Takashi Matsubara

Evaluation of the IRORI: A Cyber-Space that Catalyzes Face-to-Face Informal Communication

The importance of face-to-face informal communication is well recognized. The ‘irori’ is a Japanese-traditional little sitting space or room with a fire burning which affords relaxation and intimacy among a family. We, adopting the ‘irori’ as a metaphor, have designed and developed a cyber-space called IRORI as an IT-based space that catalyzes face-to-face informal communication among members of a small organization. We conducted evaluations of the IRORI by user experiments. The results of the experiments suggested that the IRORI brought about relaxation and conversation catalysis.

Touch Detection System for Various Surfaces Using Shadow of Finger

In this paper we try to realize a system that enables users to interact with surrounding surfaces using touch interactions. For this purpose, we propose new touch detection technique which utilizes the shadows of a finger, and developed a prototype system with an infrared (IR) camera and two IR lights. Since the shapes of a fingers shadows vary drastically depending on the distance between the surface and finger, our prototype system can detect touch. To improve the accuracy of the estimated touch position, we also introduce multiple regression analysis into the estimation algorithm of the touch position. We conducted two experiments on the accuracy of estimated touch position, and the results shows that the target accuracy was within an error of less than 5 mm.