Takahiro Nakadai

Implementation and evaluation of listenability-centered sound separation system

We developed a sound separation system that uses a microphone array to separate childrens voices from background noise in general living environments. Our focus in the development of this system is on “a clear separation of the human voice” so that it will be easy for children to use. Evaluations conducted of sound separation performance in previous research have not always measured how easily listeners hear separate sounds. In this paper, we examine the validity of our system design by evaluating this factor from the perspectives of engineering and psychology.

KIKIMIMI - Voice Separation System for Automating Post Evaluation of Learning Support System

A learning support system with a body experience has a favorable influence on learning in children because they obtain a sense of immersion. It is important to evaluate the learning effect of a learning support system. However, the learning effect of the learning support system was almost evaluated manually in previous research. The authors propose an evaluation system called “KIKIMIMI” for automating the post-evaluation of a learning support system by reactions from the learner’s voice. In this paper, we report the validity of KIKIMIMI as a system for automating a post-evaluation.

Investigation on Optimal Microphone Arrangement of Spherical Microphone Array to Achieve Shape Beamforming

This paper presents a spherical microphone array design which can be used for capturing a sound selectivity and locally. Capturing a sound by microphone array is achieved by method of Delay and Sum Beam Forming (DSBF). In this method, microphone arrangement has a large effect on the directivity. Using beam forming simulation, the authors investigated on the optimal arrangement of concentrically spherical microphone array which improves the basic performance of beam forming. As a result, we obtained a high directional quality arrangement consisted of truncated icosahedron and regular icosahedron. By comparing the uniformity scattered method, we confirmed the effectiveness of proposed method.

A Full-Body Interaction Game for Children with Hearing Disabilities to Gain the Immersive Experience in a Puppet Show

In this study, we developed a full-body interaction game that assists children with hearing disabilities in experiencing a puppet show by immersing in it. The full-body interaction game presents a type of puppet show that offers opportunities for the audience to interact with the drama. It is designed so that children with hearing disabilities can participate through known communicative movements; it allows children to easily grasp how their movements affect the progress of the story. The experiment results indicate that participating children enjoy the interaction game, and that the system allows the world of the story in the puppet show seem more real.

KIKIWAKE: participatory design of language play game for children to promote creative activitybased on recognition of japanese phonology

This study proposes a system for supporting the Shotoku Taishi game, which is a language play game that uses the voice of children. The Shotoku Taishi game is a group game in which multiple people presenting a problem vocalize different words at the same time and the respondents are required to guess what the combination of the words is. The authors developed and implemented a system using a microphone array to extract the voice of a specific person presenting a problem in this game. The participants were 36 elementary school students whose native language was Japanese. The results showed that the participants were enjoying the Shotoku Taishi game and that this group activity was a creative activity that deepened their awareness of the Japanese language.