Publications

FUTUREGYM: A gymnasium with interactive floor projection for children with special needs

Interpersonal interaction is one of the fundamental factors for successful inclusion in education for children with special needs, including children suffering from autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and/or intellectual disabilities (ID). In order to increase opportunities for interpersonal interactions among children, an interactive school gymnasium called FUTUREGYM, with a large-scale, interactive floor projection system in a school setting is proposed. As part of this study, high performance projectors (approximately 545-inch of total screen size) and tracking cameras mounted on the ceiling were installed in the gymnasium of a special needs school; these devices facilitated overlaying of individual visual aids for children with special needs. Visual aids help these children to be aware of social cues, a behavior that is considered important for the development of social interaction. Group activities to be conducted in FUTUREGYM were designed through careful consultations with teachers at the school: (1) Group running, called Circle-Run, provides an opportunity to experience a behavior that requires coordination with others, and (2) A group exergame, called Constellation Game, provides a situation to trigger helping behaviors by requiring them to be aware of other players' difficulties. The feasibility of these activities has been confirmed in this study through viability tests with the school's children with ASD and/or ID.

issey-takahashi
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Best Paper Award

複数人による双方向の対面行動を計量する頭部装着型デバイス | A Head-Mounted Device for Measuring Mutual Facing Behavior among Individuals

In this paper, we describe the development of a head-mounted device that weighs and realizes in real time the interactive face-to-face behavior of multiple people. First, we define face-to-face interaction as a state in which two people's faces are positioned within ±20 degrees of each other's head direction, and describe the implementation of a head-mounted device that weighs face-to-face behavior based on the relative head directions of multiple people. This device uses an infrared communication module whose optical axis is aligned with the head direction to measure face-to-face behavior based on the state of established communication with other devices. It is also capable of showing the weighing results in real time by emitting light, and recording the start time, duration, and partner of the face-to-face state by interfacing with an Android terminal. Next, we analyze the subject's eye and head movements while looking at the other person's face to verify the validity of the defined face-to-face behavior. Then, we evaluate the performance of the developed device through laboratory experiments. From the experimental results, we confirmed that the device has a face-to-face detection threshold of approximately ±20 degrees and a response time of approximately 330 milliseconds. The face-to-face action measurements by the device and the video observer were compared, and the results showed statistically high agreement.

taku-hachisu
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Function of eye contact and face-to-face during dyadic conversation

Previous studies have reported that the results of experiments on social attention differ in physical face-to-face and mediated face-to-face (e.g., real people vs. images of people). These results do not indicate only the difference between laboratory setting and daily life, but suggests that the control variables of social attention difficult to control in the laboratory might have a great influence on social attention in the daily living environment. In this paper, we outline the previous studies related to eye contact and face-to-face during dyadic conversation and introduces the experimental plan using wearable eye-tracker and device that measures face-to-face.

soichiro-matsuda
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発達支援のための物理的に相互作用できる球体ロボットの開発 | Development of a Physically Interactive Spherical Robot for Developmental Support

In this study, we developed a spherical robot that can play tag in a gymnasium for students of special-needs schools, with the aim of promoting the development of physical and cognitive abilities and social adaptability. This is a possible way to alleviate the imbalance in participation opportunities due to differences in ability. In this presentation, we report on two points: the control method of the spherical robot and the detection of the robot's position in the gymnasium using the ceiling camera.

takahiro-ishii
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Wearable Device for Measuring Face-to-Face Behavior via Infrared Communication

We present a novel head-mounted device for measuring face-to-face behavior. The device has unique capabilities: measuring timing and duration of face-to-face behavior as well as an identity of the partner, being used by multiparty, and automatically logging the behavior by connecting with Android device. We employ infrared communication technique for measuring the behavior. A pilot experiment with two dummy heads shows that the developed devices can detect the face-to-face behavior with a certain angle. We also conducted an experiment with human participants. The events recorded by the developed device show moderate agreement with those coded from video by human observers.

taku-hachisu
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Proposal of A Spacial Design for A Gymnasium Using Floor Projection

Social interaction supports are one of the fundamental factors to realize a successful inclusion in education for children with special needs, including those with Neurodevelopmental disorders. In order to develop their social interaction skills, we propose an interactive school gymnasium, called FUTUREGYM, with a large-scale interactive floor projection system. We installed high performance projectors and tracking cameras mounted on the ceiling of the gymnasium of a special needs school, providing interactive visual aids for students. We designed group activities to provoke voluntary wayfinding behavior and their social interaction: 1) A group run, called Circle-Run, promotes their cooperative running behaviors; 2) A group game, called Constellation Game, leads to the positive behaviors and stimulates helping behaviors; 3) A group stage, called Otsuka Olympic, helps enhancing motivation in sports events. We have confirmed the feasibility of the proposed environment throughout field studies with children with special needs.

issey-takahashi
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