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Hiroyuki Shinoda

Publications and source records attributed to Hiroyuki Shinoda.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

HapticMatch: An Exploration for Generative Material Haptic Simulation and Interaction

High-fidelity haptic feedback is essential for immersive virtual environments, yet authoring realistic tactile textures remains a significant bottleneck for designers. We introduce HapticMatch, a visual-to-tactile generation framework designed to democratize haptic content creation. We present a novel dataset containing precisely aligned pairs of micro-scale optical images, surface height maps, and friction-induced vibrations for 100 diverse materials. Leveraging this data, we explore and demonstrate that conditional generative models like diffusion and flow-matching can synthesize high-fidelity, renderable surface geometries directly from standard RGB photos. By enabling a "Scan-to-Touch" workflow, HapticMatch allows interaction designers to rapidly prototype multimodal surface sensations without specialized recording equipment, bridging the gap between visual and tactile immersion in VR/AR interfaces.

cs.HC

Tactile Rendering Using Three Basic Stimulus Components in Ultrasound Midair Haptics

Ultrasound midair haptics (UMH) can present non-contact tactile stimuli using focused ultrasound without any wearables. Recently, UMH has been shown to present not only conventional vibration stimulus but also static pressure stimulus by locally rotating an ultrasound focus at several hertz. Current UMH can present three basic tactile stimuli: static pressure, 30 Hz vibration, and 150 Hz vibration. These primarily elicit responses from three distinct types of mechanoreceptors: SA-I, FA-I, and FA-II. As human texture perception relies on the combination of mechanoreceptor neural responses, this study proposes combining the three basic stimuli to render tactile texture in UMH. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can render at least six discriminable textures with different roughness and friction sensations. Notably, through comparisons with real physical objects, we found that the pressure-only stimulus was perceived as slippery and smooth. The smoothness was similar to a glass marble. When vibration stimuli were synthesized, the perceived roughness and friction increased significantly. The roughness level reached that of a 100-grit sandpaper.

cs.HC

VR-Assisted Guide Dog Training: A 360{\deg} PanoHaptic System for Right-Hand Commands Analysis

This paper presents a VR-based guide dog training system designed to assist novice trainers in understanding guide dog behavior and issuing appropriate training commands. Guide dogs play a vital role in supporting independent mobility for visually impaired individuals, yet the limited number of skilled trainers restricts their availability. Training is highly demanding, requiring accurate observation of the dog's status and precise command issuance, especially through right-hand gestures. While the trainer's left hand holds the harness to perceive haptic cues, the right hand is used to indicate directions, maintain attention, and provide comfort, with motion patterns varying by scenario and the dog's progress. Currently, novices learn mainly by observing experts or watching videos, which lacks immersion and makes it difficult to adopt the trainer's perspective for understanding behavior or synchronizing command timing. To address these limitations, the proposed system introduces a VR-based assistive platform integrating panoramic visuals and haptic feedback to create an immersive training environment. The visual module provides contextual guidance, including cues for command execution and real-time comparison of the user's posture with standard actions, while the haptic module delivers tactile feedback for command gestures. Users can re-experience training sessions across diverse scenarios and dog proficiency levels, allowing independent and repeated practice. By improving the timing, accuracy, and expressiveness of right-hand commands, the system aims to accelerate skill acquisition, enhance training quality, and mitigate the shortage of qualified trainers, ultimately increasing the availability of guide dogs for visually impaired individuals.

cs.HC

Tap tactile presentation by airborne ultrasound

The airborne ultrasound tactile display can present tactile information without direct contact. Using this technology, we developed two methods for simulating the tactile sensation of tapping an object with a finger: the Amplitude Modulation Method and the Lateral Modulation Method. The first method, Amplitude Modulation, simulates the tactile sensation of tapping a soft, deformable surface, like a deflated balloon. The second method, Lateral Modulation, simulates the tactile sensation of a rigid surface that easily resonates with vibrations, like a cymbal. In the demonstration, participants can experience the difference between these two tactile stimuli by tapping virtual objects displayed on a screen.

cs.HC

Simultaneous Presentation of Thermal and Mechanical Stimulation Using High-Intensity Airborne Ultrasound

In this study, we propose a non-contact thermal presentation method using airborne ultrasound. We generate strong sound field directly on the human skin and present a perceivable temperature rise. The proposed method enables simultaneous presentation of mechanical and thermal stimuli. In preliminary experiments, we confirmed that temperature increase of 5.4 ${}^\circ$C occurs at the palm after 5.0 s.

cs.HC

Haptic Information Feedback Given to Handles in Guide Dog Training

In guide dog training, trainers use haptic information transmitted through the handle of the harness worn by the guide dog to understand the dog's state. They then apply appropriate force to the handle to train the dog to make correct judgments. This tactile experience can only be felt between the dog and the trainer, making it challenging to communicate the amount of force applied to others quantitatively. To solve this problem, this study proposes a method for real-time visualization of the force exerted on the handle and quantification of the handle movement through image processing, which can be applied to actual guide dog training.

cs.HC

Haptic Reproduction of Curved Surface and Edge by Controlling the Contact Position between the Disk and the Finger Using Airborne Ultrasound

By presenting curved surfaces of various curvatures including edges to the fingertip, it is possible to reproduce the haptic sensation of object shapes that cannot be reproduced by flat surfaces alone, such as spheres and rectangular objects. In this paper, we propose a method of presenting curved surfaces by controlling the inclination of a disk in contact with the finger belly with acoustic radiation pressure of ultrasound. The user only needs to mount a lightweight device on the fingertip to experience a tactile presentation with low physical burden. In the demonstration, the user can experience the sensation of stroking an edge and different curvatures of curved surfaces.

cs.HC

Edge shape sensation presented in a noncontact manner using airborne ultrasound

To perceive 3D shapes such as pyramids, the perception of planes and edges as tactile sensations is an essential component. This is difficult to perceive with the conventional vibrotactile sensation used in ultrasound haptics because of its low spatial resolution. Recently, it has become possible to produce a high-resolution pressure sensation using airborne ultrasound. By using this pressure sensation, it is now possible to reproduce a linear, sharp-edged sensation in the area of a fingerpad. In this study, it is demonstrated that this pressure sensation can be used to reproduce the feeling of fine, sharp edges, and its effectiveness is confirmed by comparing it with conventional vibrotactile sensation. In the demonstration, participants can experience the contact sensation of several types of edges with different curvatures.

cs.HC

Passive Touch Experience with Virtual Doctor Fish Using Ultrasound Haptics

This study implements and evaluates passive interaction using an autostereoscopic display and ultrasound haptics technology, simulating Garra rufa ("doctor fish") nibbling. When the virtual doctor fish touches the user's hand, ultrasound tactile sensations are presented by spatio-temporal modulation (STM) as an ultrasound focal point orbits around the contact points. A user study evaluated parameters affecting realism, including STM frequency, the number of focal points, ultrasound amplitude, and hand moistening. Comparing several combinations of parameters revealed that representing contact with fewer representative points and setting the frequency of the STM to 10 Hz produced the most realistic experience.

cs.HC

Feeling the Grass Grow: Making Midair Haptic Parameters Visible, Touchable and Controllable

In this paper, we present an ultrasound mid-air haptic interaction system that integrates a designed visualization of haptic parameters while maintaining ease of control. The design of corresponding haptic parameters for real-world tactile textures is a complex task. Furthermore, users often face difficulties in simultaneously controlling multi-dimensional haptic parameters to achieve the desired vibration feedback. To address these challenges, the SLS optimization method facilitates user control of these multi-dimensional parameters through a simple one-dimensional slider. Concurrently, our system employs the "Growing Grass" metaphor to visualize haptic parameter adjustments in real-time. This approach combining visual and haptic sensations can bring richer experiences and generate a realistic sensation of touching a grassy surface. Our objective is to enhance users' intuitive comprehension of haptic parameters through this innovative system.

cs.HC

TexSenseGAN: A User-Guided System for Optimizing Texture-Related Vibrotactile Feedback Using Generative Adversarial Network

Vibration rendering is essential for creating realistic tactile experiences in human-virtual object interactions, such as in video game controllers and VR devices. By dynamically adjusting vibration parameters based on user actions, these systems can convey spatial features and contribute to texture representation. However, generating arbitrary vibrations to replicate real-world material textures is challenging due to the large parameter space. This study proposes a human-in-the-loop vibration generation model based on user preferences. To enable users to easily control the generation of vibration samples with large parameter spaces, we introduced an optimization model based on Differential Subspace Search (DSS) and Generative Adversarial Network (GAN). With DSS, users can employ a one-dimensional slider to easily modify the high-dimensional latent space to ensure that the GAN can generate desired vibrations. We trained the generative model using an open dataset of tactile vibration data and selected five types of vibrations as target samples for the generation experiment. Extensive user experiments were conducted using the generated and real samples. The results indicated that our system could generate distinguishable samples that matched the target characteristics. Moreover, we established a correlation between subjects' ability to distinguish real samples and their ability to distinguish generated samples.

cs.HC

Noncontact Haptic Rendering of Static Contact with Convex Surface Using Circular Movement of Ultrasound Focus on a Finger Pad

A noncontact tactile stimulus can be presented by focusing airborne ultrasound on the human skin. Focused ultrasound has recently been reported to produce not only vibration but also static pressure sensation on the palm by modulating the sound pressure distribution at a low frequency. This finding expands the potential for tactile rendering in ultrasound haptics as static pressure sensation is perceived with a high spatial resolution. In this study, we verified that focused ultrasound can render a static pressure sensation associated with contact with a small convex surface on a finger pad. This static contact rendering enables noncontact tactile reproduction of a fine uneven surface using ultrasound. In the experiments, four ultrasound foci were simultaneously and circularly rotated on a finger pad at 5 Hz. When the orbit radius was 3 mm, vibration and focal movements were barely perceptible, and the stimulus was perceived as static pressure. Moreover, under the condition, the pressure sensation rendered a contact with a small convex surface with a radius of 2 mm. The perceived intensity of the static contact sensation was equivalent to a physical contact force of 0.24 N on average, which was 12 times the radiation force physically applied to the skin.

cs.HC

Analysis of Pleasantness Evoked by Various Airborne Ultrasound Tactile Stimuli Using Pairwise Comparisons and the Bradley-Terry Model

The presentation of a moving tactile stimulus to a person's forearm evokes a pleasant sensation. The speed, intensity, and contact area of the strokes should be systematically changed to evaluate the relationship between pleasantness and tactile stimuli in more detail. Studies have examined the relationship between stroking stimulation and pleasant sensations using airborne ultrasound tactile displays. The ultrasound-based method has the advantage of reproducible control of the speed, intensity, and contact area of the stimulus. In this study, we prepared new stimuli focusing on the modulation methods and the contact area and aimed to clarify their relationship with pleasantness in more detail. Evaluating subjective sensations, such as pleasantness, numerically and consistently is challenging, warranting evaluation based on comparison. We propose a stimulus evaluation method that combines rough evaluation using Likert scales, detailed evaluation using pairwise comparisons, and quantification of comparison data using the Bradley--Terry model. As a result, we confirmed that the stimulus using lateral modulation and that with a large contact area used in this study were more pleasant than the conventional stimulus for six out of ten participants.

cs.HC

Three-dimensional hand guidance by midair haptic display

Guiding human movements using tactile information is one of the promising applications of haptics. Using midair ultrasonic haptic stimulation, it is possible to guide a hand without visual information.However, the information of movement shown by conventional methods was partial. It has not been shown a method to guide a hand to an arbitrary point in three dimensional space. In this study, we propose a method of guiding the hand to the top of a virtual cone presented haptically and evaluate the effectiveness of the method through experiments. As a result, the method guided the participant's hand to the goal in a 30 cm cube workspace with an error of 64.34 mm

cs.HC

Visualization of airborne ultrasound field using thermal images

Thermoacoustics, the interaction between heat and acoustic waves, is used in a wide range of advanced technological applications. Conversion of ultrasound waves into heat is employed in medical applications, including tumor ablation. However, thermal responses to airborne ultrasounds have not been extensively studied. Herein, we show that thermal responses to high-intensity airborne ultrasounds above 1000 Pa can be used for acoustic measurements. Thermal images on a mesh screen enabled the real-time visualization of three-dimensional acoustic fields. Based on the temperature distribution on a surface that reflects ultrasound waves, it was possible to determine the ultrasound focus position with a resolution much finer than the wavelength. Our results demonstrate that thermography observations based on ultrasound-temperature conversion can be used to visualize acoustic fields, which are conventionally difficult to observe. Our findings will advance technologies that use strong airborne ultrasound, such as mid-air haptics and acoustic levitation, and provide new scientific and technical tools for detecting surface properties and composition, including cells and fragile materials.

physics.app-ph

Noncontact Thermal and Vibrotactile Display Using Focused Airborne Ultrasound

In a typical mid-air haptics system, focused airborne ultrasound provides vibrotactile sensations to localized areas on a bare skin. Herein, a method for displaying thermal sensations to hands where mesh fabric gloves are worn is proposed. The gloves employed in this study are commercially available mesh fabric gloves with sound absorption characteristics, such as cotton work gloves without any additional devices such as Peltier elements. The method proposed in this study can also provide vibrotactile sensations by changing the ultrasonic irradiation pattern. In this paper, we report basic experimental investigations on the proposed method. By performing thermal measurements, we evaluate the local heat generation on the surfaces of both the glove and the skin by focused airborne ultrasound irradiation. In addition, we performed perceptual experiments, thereby confirming that the proposed method produced both thermal and vibrotactile sensations. Furthermore, these sensations were selectively provided to a certain extent by changing the ultrasonic irradiation pattern. These results validate the effectiveness of our method and its feasibility in mid-air haptics applications.

cs.HC

Improvement of photosynthetic rate evaluation by plant bioelectric potential using illuminating information and a neural network

The plant bioelectric potential is believed to be a suitable real-time and noninvasive method that can be used to evaluate plant activities, such as the photosynthetic reaction. The amplitude of the bioelectric potential response when plants are illuminated is correlated with the photosynthetic rate. However, practically, the bioelectric potential is affected by various cultivation parameters. This study analyzes the relationship between the bioelectric potential response and the illuminating parameters using a neural network to improve the accuracy of the photosynthetic rate evaluation. The variation of the illuminating colors to the plant affected the relationship between the amplitude of the bioelectric potential response and the photosynthetic rate; therefore, evaluating the photosynthetic rate using the amplitude is difficult. The analysis result shows that the correlation coefficient between the actual measured photosynthetic rate and the estimated photosynthetic rate by the neural network is 0.95. The photosynthetic rate evaluation using the bioelectric potential response is improved and this correlation coefficient is greater than that analyzed by the neural network using only the illuminating parameters. This result indicates that the information on the plant bioelectric potential response contributed to the accurate estimation of the photosynthetic rate.

eess.SP

Inter-IC for Wearables (I2We): Power and Data Transfer over Double-sided Conductive Textile

We propose a power and data transfer network on a conductive fabric material based on an existing serial communication protocol, Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C). We call the proposed network Inter-IC for Wearables (I2We). Continuous dc power and I2C-formatted data are simultaneously transferred to tiny sensor nodes distributed on a double-sided conductive textile. The textile has two conductive sides isolated from each other and is used as a single planar transmission line. I2C data are transferred along with dc power supply based on frequency division multiplexing (FDM). Two carriers are modulated with the clock (SCL) and the data (SDA) signals of I2C. A modulation and demodulation circuit is designed to enable using off-the-shelf I2C-interfaced sensor ICs. One significant originality of this work is that a special filter to enable passive modulation is designed by locating its impedance poles and zeros at appropriate frequencies. The proposed scheme enables flexible implementation of wearable sensor systems in which multiple off-the-shelf tiny sensors are distributed all over a wear.

eess.SP