Publications

2022〜


An implementation of creating human presence of AR navigation system, Ryoma Ariyoshi, Kentaro Taninaka, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 122, no. 193, CNR2022-12, pp. 23-28, September 2022.

In the field of AR, smartphones are often used for navigation, but since the hands are occupied and the immersive experience is compromised, it is preferable to use a stand-alone HMD for AR. However, AR navigation using HMDs is easily affected by the external environment, which inhibits immersion and realism. In addition, the only way to know the traces of a person who was there in the past is to view two-dimensional content, which does not provide a sense of presence or realism. In this research, we aim to implement an AR navigation system that enables interaction with avatars by eliminating factors that impair the sense of presence and realism. As a preliminary step, we investigated how to display avatars with a sense of presence, using HoloLens 2, and experimented with three levels of abstraction, each with motion, superimposed on the Keio University Shonan Fujisawa Campus. The results suggest that the avatar with the lowest level of abstraction and the appearance closest to that of a human being has a greater presence on certain questions. We also observed the “uncanny valley phenomenon,” in which people feel fear and discomfort toward the Avatar when its appearance is closer to reality.

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(日本語) 瞬きの引き込みを利用したインタラクティブロボットの実装と評価,飯森優斗,古谷優樹,高汐一紀,信学技報, vol. 122, no. 193, CNR2022-10, pp. 13-17, 2022年9月.

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Dialogue Corpus Construction Considering Modality and Social Relationships in Building Common Ground. Yuki Furuya, Koki Saito, Kosuke Ogura, Koh Mitsuda, Ryuichiro Higashinaka, and Kazunori Takashio. 2022.In Proceedings of the Thirteenth Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, pages 4088–4095, Marseille, France. European Language Resources Association.

Building common ground with users is essential for dialogue agent systems and robots to interact naturally with people. While a few previous studies have investigated the process of building common ground in human-human dialogue, most of them have been conducted on the basis of text chat. In this study, we constructed a dialogue corpus to investigate the process of building common ground with a particular focus on the modality of dialogue and the social relationship between the participants in the process of building common ground, which are important but have not been investigated in the previous work. The results of our analysis suggest that adding the modality or developing the relationship between workers speeds up the building of common ground. Specifically, regarding the modality, the presence of video rather than only audio may unconsciously facilitate work, and as for the relationship, it is easier to convey information about emotions and turn-taking among friends than in first meetings. These findings and the corpus should prove useful for developing a system to support remote communication.

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Analysis of the Effect of Modality and Social Relationships on Building Common Ground , Yuki Furuya, Koki Saito,Kosuke Ogura ( Keio Univ.),Koh Mitsuda,Ryuichiro Higashinaka (NTT),Kazunori Takashio ( Keio Univ.)

Building common ground with users is essential for dialogue agent systems and robots to interact naturally with people. While a few previous studies have investigated the process of building common ground in human-human dialogue, most of them have been conducted on the basis of text chat. In this study, we constructed a dialogue corpus to investigate the process of building common ground with a particular focus on the modality of dialogue and the social relationship between the participants in the process of building common ground, which are important but have not been investigated in the previous work. The results of our analysis suggest that adding the modality or developing the relationship between workers speeds up the building of common ground. Specifically, regarding the modality, the presence of video rather than only audio may unconsciously facilitate work, and as for the relationship, it is easier to convey information about emotions and turn-taking among friends than in first meetings. These findings and the corpus should prove useful for developing a system to support remote communication.

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2021〜


(日本語) HRIにおける視線行動が参与者間の共通基盤構築に及ぼす影響, 桑原多瑛, 山口留実, 渡辺巧登, 古谷優樹, 高汐一紀, 信学技報, vol. 120, no. 394, CNR2020-17, pp. 22-27, 2021年3月.

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(日本語) テレプレゼンスロボットにおける遠隔ユーザの身体性を考慮した表示手法の検討, 古谷優樹, 高汐一紀, 信学技報, vol. 121, no. 93, CNR2021-3, pp. 8-13, 2021年7月.

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A Feasibility Study of An Intelligent Environmental Monitoring System Based On The Ethereum Blockchains, Cheng Yiyang, Kazunori Takashio, 2021 International Conference on Information and Communication Technology Convergence (ICTC 2021), pp. 435-439, doi: 10.1109/ICTC52510.2021.9621007.

In today’s era, the security and authenticity of information have always received extensive attention, especially when people have doubts about the authenticity of data. Hence, a traceable data storage platform with the feature that theoretically cannot be tampered with becomes extremely important. Under such demands, the deployment of smart contracts can effectively trace the source and discover problems. This article introduces an environmental data detection platform based on blockchain technology and smart contracts. It aims to record the data continuously and verify the authority of each transaction.

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An Analysis of Acceptance Factors of Partner Robot -What is “Animal-Like”- , Koki Saito, Furuya Yuki, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 121, no. 267, CNR2021-9, pp. 11-15, Nov. 2021.

In this study, we analyzed what kind of animal-like qualities are important in the acceptance of partner robots in households. The questionnaire surveyed the animal-like qualities of visual, auditory and tactile elements, and analyzed the relation between the partial animal-like qualities of each element and the duration of use. We also showed what aspects of the robot’s animal-like nature the user perceived by analyzing the relationship between the animal-like nature of each element of the robot and the sense of living things. The results suggest that items such as the intelligence of the robot and the animal-like shape of the robot might be factors in acceptance. It was also suggested that the smoothness of the robot’s movement and the animal-like sound of the volume other than the robot’s voice were factors that made users feel a sense of living-likeness toward the robot.

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(日本語) 人間情報学 快適を科学する, 近代科学社, 2021年, 262p

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2020〜


(日本語) HRIにおける割込み時の会話順合意形成コーパスの構築にむけて,堀江拓実, 山口留実, 桑原多瑛, 渡辺巧登, 高汐一紀, 信学技報, vol. 119, no. 446, CNR2019-52, pp. 41-46, 2020年3月.

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(日本語) [学生講演奨励賞]複数人会話における画面内エージェントとのコミュニケーションチャネル確立手法の提案, 渡邉巧登, 高汐一紀, 信学技報, vol. 119, no. 446, CNR2019-53, pp. 47-51, 2020年3月.

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(日本語) [学生講演奨励賞]遠隔者の身体的存在感を高めるテレプレゼンスロボットの提案, 古谷優樹, 高汐一紀, 信学技報, vol. 119, no. 446, CNR2019-54, pp. 53-57, 2020年3月.

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Telepresence Robot Blended with a Real Landscape and Its Impact on User Experiences, Yuki Furuya, Kazunori Takashio, 2020 29th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2020), Aug to Sept, 2020

Telepresence robots using traditional video chats do not yet fully represent the presence of a remote user. To enhance that presence, we propose a novel approach that replaces the background of the remote user with a real-time captured image of the area behind the robot. We assumed that the background of the remote user, which was visible on the telepresence robot’s display, was one reason for the reduction in presence because it might remind local viewers that the remote user is in another place. We found that our approach effectively enhanced the presence of remote user and reduced the negative impression of a delay. In this paper, we describe the new approach, its implementation, and an evaluation of the system. We evaluated the subjective impressions of communication through the proposed system. This approach also protects the privacy of the remote user and makes it more acceptable to people using telepresence robots from private places, e.g., a sickroom in a hospital.

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v-IoT : Construction of Virtual IoT Infrastructure by AR and Selection Method of Appropriate Information-giving Objects Using Associative Concept, Kentaro Taninaka, Kazunori Takashio, The IEICE Transactions on Information and Systems

The miniaturization and decreasing cost of networking computers, along with the advancement of cloud infrastructure has eased the implementation of it in commercial products. However, it is difficult to give such function to the simple products like daily necessities, thus having devices such as Smart Speakers providing wide variety of information. In this research, we propose v-IoT system, the approach which add information-giving functions to consumables such as plastic bottles using augmented reality technology. This system will determine the information and the action suggested the user to take based on the verb and function of the object. The closest associable pairs of suggested action and object will be determined with reference to the Associative Concept Dictionary, enabling v-IoT to offer a notification system that is apparent and intelligible. The result showed proposed system can select objects which is easy to associate action for users.

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(日本語) 複数人対話での共通基盤構築における非言語行動因子および社会的行動因子の分析,山口留実,渡辺巧登,桑田多瑛,古谷優樹,第37回人間情報学会講演集2020年12月10日

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2019〜


Consideration of Robot Motion Library to Promote Helping Behavior, Mai Ohira, Kentaro Taninaka, Takuto Watanabe, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 119, no. 81, CNR2019-5, pp. 23-25, June 2019.

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Character Making of Personal Robot by Dressing Up Exterior Parts, Riku Takai, Rintaro Miyamoto, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 119, no. 81, CNR2019-6, pp. 27-30, June 2019.

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Matching Things and Information Using Associative Concept Dictionary in v-IoT, Kentaro Taninaka, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 119, no. 81, CNR2019-8, pp. 37-42, June 2019.

The miniaturization and decreasing cost of networking computers, alongwith the advancement of cloud infrastructure has eased the implementation of it inproducts for manufacturers. The increase in such products has led to the rise in IoTdevices with information-provision function. However, it is difficult to give suchfunction to products which engage in an one-way association in our daily life likedaily commodities, since it requires the device to have a wealth of computationalresource. In this paper, we propose Virtual IoT system, the approach which addinformation-giving functions to the non-computing objects using Mixed Realitytechnology. This system enables appropriate things to give adequate informationat the right timing. In this paper, we explain the detail and design of Virtual IoTsystem. In addition, we conduct an experiment to evaluate impression and usabilityof Virtual IoT to disclose the descriptive power.

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Design of Context Aware Conversation Task Scheduler, Takumi Horie, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 119, no. 81, CNR2019-11, pp. 55-60, June 2019.

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Voice Expression with Pseudo-emotion in Human-Robot Communication, Tae Kuwahara, Takumi Horie, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 119, no. 81, CNR2019-2, pp. 7-11, June 2019.

In a robot and human conversation, the robot’s flat voice is a one of the factor that boring conversation. Automatically adjust emotional expressions to speech from virtual emotion in a robot. In this study, I verify that communication will be smooth when it considers the flow of emotional change from the conversation history.

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Attentive in-screen agent — In-screen agent that looks like a specific direction —,Takuto Watanabe,IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 119, no. 189, CNR2019-15, pp. 19-23, Aug. 2019.

In recent years, 3DCG characters have become widespread and are being used in-screen agents as avatarsfor interactive agents. In this study, we propose a method to give a sense of coexistence and unity of space by lettingthe user follow the background and the method of projecting the gaze target to the pupil. For the experiment, anagent that can manually select the gaze target was created and evaluated.

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, Development and Evaluation of Telepresence Robot with Transparent Background, Yuki Furuya, Takumi Horie, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 119, no. 267, CNR2019-37, pp. 77-78, Nov. 2019.

テレプレゼンスロボットなどに搭載されているビデオチャットでは,遠隔で会話に参加している相手の背景が見えてしまうことによって,相手が別の空間にいるということが意識されてしまう.そこで我々は,ビデオチャットにおける相手の映像の背景部分のみをテレプレゼンスロボットが置かれている場の背景映像に入れ替えることで,遠隔参加者との一体感が高まりコミュニケーションがより活発になる,という仮説を立て研究を行なっている.本研究ではシステムのプロトタイプの実装および評価実験を行い,背景をロボットが置かれている場の画像に置き換えることで会話の活発度や遠隔者の存在感の向上に寄与することが明らかになった.

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Video Gaming with Emotion-Expressive Virtual Rival Agent, Shinsuke Kiyomoto, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 119, no. 267, CNR2019-38, pp. 79-80, Nov. 2019.

With the evolution of computer gaming hardware causing entertainment to change, on-screen PvP video games still remain to be the most popular option. Most of these games have a game mode versus CP(Computer Player). However the experience in such modes can lack satisfaction on the player side due to the lack of engagement, challenge, and involvement. This research will design and evaluate an auxiliary system that enhances the experience of playing against CP by using an on-screen virtual agent. Emotion will be synthesized through an emotion engine using the game state as an input, and the agent will display facial expressions and appropriate utterances.

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Virtual IoT: An IoT Platform with MR Technologies Realizing Low-cost and Flexible Notification of Life-support Information,Kentaro Taninaka, Kazunori Takashio, IoTaIS2019,Nov. 2019.

Virtual IoT: An IoT Platform with MR Technologies Realizing Low-cost and Flexible Notification of Life-support Information Abstract : The miniaturization and decreasing cost of networking computers, along with the advancement of cloud infrastructure has eased the implementation of IoT products for manufacturers. The increase in such products has led to the rise in IoT devices with information provision function. However, it is difficult to make products display information in consideration of the design on the surface, like daily commodities, since it requires the device to have a wealth of computational resource. In this paper, we propose Virtual IoT System, the approach which adds information-giving functions to the non-computing objects using Mixed Reality technology. This system enables appropriate things to give adequate information at the appropriate timing. In this paper, we explain the detail and design of Virtual IoT System. In addition, we conduct an experiment to evaluate the usability and expressive power of Virtual IoT system.

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(日本語) [優秀発表賞] 遠隔者の多人数会話への参与を支援するテレプレゼンス仲介ロボット, 堀江拓実, 山口留実, 桑原多瑛, 古谷優樹, 伊賀理心, 飯森優斗, 勢子雄大, 高汐一紀, 第34回 人間情報学会講演集, pp. 9-10,2019年12月

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2018〜


Design of Context Aware Conversation Task Scheduler and its Evaluation : Takumi Horie, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 117, no. 443, CNR2017-30, pp. 45-50, Feb. 2018.

 

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Handling Conversation Interruption in Many-to-Many HR Interaction Considering Emotional Behaviors and Human Relationships : Takumi Horie, Kazunori Takashio, 27th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2018), Aug, 2018.

In the future, communication robots are expected to join many-to-many human-robot interactions. Thus, robots must handle interruptions requesting a new task outside of the current conversation. In this paper, we propose a novel scheduler which decides switch timing of conversational tasks when a robot is interrupted. The model grasps the structure of the conversation and finds its breakpoints based on adjacency pairs. In order to decide whether to switch conversational tasks on each breakpoint or not, the model prioritizes conversational tasks considering an importance of its topic and a length as contexts of each conversational task. The model also uses human relationships and emotional behaviors to decide priority of conversational tasks. The result of an evaluation experiment shows that our proposed scheduler could impress subjects more favorably than that which always prioritizes an interrupter.

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C2AT2 HUB: Long-term Characterization of Robots based on Human Child’s Personality Development, Shintaro Kawanago, Kazunori Takashio, 27th IEEE International Conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2018), Aug. 2018.

Inadequate variety of personalities for communication robots may cause unnatural interac- tion with them and reduction in attachment. This paper proposes C2 AT2 HUB, where communication robots are characterized by changing tendency of affect transition based on long-term interaction with users. In C2AT2 HUB, robots’ affect is defined as two types; “interpersonal affect” and “emotions”, and transition of each type of affect is adjusted by history of users’ actions to robots in order to characterize robots gradually. Evaluation experiment revealed our approach characterizes robots naturally and improves impression of robots.

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Social Interaction with Cloud Network Robots : Kazunori Takashio, 14th International Conference on Intelligent Environments (IE’18) / Tutorial, June, 2018, Roma Italy.

http://ebooks.iospress.nl/volumearticle/49339

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Design of Physical Interaction between Robots to Build a Sense of Affinity : Lisa Kashiwagi (Sacred Heart School), Rintaro Miyamoto, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 118, no. 94, CNR2018-6, pp. 29-32, June 2018.

 

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A Robot Taking Contrastive Response Strategy to Engage Natural : Shunta Nakajima, Takumi Horie, Tae Kuwahara, Kentaro Taninaka, and Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 118, no. 94, CNR2018-5, pp. 23-27, June 2018.

 

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The Robot Design of step by step Growth Process : Kouki Saito (Keio Fujisawa HS.), Kentaro Taninaka, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 118, no. 94, CNR2018-4, pp. 19-22, June 2018.

 

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Effective use of AR and IoT Technology for Displaying Life-support Information — Comparison between IoT Devises versus Information-giving from Commodity –, Kentaro Taninaka, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 118, no. 184, CNR2018-12, pp. 7-11, Aug. 2018.

IoT devices which display life-support information to users is increasing. However, it is difficult to add information-giving function to the product which close to user’s life, i.e. commodity. In fact, this information is given from the device which have a wealth computation source. In this research, we propose the approach which add information-giving function to those IoT introduction difficult things, using augmented reality technology. This system enables right things to give right information in right timing.

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Effectiveness of Manga-Effects To Telepresence Communication System, Risa Takemura, Takumi Horie, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 118, no. 306, CNR2018-33, pp. 87-92, Nov. 2018.

Today’s telecommunication systems have been greatly evolving, while the video calls used on telepresence robots still seems bland. We hypothesize that the augmentation of video calls with Manga-Effects will help users attain a sense of familiarity and find entertaining components within their conversations. In specific, adding various Manga-Effects over the video call, respectively selected upon the users’ facial expression, will help visually emphasize certain emotions. This experiment analyzes the level of users’ involvement in the conversation, and verifies our hypothesis.

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〜2017


Ex-Amp Robot: Expressive Robotic Avatar with Multimodal Emotion Detection to Enhance Communication of Users with Motor Disabilities : Ai Kashii, Kazunori Takashio and Hideyuki Tokuda, 26th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2017), Aug to Sept, 2017.

In current society, there are numerous robots made for various purposes, including manufacturing, cleaning, therapy, and customer service. Other robots are used for enhancing H2H communication. In this research, we proposed a robotic system which detects the user’s emotions and enacts them on a humanoid robot. By using this robotic avatar, users with motor disabilities are able to extend their methods of communication, as a physical form of expression will be added to the conversation.

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Atomicity Detection in Dialogue Flow Considering Sequences of Adjacency Pairs : Takumi Horie, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 117, no. 95, CNR2017-5, pp. 23-28, June 2017.

 

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MoDe: a Real-time Deformed Motion Generation Tool for Humanoid Robots : Ryota Hayashi (MUHS), Takumi Horie, Taiki Majima, Shintaro Kawanago, Rintaro Miyamoto, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 117, no. 95, CNR2017-8, pp. 41-44, June 2017.

 

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Social Pods: a Robot Kit for Design-Oriented STEM Education using Digital Fabrication Environment : Taiki Majima, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 117, no. 198, CNR2017-14, pp. 31-36, Sept. 2017.

 

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C2AT2 HUB: Long-term Characterization of Robots based on Human Child’s Personality Development, Shintaro Kawanago, Kazunori Takashio, IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 117, no. 443, CNR2017-45, pp. 127-132, Feb. 2018.

 

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Ex-Amp Robot: Physical Avatar for Enhancing Human to Human Communication : Ai Kashii, Kazunori Takashio, Hideyuki Tokuda, International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction 2016 (HAI 2016), Dec, 2016.

Our research focuses on creating a robotic system that aids human-to-human communication. The robot acts as a personal companion that understands the user’s emotions and helps express them alongside the user. First, the user’s facial expression is detected through a connected camera device and relays the retrieved information to a humanoid robot. The humanoid robot then performs physical gestures that match the detected emotion. By using this system, those who are unable to freely move their own bodies can add a physical component to their communication method. In this paper, we have determined the efficacy of translating detected facial expressions into robot movements. Through experiments and surveys, we determined whether our proposed ‘Ex-Amp Robot’ helped enhance the communication of a hypothetically tetraplegic user.

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Robot Avatar for Enhancing the Communication of Physically Disabled Humans : Ai Kashii, Kazunori Takashio and Hideyuki Tokuda 25th IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN 2016), Aug, 2016

The robot avatar proposed in this paper is a personal companion that captures users’ facial expressions and translates retrieved emotion data into gestures best suited to express the user’s emotion in real-time. This robot allows users to enjoy physical aspects of communication, as well as put an impact on parts of conversations to raise conversation quality. In this research, we have conducted experiments to validate the efficacy of translating facial expressions into robot movements.

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Expression Amplifying Robot — A Personal Expression Translator — : Ai Kashii, Kazunori Takashio, Hideyuki Tokuda IEICE Tech. Rep., vol. 116, no. 106, CNR2016-3, pp. 11-16, June 2016.

Currently, various different robots aid and enhance our daily lives. They help us in the form of communication, manufacturing, and physical labor. Even within the category of enhancing communication, robots may be used in a myriad of ways, including use as an avatar (a representation of an identity) or as a conversation companion on its own. In this paper, we have focused on creating a robotic system that would aid human-to-human communication. This robot acts as a personal companion that understands the user’s emotions and helps express them alongside the user. It first detects the user’s facial expression through a connected camera device, which then relays the retrieved information to a humanoid robot. The humanoid robot then performs physical gestures, according to the detected emotion. By using this personal robot system, a person who is unable to freely move their own body would be able to add a physical component to their method of communication, as the robot will act as the user’s body in the communication. This time around, we have conducted experiments to validate the efficacy of translating detected facial expressions into robot movements. Through experiments and surveys, we determined whether our proposed ‘Ex-Amp Robot’ helped enhance communication between a hypothetically tetraplegic user and another person.

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