The existence of blind areas in road environments may cause traffic accidents and stress to passengers. In order to solve this problem, we propose a system to visualize the blind areas by sharing information with vehicles observing the blind areas. In this paper, we focus on a scene in which a pedestrian jumps out from a parked vehicle and confirm the effectiveness of the proposed system through an evaluation experiment. In the experiment, we applied one of the expression methods of the proposed systems, a Half-DR expression that intentionally reduces transparency. The experimental results confirmed the superiority of the proposed system over the other two systems in terms of visibility of blind areas and ease of danger prediction.

Nonverbal skills are fundamental in determining the subjective impression of public speaking. Eye contact, in particular, is a special skill that requires presenters to switch eye gaze among multiple audience members while speaking, and training is essential to acquire this skill. However, there is little research on system or method that allows presenters to learn eye-contact skill sets. In addition, general training takes time to acquire skills that can be used in an actual environment. In this study, we propose an AR-based method that supports eye contact skills in real-time in an actual presentation scene, and also provides training effects through continuous use. Based on the analysis of various outstanding presenters’ behaviors, appropriate eye contact was defined, and we developed the proposed method for obtaining these behaviors by incorporating unique training strategies. Experiments were conducted with 15 participants to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method in a simulated presentation environment for five days. As a result, both the supporting and training effects were partially confirmed by analyzing eye gaze data and a metric for presentation skills.

A projected hand onto a physical surface is one of the human body augmentation technologies to extend our ability to touch a distant object. In this study, we aim a non-contact remote haptic augmentation by realtime measuring and feed back of micro-vibration information from the remote object where the projected hand touches. To confirm its feasibility, we combine a haptic augmentation system using laser speckle vibration measurement to acquire vibration information by a high-speed event camera and vibration device. The results of user experiments suggest that the differences of vibration of remote objects and differences in their internal structures can be discriminated by feeding back vibration stimuli according to the non-contact laser sensing.

We aim to realize mixed reality transition modules that enable to transmit physical phenomena between real (R) and virtual (V) spaces as an advanced use form of mixed reality technology. Transmission of object motion in real space to virtual space, or vice versa, is referred to as “R-V Crossover Rendition,” and this paper describes the design and implementation of modules to realize this concept. In addition, when using the implemented modules, we propose a content development support tool for arranging real and virtual objects so that they appear to be connected.

In this paper, we propose a general-purpose toolkit for transmitting electrical and magnetic phenomena between the real and virtual spaces. So far, we have proposed mixed reality transition modules, called “RV-XoverKit,” for interactions related to the motion of objects and mechanical phenomena. In this research, we extend RV-XoverKit to the field of electricity and magnetics and propose “RV-XoverKit for EM”to transmit voltage, current and magnetic force between real and virtual spaces. Regarding voltage, current, and magnetic force, after sorting out the items to be transmitted and interacted between the real and the virtual spaces, we designed and implemented modules for each item.

By using an optical see-through head-mounted display (OSTHMD), it is possible to read text while walking without holding a smartphone in one’s hand. Previous studies have conducted experiments investigating the effects of various parameters related to text presentation on an OSTHMD while walking, but the text presentation distance has not yet been evaluated in detail. In this study, we report on the results of an experiment to investigate the effects of text presentation distance on readability and vertical head sway when reading text on an OSTHMD while walking on a treadmill.

Various studies have confirmed that AR is effective in work support. However, the effectiveness of behavioral induction using AR has not been well verified. Therefore, we focused on driving behavior and verified a method to encourage drivers to control their speed properly. Factors that prevent proper speed control include the fact that speed perception has a large error margin and that the target speed is not properly set. This research proposed and verified three patterns to improve these factors. The result showed that all of the patterns were effective. However, it also suggested that there could be an adverse effect on driving when the target speed setting was affected.

When communicating over videoconferencing, people selectively manage their online presentation to obtain a good impression by adding filters or changing virtual backgrounds. When applying virtual background, the influence of augmented contextual information in the virtual background on impression formation is unclear yet. Therefore, this study examines whether and how contextual cues in virtual backgrounds affect impression formation in video-mediated communication (VMC). With an online survey (N=64) and controlled experiment (N=58), we demonstrate that contextual information on virtual backgrounds significantly changed the perceived credibility toward remote counterparts from viewers’ viewpoints before having interactions. However, such effect was not found after having interactions, possibly due to the reduced ambiguity about the counterpart after the interaction. Further analysis revealed that people misassociate their unpreferred virtual backgrounds with their counterparts’ credibility. We discuss the possible effects of viewing contextual information in virtual backgrounds on impression formation through VMC.

We propose a head-based multi-directional force feedback in a virtual environment. We integrated four ducted fans into a head-mounted display to present force to the user’s head. Through a technical evaluation, we revealed the presentable power, sound level, and latency of a ducted fan. In the first study, we investigated the minimum force that a user can perceive in different directions. The result shows the user’s perceivable range of the force that our device could provide. The second study evaluated the effect of leveraging force feedback through an immersive flight simulation. The result indicates that our technique significantly improved user enjoyment, comfort, and visual-and-haptic consistency, and reduced simulator sickness.

This study investigates sense of agency (SoA) and sense of body ownership (SoBO) according to the automation level involving target setting, user’s input, and trajectory modification of a robotic arm by machine intelligence. We defined five automation level in a pick-and-place task using a robotic arm and set the control weight of the participants. Also,we implemented the collaborative and obstructive conditions. We compared the SoA and SoBO under different automation level through two experiments. The result showed that SoA and SoBO increased by increase of participant control weight. Moreover,we found that increasing the automation level decreased SoA and SoBO.

In this paper, we propose a light-field feedback system that enhances the glossiness of glossy objects and presents viewpoint-dependent specular highlights. The system uses multiple projector-camera units and MIMO compensation control, compensated control with images captured under white projection as the control reference. Our experiments demonstrate that the proposed method leads to higher glossiness than white projection and cognitive science-based methods and that the appearance and position of the specular change with viewpoint changes.

Thermal displays are desired to enhance virtual reality environments. In this study, a novel non-contact thermal display was proposed, using radiation sources with temperatures higher and lower than that of the human skin surface.The skin surface is warmed or cooled by the transfer of electro-magnetic energy. In the experimental system, a controllable infrared heating lamp and constant temperature ice packs were used as high and low temperature radiation sources, and mechanical shutters were employed to control the radiations with quick responses. The effectiveness of the proposed system was physically confirmed, and by psychophysical experiment, warm and cool sensations were elicited to the users.

Appearance manipulation using model predictive control with projector-camera feedback enables illusory by changing perceptual image by illumination projection. However, it leads to estimation errors and collapses the manipulation when the lighting environment changes. This paper proposes a robust reflectance compensation method that allows changes in the lighting environment.