Current Research

Research on Body Ownership Illusion Toward Humanoid Robot

Through advances in recent technologies, we can make users to feel an illusory feeling of body ownership toward humanoid robot at the remote places. Such asymmetric tele-embodiment system has the power to elicit presence (toward remote distance a.k.a. locale), social interaction, and emotional change between visitor and locale. Our research would be a game changer for the tele-communication in the post-corona era (e.g. general purpose telecommunication, untact interview, untact psychological counsel). Researches may extend to verify the actual therapeutic effect under current circumstances.

Research on Human-AI interaction

With development of deep learning technologies, we are conducting research on Human-AI. In our study, we are collecting and analyzing mobility data for people with handicaps. Our result suggest that our deep learning model had high accuracy for detecting transportation modes for people with handicaps. Based on the current study, we will suggest better Human-AI interaction to help people with handicaps.

Research on Human-Vehicle Interaction

We also conducting research on Human-Vehicle Interaction for future Autonomous Vehicles. In on of our study, we consider Takeover Request (ToR) in Level 3 Autonomous Vehicle and takeover performances according to environment factors such as weather or illumination. Our results suggested that the environmental factor effected on user’s takeover performances in Level 3 Autonomous Vehicle, and the proposed directional cue can reduce the effects of environmental factor.

Research on VR Sickness

Although the virtual reality (VR) market is extremely large, the VR sickness is one of the big problems. The VR sickness had a symptom similar with motion sickness experienced when experiencing VR, including headache, nausea, and dizziness., In one of our study, we proposed a method to dynamic blurring field of view (FOV) restrictor based on the relationship between FOV and VR sickness. We studied the effect of several factors on VR sickness when applied as dynamic parameters. As a result, dynamic blurring FOV restrictor had the effect of reducing VR sickness, and it had the best performance when we apply certain level of appropriate human factors.

Research on Full-Body Ownership Illusion

​Recent advances in technology have allowed users to experience an illusory feeling of full body ownership of a virtual avatar. Such virtual embodiment has the power to elicit perceptual, behavioral, cognitive, and emotional changes related to oneself. Our research would be an important foundation for new collaborations with virtual avatars or humanoid robots. For example, collaborative therapeutic techniques and scenarios with other artificial surrogates would be considered based on the paradigm of a virtually embodied self. Researches may extend interaction domains from the individuals to the virtual avatars in an artificial world or tele-operations of humanoid robots in real world.

Research on Human-Robot Interaction

Recent Studies on human-robot interactions have suggested that humanoid robots have considerable potential in social cognition research. In the current study, we considerd two types of social interaction tasks (initiating and responding inout attenntion tasks) and two types of interaction partners (robot and human partners). The results of study suggested that participants who interacted with a humanoid robots in social cognition studies and future research questions on human-robot interactions.

Research on Human Field of Regard and Field of View

Human field of regard (FOR) is an important concept that should be considered along with field of view (FOV) for people with/without handicaps, but previous studies have neglected this aspect of human perception. In the current study, we suggest and test a new virtual reality (VR) software with which to evaluate individual’s detection abilities in the human FOR. We suggested a new virtual reality (VR) evaluation technique and measured the human searching pattern in the FOR condition. We found a unique left-side attention bias in the FOR condition, and discussed implication of these results and potential attention bias factors. We believe this work is an important foundation for interactive 3D UI design, and we hope it will help people who have FOR handicaps.