Cooking is a popular rehabilitation program for cognitive dysfunctions. However, most such programs include only one menu item, even though in real life multiple items are typically cooked concurrently. Concurrent cooking with multiple recipes can be difficult for people with cognitive dysfunctions because such tasks require the appropriate management of attention and memory to monitor the status of cooking processes and keep track of the many cooking ingredients. In this paper, we propose a concurrent cooking navigation method for people with cognitive dysfunctions that complements both memory and attention and assists individuals who are trying to concurrently complete multiple recipes. We tested a prototype of the system in the rehabilitation of an actual patient. Results showed that the patient became more positive about cooking and her feeling of confidence was increased.

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In order that humans feels they are seeing 'clearly' when they watch moving pictures, an image system has been developed. But it is impossible to eliminate the jagged edges in traditional approaches, for example, increasing resolutions and reducing noise. Therefore, the author proposes an image systems with pseudorandom pixel placement, and discusses the jaggy elimination effect in moving pictures, which was insufficient based on subjective experiments.

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In this paper, we propose dynamic output timing control of fragrance in a networked virtual environment to improve the quality of experience (QoE). The control changes the output timing of fragrance dynamically in accordance with the movement speed and direction of a fragrance source. We implement the control in a remote ikebana (Japanese flower arrangement) system with olfaction and haptic sense and investigate the effect of the control by QoE assessment. As a result, we demonstrate that the mean opinion score (MOS) when the control is used is high and does not depend much on the movement speed and direction of the flower, which is the fragrance source.

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This study examined the effects of visual inducing stimulus on choices when the criterion-locus of judgment was internal or external. In a preference choice task (internal criteria), subjects were asked to choose the drawing they preferred from two drawings. In a cognitive choice task (external criteria), subjects were asked to choose the drawing that included more elements from two drawings. Visual inducing stimulus (an arrow and/or a CG character) was task-irrelevant and often presented to indicate either alternative. Results showed that the conformity effect was found in cognitive decision tasks, but no effect was found in preference choice tasks. We discuss the process of the inducement by investigating the meanings of criterion-loci of judgments.

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In the pupil-corneal reflection detection-based eye-gaze detection method, glasses reflection of near-infrared LED light sources for producing the corneal reflection is misdetected as the pupil when a user wears eyeglasses. To improve the robustness of the pupil detection, we propose novel pupil searching and tracking methods using two stereo-calibrated cameras and light sources. The pupil searching method detects the true pair of the right and left pupils under the constraints of the suitable 3-D interpupillary distance and 3-D position of the pair, which are given in advance. Even if one pupil is not detected in the image of either camera owing to the glasses reflections, the pupil tracking method estimates the 3-D coordinates of the undetected pupil by using the constant interpupillary distance and the temporal continuity of the 3-D coordinates of the moving pupil. The experimental results show that the accuracy of pupil searching and tracking was better than that of the conventional one-camera method.

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We propose a method combining eye-gaze detection and PupilMouse to use for communicators for severely physically handicapped people. Both methods are based on remote pupil detection with a near-infrared light source. We had already implemented those methods in similar systems . With PupilMouse, the cursor on the PC display screen is moved smoothly and accurately based on the pupil movements in the camera image caused by the user ' s head movement. In contrast, with the eye-gaze detection method, the cursor moves quickly by shifting the eye-gaze point on the screen and arrives at an inaccurate eye-gaze position. In the proposed method, to use the advantages of both methods, the method is switched in accordance with the speed of the eye-gaze shift. The experimental results show that the proposed method enables characters to be inputs more quickly, accurately, and comfortably than when using one of the two conventional methods.

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Japanese ivy is receiving attention as green walls for solving the urban heat-island effect. Computer graphics are very useful for the evaluating the landscape of buildings covered by ivy, and thus, methods for creating computer-graphics models for climbing plants have been proposed. However, they have problems such as crowded branches and the ivy attaching to window glass, which are different from the actual growth of ivy. In this paper, a novel growth model is proposed that includes the effects of phototropism and the attachment strength by considering the material of walls. The method generates models of Japanese ivy that covers buildings, and it improves the density of the leaves and branches and represent growth around windows. The results of simulations with the proposed method showed that the method offers a more realistic landscape simulation of Japanese ivy covering buildings compared with the conventional method.

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In recent years, production technologies for arbitrary-shaped (non-rectangular shaped) displays to improve the appearance of digital photo frames or to increase the advertising effectiveness of digital signs are proposed. To utilize such arbitrary-shaped displays effectively, an image retargeting method is required for converting a rectangular shaped image into an arbitrary-shaped image while preserving the information of the input image. However, conventional image retargeting methods can only convert a rectangular shaped image into a rectangular shaped image with different size or aspect ratio. In this paper, we propose a new image retargeting method for arbitrary-shaped images by dividing the image retargeting problem into two phases: moving important regions and inpainting unimportant regions. In the first phase, we find several important regions from the (rectangular shaped) input image using a block matching procedure. Then, we move these regions to the watching region of the target (arbitrary-shaped) display by minimizing the proposed energy functional with a greedy algorithm. After moving these regions, we inpaint the rest of the image to preserve the consistency with the input image. The experimental results show that we can obtain natural and structure-preserved images with arbitrary-shape by our proposed method.

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In this paper, we propose a haptization system that provides users with touch sensations of images. The system consists of a PC, a display, and a haptic device. The image is displayed on the plane in the VR world and can be touched by operating the haptic device. Haptization requires the haptic parameters that can be generated from the color information. The force is then calculated with a spring/damper model and rendered with the haptic device. At the same time as the haptization, the image is distorted locally to simulate the deformation caused by the pressure. Evaluation experiments have shown that the haptization rendering and deformation rendering can increase the interest of the users in the image contents.

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We developed an interactive system, “Web3D Dance Composer (WDC),” which allows users to create dance choreographies by using a dance motion data archive and simulate them with 3DCG animation. In this research, we conducted two evaluation experiments on the choreographic creation of contemporary dance to evaluate the capacity of the WDC as a dance creation support system. First, we conducted an experiment on choreographic creation for a professional choreographer and proved the usability of the system. Second, we conducted an experiment on training students to create choreography. The results of an evaluation by eight students confirmed that the WDC has the usability and potentiality for producing unpredictable movements and aiding in the learning of a new choreographic process.

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In this letter, we propose an improved bilateral filter of high capability of removing impulse noise with maintaining smoothness of signal and edge preservation. Our improved bilateral filter incorporates an idea of the iris filter into the bilateral filter. We show the effectiveness of our improved bilateral filter through experiments using some example images. The experiments show that our improved bilateral filter can remove impulse noise and maintains image smoothness while preserving edges.

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In contrast with augmented reality (AR), diminished reality (DR) is a technique for removing or concealing real objects from the real world by overlaying a background onto an area with obstacles in captured images. We propose a real time DR system that is an extension of our previous DR system used in baseball games. Our proposed system consists of three colors cameras and one depth camera. Thanks to the depth camera, the area of obstacles can be detected in real time on the basis of the distance. In an experiment, all cameras were connected to a PC, and then a catcher's viewpoint images were generated in real time by removing the catcher and umpire (obstacles) and visualizing the pitcher pitching the ball (background) via planar projection with two color cameras. The transparency of the obstacles can be changed according to the user's preference.

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