Against the background of increasing a number of accident in the lanes for cyclists and pedestrians, the authors assumed that these lanes have never been designed from the view point of psychological state of pedestrians. Hence, this paper proposes a design support system that reduces the psychological stress of pedestrians. The major features of our simulator are i) a virtual lane is constructed in a head-mounted display by using a free game engine, Unity, ii) the design conditions of the lane are optimized to reduce the psychological stress of pedestrians. This study firstly constructs the virtual pedestrian model by using multi-agent system, in which the behavior standards of each agent is modeled with obeying the idea of personal space. The psychological stress is estimated by measuring Normalized Pulse Volume (NPV). In this paper, we achieved to replace the components of the virtual city model originally provided by Zenrin Inc. to more realistic components we have developed in this study.

The proficiency levels of using chopsticks and/or writing characters with a pencil etc. are improved by the practices continuously repeated. By the way, the mechanisms of improving the proficiency level of human skill have never been clarified. This study focused on the mechanism of our skill acquirement and investigates the change in muscular activity in the process of skill acquirement. This paper describes the experimental device we have developed, where a skilled instructor and a beginner operate the experimental device linked to a simple paddle application. We will investigate the process of human skill acquirement by focusing on the changes in the activities of brachial muscles while training. Especially, the effects of physical instruction of an instructor on the skill acquirement of a beginner will be discussed in this paper.

Palpation is important medical diagnostic technic to make correct diagnosis of symptomatic state. It requires a lot of palpation experience under leadership of an experienced medical doctor. Hence, a palpation training system with virtual model of an affected part is useful to get better at the skill. However, there is no practical training for maxillofacial palpation in the dental education curriculum in Japan. So, it is necessary for dental students that the virtual training system is developed, which can to practice maxillofacial palpation. Then, a trial palpation training system for maxillofacial disorder is developed by using virtual reality model and haptic interface. The system is consisted of a PC and the haptic device - PHANToM Omni. A virtual affected part model is constructed from multi-CT images through commercial software. In particular, the dynamic responding virtual model and real-time analysis method through simplified mesh free method are improved. Consequently, we succeed in operation at the real-time by the palpation training system.

Recently, various social issues, such as global warming problem, economical abrupt move, and diseases associated with adult lifestyle habits, are reported. Against them, the role of bicycle has been reviewed as one of effective solutions. In fact, many types of bicycles have been developed and have been widely used in our daily life. Though commercially available bicycles have various size of frame for user's physical size, and the positions both of a saddle and a handle can be modified, but there is a lack of interests in the importance of bicycle position as a shared awareness. Provision of proper riding posture for riders based on their physical properties would enable to improve the efficiency of cycling exercise, and to prevent some chronic pains occurred in places of body. To establish an optimization method of bicycle position based on individual biomedical information, this study focuses on the importance of bicycle position, especially we address to search a suitable saddle height corresponding to user's physical features and properties. This paper firstly develops an automatic saddle height control system, and secondly supposes an evaluation standard of cycling exercise based on electromyographic signals of rider's leg during cycling exercise, and an optimization method of saddle height by using fast Fourier transformation (FFT), principle component analysis (PCA), and fuzzy inference. This paper shows firstly the concepts of the evaluation standard we have defined for rider's pedaling performance with some experimental results, and introduces a fuzzy control system for automatic saddle height control.

Intraoral radiography is one of the effective diagnosis method for dental clinic, which is used to examine dental caries and gum disease. A patient needs to have a small film inserted in their mouth. The position and orientation of the film are properly adjusted by the dentist. An indicator cone which directs X-ray is set up outside the patient's mouth. The intraoral radiograph provide a dental perspective projection image of the patient's teeth, thus the individual differences of patients make it more difficult to take an appropriate radiograph regardless of the experience of dentist. Recently, the skills of intraoral radiography of Japanese dental students and intern doctors are declining. A conventional education method for intraoral radiography currently conducted does not provide enough time to master intraoral radiographic technique for the dental students, because much time to develop the roentgenogram is necessary. This paper describes the development of a training system for intraoral radiography. The system is composed of a notebook computer, two PHANToM Omni devices, and a dental arch model, where the PHANToM Omni devices are used to measure the position and orientation of a indicator cone and film of the system. We applied the computer graphics technique to draw an intraoral radiograph on the computer display, thus the system enables trainees to practice the intraoral radiography without a X-ray machine, lots of film sheets, and time for the development of roentgenogram. In this paper, we present the system structure, a simulation method for generating an intraoral radiography, and simulation results

Intraoral radiography is one of the most important techniques for dentists, which is commonly used to diagnose dental caries and gum disease. An intraoral radiograph shows a perspective projection image of the teeth of patient, so that the roentgenogram is affected by the positional relationship between film, teeth, and indicator cone which directs X-ray radiation toward the film. In order to administer intraoral radiography for a patient, he/she has to have a small X-ray film inserted in their oral cavity. The position and orientation of the film are properly adjusted by the dentist or radiologic technician. And then, the indicator cone is positioned outside the patient's mouth, and its orientation is determined depending on the teeth and film. Recently, it has been reported that the skill of intraoral radiography of dental students and interns are declining in Japan. The background of this issue is that the conventional training method needs to use an actual X-ray machine and lots of film, and much time to develop the roentgenogram. We assumed that these training inefficiencies would be improved by using virtual reality technique. In this paper, we propose a training simulator for intraoral radiography based on virtual reality, where the trainees quickly obtain a graphical image of intraoral radiograph on a computer display after the setting of film and indicator cone is finished. This paper presents a simulation algorithm for generating a graphical image of intraoral radiograph, and discusses about optimum design of an indicator cone positioning device for the simulator. Simulation results show that the proposed simulation algorithm provides realistic observations of intraoral radiograph