Tomu Tominaga

Controlling virtual body size to reduce discomfort caused by inappropriate interpersonal distance

Maintaining personal space is important for person to lead a comfortable social life because an inappropriate interpersonal distance often renders discomfort; however, constantly maintaining an appropriate interpersonal distance is difficult. Controlling the visual distance---rather than the physical distance---solves this problem. Therefore, we propose an interpersonal distance control method with a video see-through system, consisting of a head-mounted display and an RGB-D camera. The system controls interpersonal distance by using simple image processing to change the size of persons in the head-mounted display view. To confirm the effectiveness of this method, we conducted experiments that proved that a reduction in virtual body size of persons in the user view reduced discomfort felt by a user. This means that even the prototype system with simple image processing, can reduce discomfort caused by inappropriate interpersonal distance.

Investigation on dynamics of group decision making with collaborative web search

In this paper, we present results of investigation on the dynamics of group decision making - how people discuss and make a decision-with collaborative web search. Prior works proposed systems that support group decision making with web search but have not examined the influence of discussion behaviors especially on the satisfaction levels with the final conclusion. In this study, we conducted a set of experiments to observe discussion behaviors and the consequent satisfaction with the conclusion using our experimental system and a set of questionnaires. The task for each participant was to make a decision on a restaurant. Our primary results revealed (1) the similar activities across all groups at the beginning and the end of the group discussion, (2) a lack of correspondence between the satisfaction with the conclusion and the time spent to reach the conclusion, and (3) the presumption that a member who actively engaged in the activities that were visible for the other members was likely to be voted as a leader in the group discussion beyond the discussion. Finally, we discussed how to implement intelligent systems that aid group decision making.

Extension of Smartphone by Wearable Input/Output Interface with Floor Projection

In this paper, we propose an extension of smartphones with a wearable input/output interface with floor projection (WIIFP). WIIFP has advantages in comparison with smartphones. First, WIIFP allows the user to access information without retrieving the device. Thus, information access is quick and easy in comparison with typical smartphone. Second, floor projection is large and public. Therefore, WIIFP performs well at pasting temporal information on floor and sharing information with other users. Thus, we propose interaction between WIIFP and smartphones to take advantages of WIIFP and comfort mobile computing. Then, we illustrate utilization of WIIFP, which extends the function of smartphones describing a specific scenario. We studied the usability of the extension of smartphones by WIIFP. We obtained feedback of using the smartphone and WIIFP. The combination of the smartphone and WIIFP was found to be suitable for multi-tasking and multi-users.

Floor Interaction with Wearable Projection Interface Using Hand and Toe

We conducted a user study to unveil the usability of a wearable input/output interface using hands and toes for operating applications such as telephone calls and e-mails. Specifically, subjects performed tasks in the states “hands-free,” “having baggage in their dominant hands,” and “having baggage in both hands” using the proposed system and a smartphone. Then, we evaluated the usability according to a questionnaire, an interview, and the task completion time. The results indicate that hand and toe input in the proposed system were accepted when performing simple button operations such as answering the phone. In addition, hand input in the proposed system was accepted when performing scroll operations such as reading an e-mail. However, when performing accurate button operations such as text entry tasks, hand and toe input in the proposed system were seldom accepted.