Robotic avatars and telepresence technology enable people with disabilities to engage in physical work. Despite the recent popularity of the metaverse, few studies have explored the use of virtual avatars and environments by people with disabilities. In this study, seven disabled participants working in a cafe where remote customer service is provided via robotic avatars, were engaged in the development and use of personalized virtual avatars displayed on a large screen in-situ in combination with existing physical robots, creating a hybrid cyber-physical space. We conducted longitudinal semi-structured interviews to investigate the psychological changes experienced by the participants. The results revealed that mass-produced robotic avatars allowed participants to not disclose their disability if they did not want to, but also backgrounded their identities; by contrast, customized virtual avatars shaped without physical constraints, highlighted their personalities. The combined use of robotic and virtual avatars complemented each other and can support pilots in redefining their identity.

Robotic avatars can help disabled people extend their reach in interacting with the world. Technological advances make it possible for individuals to embody multiple avatars simultaneously. However, existing studies have been limited to laboratory conditions and did not involve disabled participants. In this paper, we present a real-world implementation of a parallel control system allowing disabled workers in a café to embody multiple robotic avatars at the same time to carry out different tasks. Our data corpus comprises semi-structured interviews with workers, customer surveys, and videos of café operations. Results indicate that the system increases workers’ agency, enabling them to better manage customer journeys. Parallel embodiment and transitions between avatars create multiple interaction loops where the links between disabled workers and customers remain consistent, but the intermediary avatar changes. Based on our observations, we theorize that disabled individuals possess specific competencies that increase their ability to manage multiple avatar bodies.

Telework "avatar work," in which people with disabilities can engage in physical work such as customer service, is being implemented in society. In order to enable avatar work in a variety of occupations, we propose a mobile sales system using a mobile frozen drink machine and an avatar robot “OriHime”, focusing on mobile customer service like peddling. The effect of the peddling by the system on the customers are examined based on the results of video annotation.

BACKGROUND: Assessing the nucleosome-forming potential of specific DNA sequences is important for understanding complex chromatin organization. Methods for predicting nucleosome positioning include bioinformatics and biophysical approaches. An advantage of bioinformatics methods, which are based on in vivo nucleosome maps, is the use of natural sequences that may contain previously unknown elements involved in nucleosome positioning in vivo. The accuracy of such prediction attempts reflects the genomic coordinate resolution of the nucleosome maps applied. Nucleosome maps are constructed using micrococcal nuclease digestion followed by high-throughput sequencing (MNase-seq). However, as MNase has a strong preference for A/T-rich sequences, MNase-seq may not be appropriate for this purpose. In addition to MNase-seq-based maps, base pair-resolution chemical maps of in vivo nucleosomes from three different species (budding and fission yeasts, and mice) are currently available. However, these chemical maps have yet to be integrated into publicly available computational methods. RESULTS: We developed a Bioconductor package (named nuCpos) to demonstrate the superiority of chemical maps in predicting nucleosome positioning. The accuracy of chemical map-based prediction in rotational settings was higher than that of the previously developed MNase-seq-based approach. With our method, predicted nucleosome occupancy reasonably matched in vivo observations and was not affected by A/T nucleotide frequency. Effects of genetic alterations on nucleosome positioning that had been observed in living yeast cells could also be predicted. nuCpos calculates individual histone binding affinity (HBA) scores for given 147-bp sequences to examine their suitability for nucleosome formation. We also established local HBA as a new parameter to predict nucleosome formation, which was calculated for 13 overlapping nucleosomal DNA subsequences. HBA and local HBA scores for various sequences agreed well with previous in vitro and in vivo studies. Furthermore, our results suggest that nucleosomal subsegments that are disfavored in different rotational settings contribute to the defined positioning of nucleosomes. CONCLUSIONS: Our results demonstrate that chemical map-based statistical models are beneficial for studying nucleosomal DNA features. Studies employing nuCpos software can enhance understanding of chromatin regulation and the interpretation of genetic alterations and facilitate the design of artificial sequences.

The research focuses on the use of Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to build Khmer text-to-speech (TTS) system. Although the system is based on HMM statistic model, language specific functions were newly designed and developed to cope with the orthographical and grammatical nature of Khmer, some of which included word segmentation, grapheme to phoneme conversion, definitions of full context labels and question sets. In total four-thousand phonemically-balanced Khmer sentences were read aloud by an adult male speaker of Khmer, which were in turn served for training a model for Khmer TTS. The system has been incorporated into VoiceTra, a multilingual speech-to-speech translation app that has been developed and maintained by NICT. The app is publicly released for mobile devices and available to download in both App store and Google Play store.

This paper describes a friction model that enables the simulation of mechanical motion with planar two-dimensional friction. Most existing friction models for control applications are applicable to one-dimensional motion only. The proposed model is derived by extending the conventional friction model, the Dahl model. This is achieved by replacing the scalar quantities in the Dahl model with vector quantities. The principal properties of the original model, that is, boundedness and rate independence, are preserved. In the proposed model, the maximum friction force is equal in all directions and the direction of the friction force coincides with the direction of motion, which a simple pair of one-dimensional models cannot obtain. A simulation application is presented for a typical example with planar two-dimensional friction.

As the peaks of head-related transfer functions are generated by normal modes of the pinna (external ear), the peak center-frequency and the three-dimensional pattern of each normal mode depend on individual pinna geometry. Traditionally, normal modes are visualized mainly in terms of pressure anti-nodes. To better understand the relations between the acoustics and geometry of pinnae, in this study we describe computational methods that extend previous visualizations: (i) by including principal vectors of velocity that reveal patterns of energy exchange between anti-nodes and energy loss to the surrounding air, and (ii) by enabling separate visualization of resonance patterns with common phase-angles. These methods are applied to two individual pinnae: one with a standard set of normal modes, and one whose second and third normal modes are confusable.

Finite-Difference Time Domain (FDTD) acoustic simulation was used to calculate Pinna-Related Transfer Functions (PRTFs) of the KEMAR manikin's DB60 pinna. A baseline set of 25 PRTFs were first calculated at regular intervals of elevation angle in the front median plane. The simulation was then repeated 1784 times, corresponding to every unique, single-voxel perturbation of the pinna's outer surface geometry. All perturbed PRTFs were compared with the baseline set, in order to precisely quantify the frequency shifts in all the spectral peaks and notches up to 14 kHz. This paper focuses on the pinna sensitivity patterns for the first spectral notch Nl, known to be an auditory cue to elevation in the median plane. In particular, Nl sensitivity patterns revealed the elevation dependence of broad areas of the pinna's upper structures that are involved in reflection, and the role of the tragus region involved in diffraction.

This paper provides an analysis of headphone calibration for reproduction of sound pressure at the eardrums of the listener. If the vibrations of the listener's eardrums are reproduced, the listener would perceive an auditory sensation as if he/she were in the original sound scene. The visual and other sensations also affect sound impressions, but they are not always available, e.g., when the sound sources are out of sight. Moreover, reproduction of stimuli as faithfully as possible on each modality is a reasonable approach to produce a solid impression of the sense of presence. For reproduction of vibrations at the eardrums, calibration functions for individual characteristics of ear-canal transfer functions and eardrum impedance are required because they are generally different from person to person. Sound pressure at the entrance to the ear canal observed with and without headphones, with the ear canal blocked and open, and at the eardrum was investigated through equivalent circuits based on electrical circuit theory, and a new headphone calibration function was derived. The effects of calibration functions were then quantitatively evaluated in experiments using a head and torso simulator (HATS), revealing that sound pressure can be reproduced at the eardrums in a wide frequency range such as 100 Hz to 10 kHz. Relations of the relevant impedance were also investigated.

A perfectly matched layer (PML) is commonly used in finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulation to absorb outgoing waves and thereby reduce artifactual reflections from the computational domain boundaries. However, previous two-dimensional studies have noted that increasing the PML loss factor does not monotonically improve the PML's performance. This paper evaluates the PML in three-dimensional FDTD acoustic simulations. It confirms the existence of anoptimumloss factor, with higher values degrading PML performance. An empirical formula is offered for estimating the optimum loss factor for a linear or a quadratic profile, that depends on the PML depth, sound speed, and grid resolution.

Automatic evaluation of English timing control proficiency is carried out by comparing segmental duration differences between learners and reference native speakers. To obtain an objective measure matched to human subjective evaluation, we introduced a measure reflecting perceptual characteristics. The proposed measure evaluates duration differences weighted by the loudness of the corresponding speech segment and the differences or jumps in loudness from the two adjacent speech segments. Experiments showed that estimated scores using the new perception-based measure provided a correlation coefficient of 0.72 with subjective evaluation scores given by native English speakers on the basis of naturalness in timing control. This correlation turned out to be significantly higher than that of 0.54 obtained when using a simple duration difference measure.

Head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) are essential for creating a virtual sound source when sound waves are transmitted through headphones. The measurement of HRTFs is a complicated and time-consuming task. Therefore, the interpolation of HRTFs is crucial for virtual auditory display systems in which both listeners and sound objects are likely to move in a virtual auditory space. In this study, HRTFs are measured with a high spatial resolution in order to develop an effective interpolation method. An analysis of HRTFs indicates that the functions exhibit periodicity in amplitude along the azimuthal angle. The optimum filter coefficients required to interpolate HRTFs from several functions measured along multiple azimuthal directions are derived. Computer simulations indicate that in comparison to conventional methods, the proposed method yields less estimation error in the interpolation of HRTFs. Listening tests indicate that the proposed method can provide better perception of virtual sound.

To simulate the perceptual extraction of temporal structures of speech, the authors have been proposing an event-plausibilty model that detects the occurrence of subevents in continuous speech signals based on a auditory processing. One of its core components is the filterbank module that simulates the mechanical frequency analysis of the basilar membrane in the cochlea. In this paper, output by the new model using a dynamic compressive gammachirp (dcGC) auditory filterbank was compared with the previous model using a gammatone auditory filterbank. The most important difference between these filters was the nonlinear dynamic level-dependence of the new filter; the previous filterbank was linear. Simulation results revealed that no significant advantage for the new filter (dcGC) was observed for event detection by the event-plausiblity model, which suggests that the algorithm for the event-plausibility model has robustness against differences in peripheral auditory processing. Index Terms: auditory processing, temporal perception, event detection, auditory image model

Aiming at prosody control for speech synthesis expressing speaking attitudes, F0 shapes were characterized by their perceptual impressions. To directly correlate F0 shapes with perceptual impressions, single word utterances "n" extracted from daily conversations were employed. The analysis showed that speaking attitudes were manifested in the global F0 control of "n" as the differences of their average height (high-low) and dynamic patterns (rise, flat, fall and rise & fall). Next, controlled utterances of "n" were perceptually examined through multiple dimensional scaling analysis to confirm F0 control freedoms found in the analysis. The results showed the 3D structure of a perceptual impression space and factor dependent F0 control characteristics. The positive-negative attitude can be controlled by average F0 height while those of confident-doubtful or allowable-unacceptable are manifested through dynamic F0 patterns. These findings provide new possibilities of systematic F0 control for conversational speech synthesis with speaking attitudes using a corpus-based approach.

This paper discusses the implementation of a three-dimensional (3D) structure motif search of proteins. Each protein structure is represented by a set of secondary structure elements (SSEs) which involves alpha-helix segments and beta-strand segments. In describing it, every SSE is further reduced into a two-node graph that consists of the starting amino acid residue, the ending residue and a pseudo-bond between them. The searching algorithm is based on a graph theoretical clique-finding algorithm that has been used for 3D substructure searching in small organic molecules. The program SS3D-P2 was validated using proteins that have well-known 3D motifs, and it correctly found the Greek key motif within an eye lens protein, crystallin, that consists of four anti-parallel beta strands. The program was also successfully applied to searching for the more complex 3D motif, TIM-type beta-barrel motif, with a protein structure database from the Protein Data Bank.