The design fiction film Interfuit depicts near-future virtual funerals in Japan. This paper reports audience feedback collected through public screenings of the film and analyzes these responses to identify design opportunities for future funerary practices and related forms of mourning, memorialization, and remembrance. We organized screening events for a wide range of audiences, including HCI and other researchers, medical and end-of-life care workers, religious professionals, funeral service providers, and film enthusiasts. While most participants were based in Japan, we also intentionally reached out to people living abroad to capture more diverse perspectives. In total, we collected 140 open-ended responses, conducted a qualitative analysis, and derived design opportunities grounded in viewers’ reflections. Through this process, the paper contributes not only insights into the design of virtual funerals but also a methodological perspective on how design fiction films can be effectively used in HCI design research.

This article presents the Urashima Tarō Mirror (UTM), an interactive installation that allows users to visually experience self-transformation associated with aging through AI-generated portraits. UTM generates a series of portraits ranging from childhood to old age based on the user’s facial photograph, and the displayed image changes—appearing younger or older—depending on the user’s distance from the mirror. Through this mirror-like interface, users can experience in a short moment the physical changes that would normally take years to occur. This experience evokes awareness of one’s own transformation and aging, offering an experience that encourages reflection on identity and self-acceptance.

During the grieving process, physical objects often serve as catalysts for remembering and honouring the relationship with departed loved ones. Leveraging a participatory design approach, we created Be.side, a fully customisable multi-modal artefact that incorporates scent, sound, and heartbeat stimulation and acts as a touch-point between the deceased and the bereaved. We conducted a four-week study with three participants to understand how the artefact, continuously attuned to each participant, helped to continue bonds with the deceased. Our results show that Be.side’s bespoke elements helped participants to evoke memories of the deceased. Participants created personalised rituals for remembrance. They sustained bonds by not only interacting with Be.side but also participating in the research. Finally, highlighting that remembrance can both provide comfort and deepen sadness, we discuss future design considerations.

Half a century since the concept of a cyborg was introduced, digital cyborgs, enabled by the spread of wearable robotics, are the focus of much research in recent times. We introduce JIZAI ARMS, a supernumerary robotic limb system consisting of a wearable base unit with six terminals and detachable robot arms controllable by the wearer. The system was designed to enable social interaction between multiple wearers, such as an exchange of arm(s), and explore possible interactions between digital cyborgs in a cyborg society. This paper describes the JIZAI ARMS’ design process, an interdisciplinary collaboration between human augmentation researchers, product designers, a system architect, and manufacturers, to realize a technically complex system while considering the aesthetics of a digital cyborg. We also provide an autobiographical report of our first impressions of using the JIZAI ARMS and use our findings to speculate on a model of potential social interactions between digital cyborgs.

This paper describes a case study wherein we realized a novel remote shopping experience by using T-Leap, a wearable telepresence system with an integrated 360° camera, to connect a supermarket in the city center with elderly participants living far from the store. The participants of our case study operated T-Leap via a PC/tablet and remotely joined a surrogate shopper to explore the supermarket and shop for products. In this study, we revealed that a real-time 360° view provides opportunities for accidental, serendipitous purchasing activities, despite being difficult for the elderly participants to control. Reflecting on our findings, we discuss the design of future remote shopping services from an HCI perspective. Our design implications will contribute to assisting people who have difficulties regularly shopping for their daily needs, like our participants, have rich, in-store experiences that have never been provided by existing online shopping services.

Technological advancement has opened up opportunities for new sports and physical activities. We introduce a concept called machine-mediated teaming, in which a human and a surrogate machine form a team to participate in physical sports games. To understand the experience of machine-mediated teaming and the guidelines for designing the system to achieve the concept, we built a case study system based on tug-of-war. Our system is a sports game played by two against two. One team consists of a player who actually pulls the rope and another player who participates in the physical game by controlling the machine’s actuators. We conducted user studies using this system to investigate the sport experience in this form and to reveal insights to inform future research on machine-mediated teaming. Based on the data obtained from the user studies, we clarified three perspectives, machine stamina, action space, and explicit feedback, that should be considered when designing future machine-mediated teaming systems. The research presented in this paper offers a first step towards exploring how humans and machines can coexist in highly dynamic physical interactions.

While floral tributes are commonly used for the public commemoration of victims of disasters, war, and other accidents, flowers in vases color everyday life. In this research, these features of flowers are intertwined with the recent phenomenon of online memorials to develop a virtual floral tribute concept that includes physical rituals. We designed SenseVase, a smart vase to detect flowers placed in it, and a 3DCG Virtual Memorial that illustrates floral tributes given by people using SenseVases at home. This paper describes how we developed our design concept by reviewing previous literature and social aspects, and presents a video illustrating the concept. To validate the current concept, we interviewed several experts knowledgeable in public commemorations, virtual and online communities, and the floral business. Through a discussion of our findings from the design process and interviews, we propose a new direction for how HCI technology can contribute to public commemoration in addition to personal memorialization.

Funerals are irreplaceable events, especially for bereaved family members and relatives. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented many people worldwide from attending their loved ones’ funerals. The authors had the opportunity to assist one family faced with this predicament by webcasting and recording funeral rites held near Tokyo in June, 2020. Using our original 360-degree Telepresence system and smartphones running Zoom, we enabled the deceased’s elder siblings to remotely attend the funeral and did our utmost to make them feel present in the funeral hall. Despite the webcasting via Zoom contributing more to their remote attendances than our system, we discovered thoughtful findings which could be useful for designing remote funeral attendances. From the findings, we also discuss how HCI designers can contribute to this highly sensitive issue, weaving together knowledge from various domains including techno-spiritual practices, thanato-sensitive designs; and other religious and cultural aspects related to death rituals.

This paper presents an approach for coupling robotic capability with human ability in dynamic motor skills, called "Human-Machine Mutual Actuation (HMMA)." We focus specifically on throwing motions and propose a method to control the release timing computationally. A system we developed achieves our concept, HMMA, by a robotic handheld device that acts as a release controller. We conducted user studies to validate the feasibility of the concept and clarify related technical issues to be tackled. We recognized that the system successfully performs on throwing according to the target while it exploits human ability. These empirical experiments suggest that robotic capability can be embedded into the users' motions without losing their senses of control. Throughout the user study, we also revealed several issues to be tackled in further research contributing to HMMA.

This paper describes a field study conducted with our system, T-Leap, a telepresence system connecting one person (the Viewer), situated indoors, with multiple destinations (the Nodes), that roam outdoors. Here, each Node is a person wearing a module that includes a 360-degree camera and a microphone-speaker. Through our study, we demonstrate that T-Leap enables the Viewer to perform various interactions with the Nodes including being helped by them, collaborating with them, and guiding them. These interactions were demonstrated through three studies completing different tasks: 1) Nodes purchasing souvenirs for the Viewer, 2) Nodes finding objects in the park, and 3) Viewer guiding Nodes to purchase things. The studies were primarily conducted with Taiwanese locals and Japanese visitors in Taipei. Throughout the studies, we found that T-Leap worked especially well for mediating communication between a Viewer with local knowledge acting as a guide and several Nodes who were being guided. To conclude the paper, we broadly discuss our findings, the lessons we learned from our field study, and present recommendations for the future development of mobile and wearable telepresence systems.

We propose “ExLeap”, a minimal telepresence system that creates leaping experience. Multiple “nodes” with an omnidirectional camera, mic and speaker transmit the video to clients, and on the client, videos are rendered in 3D space. When moving to another node, by crossfading two videos, the user can feel as if she/he leaps between two places. Also, on each node, the user can talk with people in that place. Each node consists of very simple hardware, so we can put them on multiple places we want to go to. Moreover, because the system can be used 24/7 by multi-user simultaneously and is very easy to use, it creates various types of chances of communications.

Focusing on the design of technology for mourning and memorialization, we describe the emergence of Automatic Conveyor-belt Columbaria, locally developed in Japan, as an example of an interactive system combining physical and digital remains, and discuss its user experiences and social influences. It concludes with implications for future HCI research and practice with a focus on future gravesites and memorialization sites in dense urbanized regions.

We describe the design, implementation, and deployment of Fenestra, a domestic technology embodied in the form of a wirelessly connected round mirror, photo frame, and candle that displays photos of departed loved ones. Fenestra's interaction design, form, and materials are inspired by Japanese domestic practices of memorializing departed loved ones with a home altar called butsudan. We deployed Fenestra in three Japanese households to explore how this design artifact might support everyday domestic practices of memorialization, and where complications might potentially emerge. Findings reveal that a range of outcomes emerged across our participants' experiences of living with Fenestra--from profound remembrance to unexpected uses to unsettling encounters. These findings are interpreted to present opportunities for future research and practice initiatives in the HCI community.

"panavi," a recipe medium, supports cooking experience for domestic users to master professional culinary arts in their kitchens by managing temperature and pan movement properly. Utilizing a sensors-embedded frying pan--providing projected images, LED indications, and vibration--wirelessly connected with a computer system that shows text messages with sounds, the panavi system analyzes sensors' data, recognizes users' conditions, and provides the users with situated instructions. Describing our vision, design process, implementation, and user study that outlines experience of challenging professional cooking, this paper introduces a design framework model of this recipe medium for domestic usage. Throughout revealing the design process--from ideation to the finished research artifact as a whole cooking support system--this research suggests how to design interactive systems responding to human situated actions, for use as daily commodities enriching domestic user experience.

"ThanatoFenestra" is a family altar designed for people to remember the deceased and pray for them, which displays the images of the deceased depending on a candlelight's movement by burning aroma oil for cleansing their spirits like using incense sticks. In this paper, we define why we made the ThanatoFenestra deriving from Japanese traditional Buddhist rituals, describe how it works technically, suppose how to use it by two scenarios, and discuss how it will be able to make a new Japanese ritual surrounding death.

Photographic technology that appeared in the early 19th century has been integrated into many aspects of our lives with many technical innovations such as snapshots of 35 mm films, digital photography and snapshots, and online photo sharing service. As a result, today many people can enjoy expressiveness of photography compared to the fact that only limited people were allowed to use photography when it was emerged.