We propose a new optical system that creates three-dimensionally movable aerial images with a minimal optical configuration. The proposed optical system achieves depth shift of the aerial image by adjusting the angle of each element. Experimental results showed that the proposed optical system can reproduce depth and can improve and uniform the luminance of the aerial image compared to the conventional linear movement method.

We implemented an interactive system that enables a three-dimensional movement of an aerial image. The proposed system employs two servo motors to adjust the angles of the retroreflective element and the light source display, thereby controlling the depth position of the aerial image. The developed prototype can reproduce the position of a virtual character in three dimensions within a cubic range of 100 mm per side. Furthermore, by sensing the user’s fingertips, the prototype enables spatial interactions such as the character following the fingertip, landing on it, and being flicked away by the user.

A table-top reflective aerial imaging system can display digital information as if it existed on a specular horizontal surface, such as a marble or acrylic table-top. This system allows a user sitting in a chair to naturally look down at an aerial image displayed on a table, thus integrating the aerial image into daily life. However, although it displays an aerial image on a specular surface, it does not reproduce the reflected image, thus failing to achieve optical consistency. To improve the presence of aerial images, we propose a new table-top reflective aerial imaging system that not only displays aerial images on a specular surface but also reproduces the reflected images in that surface. The proposed system consists of an aerial imaging optical system that can display independent aerial images on and in a specular surface, and a reflected image reproduction method that designs the luminance of the aerial image inside the specular surface according to the actual measured material reflectance. We implemented a prototype to verify the principle of aerial imaging optics and evaluated the naturalness of the reflected image reproduced by our method through user experimentation. The results show that the difference between the material of the specular surface and the shape of the aerial image affects whether the reflected image produced by the proposed method is perceived as natural or not.

In this study, we attempt to enhance emotion in online live music concerts by focusing on the influence of entrainment to the rhythm of music on emotion. We propose a light stick-type device that changes the audience's own light stick swinging motion and their perception of it by adding a force stimulus to the audience's light stick swinging motion. Experimental results suggest that the proposed device promoted the user's light stick swinging behavior and enhanced emotion. Results also suggested that presenting force stimuli in accordance with musical rhythms could be a useful for presenting the presence of other people.

We present an interactive 360-degree tabletop display system for collaborative work around a round table. Users are able to see 3D objects on the tabletop display anywhere around the table without 3D glasses. The system uses a visual perceptual mechanism for smooth motion parallax in the horizontal direction with fewer projectors than previous works. A 360-degree camera mounted above the table and image recognition software detects users' positions around the table and the heights of their faces (eyes) as they move around the table in real-time. Those mechanics help display correct vertical and horizontal direction motion parallax for different users simultaneously. Our system also has a user interaction function with a tablet device that manipulates 3D objects displayed on the table. These functions support collaborative work and communication between users. We implemented a prototype system and demonstrated the collaborative features of the 360-degree tabletop display system.

We focus on animals as a resource of processing capability in crowdsourcing and propose an Animal Crowdsourcing (we call it "Animal Cloud”, too) that resolves problems with cooperation between computers and human or animals. This paper gives an overview of Animal Crowdsourcing and reports on the interim results of our learning experiments using rats (Long-Evans rats) to verify the feasibility of Animal Crowdsourcing.