Various zoos install fixed-point cameras on their animal grounds and en closures. Videos recorded with these cameras are suitable materials for zoos’ educational programs since citizens can observe animal behaviors comprehensively. In such videos,however, animal appearances are often unclear. Many participants will need experts’ guidance to observe and understand the animals’ behaviors with these videos. For this problem, we conducted an online experiment to evaluate the effect of auto-generated annotations extracted from videos. In this experiment, we requested 150 citizens to watch two videos recorded at Kyoto City Zoo and to report observed animal behaviors in the videos. We performed a text analysis on the reports to assess the concreteness of the participants’ observations. As a result, citizens who watched a video with annotations as the first video reported observed behaviors with more concrete words than citizens without annotations. The difference was, however, not clear for the second video with a distinct species. This result shows that annotated videos are workable for citizens to understand animal behaviors, although it may be difficult for citizens to keep attitudes toward observing animals.

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We have developed the P-CUBE series, which uses blocks with tactile in formation as its language, and have confirmed its potential as a programming learning tool in workshops for visually impaired users. We have also improved the system so that students can learn not only the concepts of “sequential,” “repetition,” and “conditional branching,” but also that of “functions (subroutines).”In the present study, we developed P-CUBE3, which implements a function to acquire the type of block and the time of operation as the learner’s operation history. The acquired data can be used to evaluate the learning results and programming process of users of tangible programming tools, which have been difficult to grasp objectively. Specifically, we report the results of the time required to accomplish tasks and the number of operations, and the classification method of the programming process for the visually impaired and sighted users of P-CUBE3.

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Lifestyle-related diseases need to be prevented to maintain quality of life (QOL), as well as physical and mental well-being. Japan has established a program to provide specific health checkups and health guidance aimed at the prevention of metabolic syndrome. However, it is difficult for health professionals to acquire the skills necessary for health guidance and to understand participants and guide them to an appropriate action plan in the limited time available for health guidance. In this study, the health guidance dialogue between participants and health professionals is regarded as a Human (health professional) - Human (participant) Interface for creating a future health guidance support system. The purpose of this study is to clarify the dialogue process as a format that can be used to examine health guidance support systems in which health professionals motivate and support participants’ action planning. On the basis of health guidance dialogue data and information obtained through interviews, we visualize a dialogue process that elicits motivation. Lastly, we discuss the characteristics of the established dialogue process and how it can contribute as a health guidance support system for health professionals.

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In the field of Human-robot interaction (HRI), there have been various discussions on interaction and communication. Among them, anthropomorphism research has focused on familiar artifacts in daily life. In this study, we implemented a lamp-based Robject “Lumos” and verified the nature of Robject, through interaction experiments with “Lumos”. Finally, we discuss design theory of Robject.

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This paper reports the qualitative analysis on the episodes of care workers towards defining requirements for a person-centered care service. A labor shortage is a significant problem in a nursing care domain. A work improvement by information technologies is one of the most expected solutions for the issue. However, individual cares in a nursing care field are also essential. We conducted a survey on understanding and practice of the person-centered care through questionnaires and interviews. As a result of the qualitative analysis by the Grounded Theory Approach, it was shown that it is important to more effectively utilize a care plan and to promote dialogues and observations for better understanding of care recipients. This paper also discusses a possible utilization of information technologies for the person-centered care with a focus on a care plan.

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The field of Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) has begun to consider “robjects”, interactive robotic artifacts the design of which is based on objects rather than living creatures. We build a microphone-shaped robject “Whimbo” that expresses the minimal hearership to a speaker and listens to a speaker’s one-sided speech. The minimal hearership does not use of verbal behavior, but is expressed through body movements, which are nonverbal behaviors. We believe that this minimal hearership allows users can disclose their concerns and frustrations, which are difficult to speak to a human. In this paper, we prepared three conditions of “Whimbo” with different expressions of the hearership as a robject listener and conducted the experiment to evaluate examinee’s impressions, for example, ease of speaking and interest in speaking.

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Head-up display (HUD) is an automotive driver assistance system that displays images on the windshield for presenting important information. To design a user-friendly HUD, understanding how HUD design parameters can affect the processing of visual information is important. In this study, the effects of image projection and image distance on the processing of visual information, especially under conditions wherein the image is displayed at a great distance, were analyzed. Furthermore, how these effects vary with age was examined. The eye tracking method was employed to estimate the time required solely for visual input processing. By comparing the results obtained from the young and elderly participants, it was observed that HUD design parameters have different effects on visual information processing with respect to the two participant groups. Therefore, thoroughly evaluating the effects of HUD design parameters on the cognitive process (which could not be evaluated through eye tracking) and spatial localization (which was performed before the input process) is necessary.

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In this paper, we examine the acceptability of a driving situation announce agent for fully automated driving. A driving situation announce agent is a method of notifying a user of a fully automated vehicle of the presence or absence of surrounding vehicles and the driving operations to be performed by the automated driving system through spoken utterances and gestures. We designed agent speech and gestures for driving situations such as merging with other vehicles and intersections, and evaluated the acceptability of the agent to a fixed number of experimental participants (n = 600) through a video-based impression evaluation experiment. The experimental results show that the agent’s acceptability may not change drastically depending on the size or presence of gestures, while the user’s confidence in driving and anxiety about automated driving are significantly related to acceptability, and the tendency of the relationship varies depending on the size or presence of gestures. These findings are useful for the design of in-vehicle agents for fully automated vehicles.

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When inputting letters in non-alphabetic languages, there are two input interfaces: roman input or input language letters. When inputting Japanese letters, the Japanese fifty-letter type interface is more efficient than the alphabetic interface. Among the interfaces that use EEG to input letters, the one that uses steady state visual evoked potential (SSVEP), one of visual evoked potential, is called SSVEP-brain-computer interface (BCI). The purpose of this study is to design and evaluate SSVEP-BCI using Japanese fifty-letter type, which is more efficient than Roman letter input using alphabetic table. In order to handle 50 different input types in SSVEP-BCI, we proposed methods such as stimulus frequency design and fusion of display space and analysis algorithms. In particular, the analysis method using the positional relationship in the display space for SSVEP-BCI contains many novelties. As a result, we achieved an accuracy of 77.10% and an ITR of 75.08 bits/min. This is equivalent to 15.42 Japanese fifty-letter type per minute. We also evaluated the positional relationship between input and output objects in the display space. The study showed that there were many misjudgments due to the selection of horizontally adjacent objects in the display.

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Recently, we can use avatars in Virtual reality (VR). A psychological effect of the avatar's appearance on user's behavior and cognition is called as the Proteus effect. However, few studies on the Proteus effect on brain activities have been reported. The present study investigated the modulation of event-related potentials (ERPs) while participants performed a gambling task in a VR casino using two different avatars. One avatar dressed appropriately for the casino and the other did not. We did not observe significant difference in the performance of the task among the avatars. On the other hand, P200 and P300 components, which are kinds of visual ERP components, showed significantly larger amplitudes in an appropriately dressed avatar for the casino than in the other avatar. P200 components relate to the early stage of visual processing. This result indicated that the Proteus effect influences the early stage of neural processing.

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