation of being able to touch the users palm directly through the device. Users hold the mobile device, which has an electro-tactile display attached at the back. When a finger touches the visual cues on the front screen panel, such as a button or an icon, the electro-tactile display at the back transmits the unique tactile sensation associated with this behavior of the cues to the palm of the hand. As a result, we speculate that the user can manipulate visual information with less visual attention, or even potentially in an eyes-free manner. In this paper we discuss the creation of this unique mobile device that allows the palm to be used for tactile feedback, thus enhancing the touch screen experience.

Judged Consonance of Tactile and Auditory Frequencies

With the aim of augmenting auditory sensation by tactile stimuli, we investigated cross-modal relationships between the two modalities, focusing on frequency. The results showed that frequency consonance between tactile and audio stimuli depends on the relationship between harmonics, in a manner similar to auditory waves, but with broader peaks.

Periodic tactile feedback for accelerator pedal control

Sensing the position and movement of the accelerator pedal in a vehicle is important for acceleration control and safety while driving. The accelerator pedal is controlled by the foot, but precise adjustment requires much training because the driver must rely on somatosensory cues, which provide limited feedback. In this study, we propose periodic tactile feedback for the accelerator pedal to provide an additional tactile cue. We conducted an experiment using a driving simulator to compare the lap time, the rate of off-track incidents and the subjective evaluation of controllability recorded in questionnaires. The experiment confirmed that the feedback makes the control of acceleration easier and facilitates safer driving.

Optimal selection of electrodes for muscle electrical stimulation using twitching motion measurement

Muscle electrical stimulation envisions a wide range of human augmentation application. However, the applications commonly have issue of optimal electrodes placement. In this paper, we propose a method to select the optimal electrodes placement for finger flexion using twitching motion measurement. We delivered electrical stimulation producing twitching motion and measured the acceleration. By summing and averaging the acceleration waveforms and taking the difference between the maximum and minimum value, we measured the contribution of the electrical stimulation and used it to select the optimal electrodes pair for the movement. Preliminary experiment with four electrodes showed feasibility of our method.

Embedded motion: generating the perception of motion in peripheral vision

We aimed to generate a visual sensation of motion in any direction, with both video and still images. In drawings such as comics, radial or parallel patterns are often used to represent the direction of motion and velocity of objects. In recent years, another approach has been developed, using characteristics of the human visual system to induce the perception of motion. One such example is the Fraser illusion [Chi et al. 2008]. In all these approaches, the background is hidden, which decreases the realism of the image. We propose a new method of conveying motion, utilizing characteristics of foveal and peripheral vision. Our method recognizes that users can perceive motion without image distortion.