The experience to see oneself from behind in real-time, that is like out-of-body experience, is refreshing, it is also expected as a trigger to improve oneself. However selfie-stick, drone, or something is necessary to take a bird's-eye view. We propose the method to make virtual self bird's-eye view using an omnidirectional camera on an HMD.

“RAKUGACKY” is an interactive media system that could generate sounds from a hand-drawn sketch. It is necessary to analyze a sketch to generate sounds suitable for the sketch. The former system used colors and simple shape feature values of objects in a sketch such a circularity and an area, to recognize each object. Thus the system could recognize only simple objects in a sketch. In this paper, we improve our system to use more complex features of objects and recognize complex objects in a sketch by extracting and learning features of complex objects in a machine learning method. For example, the improved method could analyze hand-drawn animals such as cat, dog and sheep, and could synthesize cries of each animal interactively.

In this research, we propose a system to touch and move virtual shadows with real shadows. Shadows are easily generated with physical objects and a light source, and they are also used for entertainment such as shadow play and shadow art. In our method, the system scans physical objects in front of a light source, generates virtual shadows according to the scan data, and superimposes the virtual shadows to real shadows of the physical objects. The virtual shadows can be changed interactively according to the change of the real shadows, and it would realize a new type of entertainment that uses shadows. Our system scans the 3D shapes and the 3D positions of physical objects, and simulates shadows of the physical objects projected on the screen. Thus the positions and the sizes of physical objects for shadows are not limited. Virtual shadows are synthesized and moved based on the simulated shadows, and they are superimposed to real shadows of the physical objects. The user can feel as if interacting with virtual shadows by real shadows.

In this research we improved "Amazing Sketchbook" to create 3DCG objects like toy blocks and interact with them. "Amazing Sketchbook" is an interactive media tool. This tool monitors a physical sketchbook with a camera and analyzes a picture an the sketchbook, and a user can create 3DCG objects interactively by drawing a picture with physical color pens on the sketchbook. It is also possible to interact with the created 3DCG objects by touching the picture on the sketchbook or shaking the sketchbook. Our tool does not require drafts to color in, and a user can draw arbitrary pictures on a physical sketchbook. Interaction with 3DCG objects through a sketchbook is also originality of our tool. We improved our tool to realize more various shapes creation and interaction. We developed new methods to create 3DCG objects like toy blocks from a picture on a sketchbook. Our tool decides the way of piling up toy blocks automatically according to the shapes and colors of drawn objects on the sketchbook, and creates 3D objects made by virtual toy blocks interactively. It is also possible to interact with the 3D objects made by virtual blocks. When the user shakes the sketchbook, our tool would detect the movement of the 3D objects from a video sequence of the camera, and 3D objects made by virtual toy blocks would move and break into pieces. Our tool could use for entertainment, education, digital signage, and so on.

This report proposes a network-based robot that can perform the interactive training of activities in daily life (ADL) for the visually impaired. The robot has a pan-tilt head equipped with a parametric speaker and a USB camera. A sighted trainer can observe the situation of a visually impaired trainee, and control the pan-tilt head to communicate with the trainee over the network. The trainer's voice is outputted from the parametric speaker and then reflected on the surface of a target object. The visually impaired trainee can hear the reflected voice as if it is generated from the object, and thus the robot can let the trainee know the object position. This robot system is applied to the ADL training where visually impaired individuals learn to use various objects arranged in their living environments. In this report, the experimental results of user study are shown.

This paper proposes a novel concept for helping the visually impaired know what kind of object there is in an environment. This concept is implemented as a cane system that selects a target object based on a user's demand, recognizes the object from depth data obtained by a Microsoft Kinect sensor, and returns the recognition results via a tactile device. The proposed system is evaluated through a user study where one blindfolded subject actually uses the system to find chairs in an experimental environment. The experimental results indicate that the system is promising as means of helping the visually impaired recognize objects.

This paper investigates how the three e-learning modes (traditional, room-based synchronous, and metaverse-based) affect the learners’ learning preferences before and after completing the study. The authors found out that the students who took the rooom-based synchronous e-learning mode tended to show the low course adaptability overall while their preferences for asynchronous learning and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) changed negatively after completing the study. In addition, the students’ preferences for asynchronous learning as well as the use of ICT turned negative after completing the study in the metaverse-based environment.

Jomon ware is one of world's the earliest pottery created in Japan from about 14,000 BC to 300 BC. Typical Jomon pot is decorated with hand-engraved rope patterns as shown in Figure 1(a)(b) [Habu 2004]. The rope patterns are synthesized by rolling a rope on the surface of a pot before baking it. Different styles of ropes make great different rolling patterns, and each Jomon pot has characteristics that can be traced to their age and area of origin. Many archaeologists are doing research on the relationship between rope styles and the patterns [Takaki et al. 2011].

Abstract In this paper we propose a method to synthesize a virtual copperplate print image based on physical model as a non‐photorealistic rendering in Computer Graphics. In particular we pick out the drypoint from many existing copperplate printing techniques. A drypoint print has a remarkable feature that ridged burrs are arising out of the copperplate and the printed lines are slightly ragged and fuzzy. Our method consists of four sub‐processes: plate making, ink applying, wiping and printing. Each process simulates the physical actions and phenomena observed in the actual copperplate printing. In this study we use a small‐scale print and an actual print created by a real copperplate artist for some experiments to indicate effects and availability of proposed method to synthesize a print image with the feature of drypoint. Categories and Subject Descriptors (according to ACM CCS): I.3.7 [Computer Graphics]: Three‐Dimensional Graphics and Realism

We present a new user interface for the virtual sculpting system. In our system, the user operates a chisel with a pressure sensitive pen to carve a workpiece in the virtual space. The user can control the depth of carving and the angle of the virtual chisel to the surface of the workpiece dynamically like the real wood carving.

We present a method to generate virtual woodblocks for virtual printing from a gray value image or a full-color image. In this method, a virtual board is carved automatically by the virtual sculpting system extracting features or colors of the given image. A printing image is synthesized using the woodblock in the virtual printing system. Using a gray value image as a draft, the sculpting system generates one virtual woodblock that expresses gray values with carving marks, and the draft image can be transformed into another one like a woodblock print by using it in the printing system. Using a full-color image, several virtual woodblocks for each color of ink are generated, and we can synthesize a multi-colored woodblock print by printing a virtual paper sheet with virtual woodblocks for each color one after another. The methods we propose here are useful in synthesizing non-photorealistic images with computer graphics.

We present an interactive computer graphic design system based on virtual sculpting to create three-dimensional (3D) solid objects and virtual woodblock printing to synthesize 2D images, with the stress on the aspect of a tool to enjoy creation or manipulation of 3D shapes. In the virtual sculpting system, a user can form a solid object as if carving a workpiece with chisels. A 3D object generated by the system looks like a real wooden sculpture. If using a board as a workpiece, a user can generate a virtual printing woodblock. A user can synthesize a woodblock print from the woodblock mentioned, a virtual paper sheet, ink, and a printing brush in a virtual space. In this system, the operations of sculpting and printing are similar to the real ones, and still even children can experience creation of complete computer graphics.

In this paper, we study a method to synthesize a multicolor virtual woodblock print by using several virtual woodblocks. It consists of two sections: carving and printing, to synthesize a virtual print. In the carving section, virtual woodblocks are generated by a user with supporting of an automatically carving method based on feature extraction of a gray value image. And woodblocks are also generated automatically by using a full‐color image as a draft. In the printing section, a “paper sheet", a “printing brush" and “ink" are prepared in addition to the “woodblock" in the virtual space and the user synthesizes a woodblock print interactively. As the printing factors, a color of ink, a moisture value and a grain change the finish of the print. Using several virtual woodblocks and printing to a paper sheet in succession, a printing image of each woodblock is combined based on the printing factors and a multicolor virtual prints is synthesized.

In this paper, we propose an interactive designing method and a system based on it to create 3D objects and 2D images. This system consists of two subsystems for virtual sculpting to create a 3D shape and virtual printing to produce a picture with a printing block. In the virtual sculpting subsystem, a user can form solid objects with curved surfaces as if sculpting them. The user operates virtual chisels, and can remove or attach arbitrary shapes of ellipsoids or cubes from or to the workpiece. A 3D object generated by virtual sculpting looks like a real wooden sculpture. If using a board as a workpiece, a user can generate a virtual printing block. In the virtual printing subsystem, a user can synthesize a woodcut printing image from the virtual printing block mentioned above, a virtual paper sheet, and a printing brush. The user can synthesize a realistic woodcut print with a procedure similar to the actual woodcut printing.