Tsunami Evacuation Drill System Focusing on Mobile Devices

Natural disasters, such as tsunami, claim lives of many coastal residents every year. Therefore, tsunami evacuation drills are important for costal residents to survive tsunami. We developed a tsunami evacuation drill system that enables participants to evacuate and move to a shelter while occasionally glancing at a map-based tsunami simulation on mobile devices. The system has the following advantages: (1) a practitioner can easily customise the simulation, (2) the simulation can be displayed on a web browser and (3) the participants’ evacuation routes can be recorded and displayed on the simulation system. We conducted a preliminary comparative experiment with 18 university students and found that the developed system was accepted more by participants using a tablet rather than by those using smartglasses

Prototype Digital Signage System for Learning Material Delivery Focusing on Student Friendship

A digital signage system to deliver learning materials on a university campus is described. The proposed system identifies student viewers using a high-powered radio-frequency identification reader and delivers learning materials that are suitable for multiple students based on existing and potential friendships, which can be estimated from the learning material viewing data. The delivery of learning material can reinforce existing student friendships and identify potential friendships (i.e., unite unacquainted students who can potentially form a learning community). A preliminary experiment revealed that the existing-friendship estimation is currently inaccurate and unsuitable

Game-based evacuation drill using augmented reality and head-mounted display

Purpose–Evacuation drills should be more realistic and interactive. Focusing on situational and audio-visual realities and scenario-based interactivity, we have developed a game-based evacuation drill (GBED) system that presents augmented reality (AR) materials on tablet computers. Our current research purpose is to improve visual reality (AR materials) in our GBED system. Design/methodology/approach–Our approach is to develop a new GBED system that superimposes digital objects (e.g. 3DCG elements) onto real-time vision using a marker-based AR library, a binocular opaque head-mounted display (HMD) and other current easily available technologies. Findings–Our findings from a trial experiment are that the new GBED system can improve visual reality and is appropriate for disaster education. However, a few problems remain for practical use. Research limitations/implications–When using the GBED system, participants (i.e. HMD wearers) can suffer from 3D sickness and have difficulty in moving. These are important safety problems in HMD-based systems. Social implications–The combination of AR and HMDs for GBEDs (i.e. integrating virtual and real worlds) will raise questions about its merits (pros and cons). Originality/value–The originality of our research is the combination of AR and an HMD to a GBED, which have previously been realized primarily as simulation games in virtual worlds. We believe that our research has the potential to expand disaster education

Using Digital Game, Augmented Reality, and Head Mounted Displays for Immediate-Action Commander Training

Disaster education focusing on how we should take immediate actions after disasters strike is essential to protect our lives. However, children find it difficult to understand such disaster education. Instead of disaster education to children, adults should properly instruct them to take immediate actions in the event of a disaster. We refer to such adults as Immediate-Action Commanders (IACers) and attach importance to technology-enhanced IACer training programs with high situational and audio-visual realities. To realize such programs, we focused on digital game, augmented reality (AR) and head-mounted displays (HMDs). We prototyped three AR systems that superimpose interactive virtual objects onto HMDs’ real-time vision or a trainee’s actual view based on interactive fictional scenarios. In addition, the systems are designed to realize voice-based interactions between the virtual objects (i.e., virtual children) and the trainee. According to a brief comparative survey, the AR system equipped with a smartphone-based binocular opaque HMD (Google Cardboard) has the most promising practical system for technology-enhanced IACer training programs

Investigative Report Writing Support System for Effective Knowledge Construction from the Web

Investigative reports plagiarized from the web should be eliminated because such reports result in ineffective knowledge construction. In this study, we developed an investigative report writing support system for effective knowledge construction from the web. The proposed system attempts to prevent plagiarism by restricting copying and pasting information from web pages. With this system, students can verify information through web browsing, externalize their constructed knowledge as notes for report materials, write reports using these notes, and remove inadequacies in the report by reflection. A comparative experiment showed that the proposed system can potentially prevent web page plagiarism and make knowledge construction from the web more effective compared to a conventional report writing environment

Tsunami Evacuation Drill System Using Smart Glasses

Evacuation drills are commonly conducted as traditional disaster education to reduce damages from natural disasters. However participants are not always interested in or committed to such drills. To improve this situation, we focused on Edutainment and proposed game-based evacuation drill (GBED) using the Real-World Edutainment (RWE) program. There are two types of GBED systems, i.e. the Tablet-based GBED (T-GBED) and the AR and HMD-based GBED (AH-GBED). We conducted GBED at several schools and determined that it can improve student motivation for disaster prevention. Subduction-zone earthquakes frequently generate tsunamis and can cause catastrophic damage especially to coastal areas. Thus people in coastal areas must move very quickly to evacuation sites when a massive earthquake occurs. Both GBED systems cannot be used directly for tsunami evacuation drills because the participants will not want to sprint while holding a tablet or wearing a HMD and have time to stop to view the digital materials. In this study, we propose a tsunami evacuation drill (TED) and have developed a TED system. The TED system uses smart glasses (a lightweight optical see-through HMD) which allows participants to view digital materials while moving quickly

Failure-enhanced evacuation training using a VR-based disaster simulator : A comparative experiment with simulated evacuees

Evacuation training is an important component of disaster education and survival. Evacuation training using a virtual reality (VR)-based disaster simulator that provides a highly immersive simulated evacuation experience (SEE) has attracted significant attention. To improve the training effect, we propose a failure-enhanced evacuation training model based on Kolb’s experiential learning theory. Our model aims to purposefully induce participants to succumb to conformity bias and fail to evacuate during the first SEE because inactive evacuees (i.e., people who are not evacuating speedily or not starting their evacuation) are simulated in a VR-based disaster simulator. The participants are expected to overcome failure in the second SEE via reflection and conceptualization. A preliminary comparative experiment focused on how simulated evacuees influence the SEE of participants in a VR-based disaster simulator. Results indicated that failure-enhanced evacuation training can successfully improve the training effect

Expressing Disaster Situations for Evacuation Training Using Markerless Augmented Reality

Evacuation training is crucial for protecting human lives from natural and man-made disasters, but it should be more realistic to achieve training effects. In this study, we focused on expressing disaster situations using markerless augmented reality to achieve realistic evacuation training. We prototyped a scenario-based evacuation training system that superimposed three-dimensional computer graphics of disaster situations (e.g. fire and debris) onto real-time vision (captured by Android tablets or smartphones) using ARCore and Unity3D. Through preliminary experiments, we found that the prototype system can provide realistic expression and potentially be used for evacuation training, but we have not yet clarified the training results and how the expressions influenced participants’ emotions

ユビキタス ギジュツ オ モチイタ コウガク ノ ミリョク オ ツタエル キョウイク ケンキュウ プロジェクト : Niche-Learning ノ ウンヨウ オ ツウジテ エラレタ カダイ ト キョウクン

“Niche-Learning” is a method of digital signage for delivering digital learning materials (e.g., short video and slideshow) to public spaces on a university campus. Niche-Learning prototype has been installed to a public space at the University of Tokushima as a university internal project and over two years passed. This paper outlines the Niche-Learning and describes considerations of “Sustainable Niche-Learning” with reviewing the past management of Niche-Learning. We recognized that the following aspects were important for sustainable Niche-Learning: (1) how we should increase the number of collaborators, (2) how we should increase the number of contents (learning materials), (3) how we should win the university’s understanding, (4) how we should acquire budgets, and (5) how we should reflect efforts in (academic) achievement

Characteristic expression of twelve rice PR1 family genes in response to pathogen infection, wounding, and defense-related signal compounds (121/180)

Pathogenesis-related (PR) proteins have been used as markers of plant defense responses, and are classified into 17 families. However, precise information on the majority members in specific PR families is still limited. We were interested in the individual characteristics of rice PR1 family genes, and selected 12 putatively active genes using rice genome databases for expressed genes. All were upregulated upon compatible and/or incompatible rice-blast fungus interactions; three were upregulated in the early infection period and four in the late infection period. Upon compatible rice–bacterial blight interaction, four genes were upregulated, six were not affected, and one was downregulated. These results are in striking contrast to those among 22 ArabidopsisPR1 genes where only one gene was pathogen-inducible. The responses of individual genes to salicylic acid, jasmonic acid, and ethylene induced defense signaling pathways in rice are likely to be different from those in dicot plants. Transcript levels in healthy leaves, roots, and flowers varied according to each gene. Analysis of the partially overlapping expression patterns of rice PR1 genes in healthy tissues and in response to pathogens and other stresses would be useful to understand their possible functions and for use as characteristic markers for defense-related studies in rice