Yoshiaki Takeda

Development and Evaluation of a Digital Vegetation Interaction Game for Children

In this study, we develop a new digital sugoroku game that portray the phenomenon of vegetation succession in a forest. The results of the experimental evaluation showed that the game was effective in stimulating the interest of the students who participated in the game.

KIKIWAKE: sound source separation system for children-computer interaction

In general living environments, in order to separate childrens voices from backgrounds noise, we developed a sound separation system by a microphone array. We created a game by use of this developed system, and conducted evaluation experiment intended for elementary school children. As a result, we confirmed this system could separate 3 voices, and the game promotes childrens interest in or concerns about a microphone array in a quantitative way.

Phytosociological study on natural summer-green forests in Korea

Two phytosociological associations, Corylo-Quercetum mongolicae and Lespedezo-Quercetum serratae, were recognized as natural summer-green forests in the cool-temperate zone of Korea. They belong to the alliance, Rhododendro-Quercion mongolicae and Lespedezo-Quercion serratae, respectively. The former alliance occurs in northern areas of the cool-temperate zone and the latter develops in southern areas. Both alliances belong to the phytosociological ranking order, Acero-Quercetalia mongolicae. In contrast to Korean cool-temperate, summer-green forest associations, the Japanese ones, such asFagus crenata orQuercus mongolica var.grosseserrata associations, belong to the order, Saso-Fagetalia crenatae.

Vegetation interaction game: digital SUGOROKU of vegetation succession for children

In this study, we redesign and develop a new digital sugoroku game based on the phenomenon of vegetation succession. A practical evaluation in an elementary school that consisted of game play and fieldwork activity was conducted. The results of the evaluation showed that the game was effective in stimulating the interest of the students who participated in the game, and was able to support their learning in a joyful way.

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.

BESIDE: Body Experience and Sense of Immersion in Digital Paleontological Environment

We are developing an immersive learning support system for a paleontological environment within a museum. The system measures the physical movement of the learner using a Kinect sensor, and provides a sense of immersion in the paleontological environment by adapting the surroundings according to these movements. As the first stage of this project, we have developed a prototype system that allows learners to experience the paleontological environment. Here, we evaluate the operability of the system, degree of learning support, and sense of immersion for primary schoolchildren. This paper summarizes the current system and describes the evaluation results.

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 Forestry Management Game as a Learning Support System for Increased Understanding of Vegetation Succession - Effective Environmental Education Towards a Sustainable Society

At present, there are many environmental problems, and environmental education is necessary to realize a sustainable society. The most important element of education is practical application of what has been learned, as this will deepen our understanding of the topic. As a part of environmental education, field work is conducted to encourage children to learn vegetation succession. However, because vegetation successions occur over an extended period of time, it is difficult for children to observe and participate throughout an entire vegetation succession cycle even if they do field work. Thus, as a step toward effective environmental education for a sustainable society, we developed a learning support system for children to better understand vegetation successions. This learning support system enables simulated forest management over a period of hundreds of years, providing users the opportunity to observe and learn which factors encourage and hinder plant growth in forests. The system simulates a period of approximately 300 years, and regularly scores the skills of the user according to the state of the forest. The changing score encourages the user to optimize forest management. As a first step of system evaluation, college students were asked to participate as users. Consequently, the participants suggested that this system can enhance understanding of, and problem-solving skills regarding, vegetation successions.

SATOYAMA: Time-limited Decision Game for Students to Learn Hundreds Years Forestry Management.

Global environmental problems continue to worsen. In this situation, it is important to understand and experience changes in the natural environment in realistic ways. However, it was difficult to experience these changes in real time because they happen over large time scales. To overcome this problem, the authors developed a game-like learning tool that enables players to learn about vegetation succession. This game is Windows-based and enables players to simulate the conservation of SATOYAMA, rural natural areas. The player selects the actions within a designated time and the vegetation succession of the SATOYAMA changes according to that action. At the end of this game, the score is based on the SATOYAMA conserved by the player. Thirty-seven students participated in this experiment whose result suggested that this game would enable children to develop an interest in vegetation succession and motivate them to learn about it.