弾性波動を用いた皮膚感覚ディスプレイ

As a basis for tactile display, it is important to understand the mechanism of tactile sensation. So, we analyze elastic waves inside a finger in tactile exploration with a two-layered, half-infinite elastic finger model, and derive a mapping from finger surface displacements to mechanoreceptors displacements. It is shown that this mapping is a one-to-one mapping. Therefore, it is necessary to create the same finger surface displacement as in actual exploration for tactile virtual reality(VR). However, the mapping from objects shapes to finger surface displacements is shown to be a many-to-one mapping because of the mechanical property of skin. So, we use the envelope of the amplitude-modulated Lamb wave on an elastic plate as an alternative shape to the real object, because its shape is easily controlled. The generation of the wave is confirmed with anexperimental device of silicon rubber vibrated by voice coils

Ambient Gestures

We present Ambient Gestures, a novel gesture-based system designed to support ubiquitous ‘in the environment’ interactions with everyday computing technology. Hand gestures and audio feedback allow users to control computer applications without reliance on a graphical user interface, and without having to switch from the context of a non-computer task to the context of the computer. The Ambient Gestures system is composed of a vision recognition software application, a set of gestures to be processed by a scripting application and a navigation and selection application that is controlled by the gestures. This system allows us to explore gestures as the primary means of interaction within a multimodal, multimedia environment. In this paper we describe the Ambient Gestures system, define the gestures and the interactions that can be achieved in this environment and present a formative study of the system. We conclude with a discussion of our findings and future applications of Ambient Gestures in ubiquitous computing

PHYSICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL AND VIRTUAL REALITIES

This chapter examines the similarities and differences between physical, psychological and virtual realities, and challenges some conventional, implicitly dualist assumptions about how these relate to each other. Virtual realities are not easily understood in either dualist or materialist reductive terms, as they exemplify the reflexive nature of perception. The chapter summarises some of the evidence for this “reflexive model”—and examines some of its consequences for the “hard” problem of consciousness. The chapter then goes on to consider how these realities might relate to some grounding reality or thing-itself, and considers some of the personal and social consequences of becoming increasingly immersed in virtual realities. Although this chapter was published in 1998 and develops work published in 1990, it presents a form of “radical externalism” that anticipates many themes in current (2006) internalism versus externalism debates about the nature of mind. It is also relevant to an understanding of virtual reality “presence.

Seeing pain and pleasure on self and others: behavioural and psychophysiological reactivity in immersive virtual reality

Studies have explored behavioral and neural responses to the observation of pain in others. However, much less is known about how taking a physical perspective influences reactivity to the observation of others' pain and pleasure. To explore this issue we devised a novel paradigm in which 24 healthy participants immersed in a virtual reality scenario observed a virtual: needle penetrating (pain), caress (pleasure), or ball touching (neutral) the hand of an avatar seen from a first (1PP)- or a third (3PP)-person perspective. Subjective ratings and physiological responses [skin conductance responses (SCR) and heart rate (HR)] were collected in each trial. All participants reported strong feelings of ownership of the virtual hand only in 1PP. Subjective measures also showed that pain and pleasure were experienced as more salient than neutral. SCR analysis demonstrated higher reactivity in 1PP than in 3PP. Importantly, vicarious pain induced stronger responses with respect to the other conditions in both perspectives. HR analysis revealed equally lower activity during pain and pleasure with respect to neutral. SCR may reflect egocentric perspective, and HR may merely index general arousal. The results suggest that behavioral and physiological indexes of reactivity to seeing others' pain and pleasure were qualitatively similar in 1PP and 3PP. Our paradigm indicates that virtual reality can be used to study vicarious sensation of pain and pleasure without actually delivering any stimulus to participants' real body and to explore behavioral and physiological reactivity when they observe pain and pleasure from ego- and allocentric perspectives

Negotiating Reality

Our understanding of research through design is demonstrated by a close examination of the methods used in the project lifeClipper2. This design research project investigates the applicability of immersive outdoor Augmented Reality (AR). lifeClipper2 offers an audiovisual walking experience in a virtually extended public space and focuses on audiovisual perception as well as on the development of the appropriate technology. The project involves contributions of partners from different fields of research. Thus, lifeClipper2 is able to test the potential of AR for visualizing architecture and archaeological information and to challenge our understanding of perception and interaction. Using examples from our research, the paper reflects on how scenario design contributes to the production of design knowledge and explores the possibilities and variations of AR. Finally, the paper drafts our approach to design research. The three tenets of our work are: the use of scenarios as a tool of interdisciplinary research, the experimental exploration of media and the intention to make design knowledge explicit. Keywords: augmented reality; locative media; hybrid environment; immersion; perception; experience design; research through design; scenario design</p

Expressive Messaging on Mobile Platforms

We present a design for expressive multimodal messaging on mobile platforms. Strong context, simple text messages, and crude animations combine well to produce surprisingly expressive results