矢入 郁子

This paper introduces our research project for developing a novel graphic representation method with touch and sound as the universal designed touch-screen interface for visually impaired people to understand graphical information. Our previous works on single-touch screens clarified the problems about the low recognition rate of curves. To solve this, an improved graphical representation interface for multi-touch screens were implemented and evaluated.

Throughout 6 months of blind user's touch panel usage interview, there were many problems of touch panel's audio assistant. The participant strongly demanded to improve the low accuracy and the slow software keyboard typing, and the poor understanding of the shape of the picture. She was also interested in recognizing the 3D shapes. Thus, we developed a fingertip tactile feedback system in order to indicate the "f" and "j" key for touch-typing and improved the speed of the software keyboard typing, and simplify the way to understand the 3D shapes. In this paper, we introduce and evaluate the recognition of the 3D shape by three participants using the system. The results showed that the proposed system succeeded in enabling the visually impaired participants to recognize the 3D shapes.

This paper deals with the issue of task mapping onto fault-tolerant 2D-Mesh Network-on-Chips (2D-MNoCs). In the fault tolerant 2D-MNoCs, fault-tolerant deadlock-free routing control without assistance of hardware (such as lookup table and virtual channel) is desirable due to simple router architecture, low power consumption and easy fault diagnosis. For such fault-tolerant 2D-MNoCs, existing task mapping methods are not efficient because task assignment process and route decision process, which are closely interdependent, are performed separately. In this paper, we propose a new route-aware task mapping method based on a generic algorithm. Our method considers the effect of overlapped routing paths provided by a fault-tolerant routing control in assigning tasks to nodes and obtains a quasi-optimal solution by the genetic algorithm. Experimental study compares overall performances of our method with a random mapping method under the random and cluster fault models, and shows that our method consistently leads to reduction in the total execution time of mapped application

Touch-screen has been used not only on home appliances but also on so many kinds of machines in public facilities at the present time. However the fact is that most of visually impaired people have a problem with the difficult usability of a touch-screen. We come up with an idea of Presentation Methods of Sound Information, which is thought to enable visually impaired people to define the object location on the touch-screen. We also make a proposal of the Concentration game content that is possible in improving the Sound localization's ability and evaluating the visually impaired people's characteristics of touch-screen's operation method. In this paper, we introduce the results of the experiment that we conducted with 5 visually impaired people. These are evaluated through the way of the finger moving on the touch-screen panel while using this content, and the ability of defining the object location.

Due to inevitable node and link failures, developing a fault-tolerant routing control mechanism without using virtual channels (VC) becomes very attractive approach to building large-scale network-on-chips (NoCs). Although several routing control algorithms have been proposed, their complicated routing operations consume a lot of hardware resources, thus making them impractical. In this paper, we propose a novel routing control algorithm for non-VC router of irregular 2D-mesh NoCs. The basic ideas for less implementation space and high-speed routing control are to integrate routing behaviors of the traditional message-based algorithm and to simplify the ring selection. The proposed algorithm is fully analyzed its deadlock-freeness, and is successfully implemented on an FPGA to evaluate the performance. The experimental study shows that the proposed algorithm requires quite small hardware space, while keeping the same routing performance.

Protecting the lives and the rights of the impaired people and promoting their social participation is a paramount principle today. Especially for visually impaired people, mobility is important function for promoting social participation. To support their mobility, improvements on map usage and route recognition are indispensable. But visually impaired people have so many difficulties to read maps and to use spatial information in the field. Maps have been made in the past for visually impaired people but people felt uncomfortable using them. So we have been developing a new method which visually impaired people can intuitively recognize the map using audio and touch panels which are recently seen in PCs and smart-phones. The method is universal-designed to enable not only the visually impaired people but also the non-impaired people to enjoy using interactive digital map contents together. This paper introduces our recent progress about the method called the One Octave Scale Interface. The effectiveness of the interface was confirmed by doing experiments of graph and map recognition and a walking experiment after presenting route guide map.

Our research purpose is to develop the universal designed interactive map which provides spatial information not only for ordinary people but also for visually impaired people with combination of touch, audio and vision. This paper describes our concept for universal designed map and map expression of paths and buildings. We reports two experimental examinations of graphic symbol recognition by two low vision examinees to developing a proof-of-concept design of the map expression of the shape of paths and buildings, and propose the One Octave Scale Interface as a example of the expression of universal designed interactive map. This paper also reports an experiment with blind people to read maps with our proposed interface and tried to reach goal points holding guided course.

Mobility represents very basic and essential behavior for people: reaching a destination, strolling at will, and much more. Indispensable for independence, it also makes life more enjoyable. Yet moving from place to place may be difficult for disabled, elderly, or ill individuals affected by an impairment of sight, hearing, or lower-extremity motor function, which undermine abilities needed for mobility: recognizing things, controlling motor function, and accessing information. To offset this, countries and communities have been actively preparing systems and facilities in recent years to make routes barrier-free. But it would be unfeasible to make all routes barrier-free, and there continues to be a great need for mobility support with IT technology as an alternative means of assistance. We have been researching to put Robotic Communication Terminals (RCT) into practice, which supports the three elementary behaviors of recognition, actuation, and information access, targeting almost all the pedestrians including elderly and disabled people with various types, levels, and duration of disabilities. The RCT consists of three types of terminals: "environment-embedded terminal", "user-carried mobile terminal", and "user-carrying mobile terminal". These terminals communicate with one another to provide the users with a comfortable means of mobility. This paper introduces our recent research progress.

A method of automatically and accurately detecting regions of sidewalks is useful for assisting pedestrians. There are several types of sidewalk borders: steps, white lines, guardrails, walls, plants, and ditches, for example. However we can assume that the structure of an environment along some direction is uniform for several meters regardless of the components of the environment. Therefore, we present a method to detect the direction and extract borders of sidewalks by using this assumption. First, an inputted image is transformed to a rectified horizontal map by using affine transformation, and the map is divided into small regions. Each region represents about 5 x 5-10 meters. Then, the direction of each region is determined by calculating the sharpness in the change of the average intensity of each column. Moreover, candidates of a borderline are detected by using the sharpness graph. These candidates are refined by using the dynamic contour model method. Finally, the two most interior lines are detected as borders of the sidewalk. We applied this method to about 10,000 images, which are obtained by a test run in outdoors, and detected a border in about 80% of the images at this time.

We have been developing an Intelligent City Walker (ICW), which is one element of the Robotic Communication Terminals (RCT) project. The objective of the RCT project is to support pedestrians comprehensively. ICW is a user-carrying intelligent wheeled vehicle based on a commercial electric scooter for outdoor use. In addition to assisting the locomotion of users, ICW can receive information such as geographic information relevant to pedestrians and the trajectories of nearby moving objects from other RCT terminals. It can also recognize surrounding environments using its own sensors. This collected information is accessible to the user via a touch-panel monitor mounted on the front of the ICW. There are three display modes: ordinary, sensor information, and map. Users can select the appropriate mode according to the situation. The displayed information was evaluated in a trial in which ordinary citizens participated. The results showed that there is a great demand for geographic information and that coarse information about the surrounding environment is sufficient. Moreover, a questionnaire distributed after another field experiment on public roads revealed that there is a demand for an affordable price comparable to an existing normal electric buggy, without considering safety and maneuverability.

A method of automatically and accurately detecting regions of sidewalks is useful for assisting pedestrians. There are several types of sidewalk borders: steps, white lines, guardrails, walls, plants, and ditches, for example. However we can assume that the structure of an environment along some direction is uniform for several meters regardless of the components of the environment. Therefore, we present a method to detect the direction and extract borders of sidewalks by using this assumption. First, an inputted image is transformed to a rectified horizontal map by using affine transformation, and the map is divided into small regions. Each region represents about 5 x 5-10 meters. Then, the direction of each region is determined by calculating the sharpness in the change of the average intensity of each column. Moreover, candidates of a borderline are detected by using the sharpness graph. These candidates are refined by using the dynamic contour model method. Finally, the two most interior lines are detected as borders of the sidewalk. We applied this method to about 10,000 images, which are obtained by a test run in outdoors, and detected a border in about 80% of the images at this time.

We have been developing an Intelligent City Walker (ICW), which is one element of the Robotic Communication Terminals (RCT) project. The objective of the RCT project is to support pedestrians comprehensively. ICW is a user-carrying intelligent wheeled vehicle based on a commercial electric scooter for outdoor use. In addition to assisting the locomotion of users, ICW can receive information such as geographic information relevant to pedestrians and the trajectories of nearby moving objects from other RCT terminals. It can also recognize surrounding environments using its own sensors. This collected information is accessible to the user via a touch-panel monitor mounted on the front of the ICW. There are three display modes: ordinary, sensor information, and map. Users can select the appropriate mode according to the situation. The displayed information was evaluated in a trial in which ordinary citizens participated. The results showed that there is a great demand for geographic information and that coarse information about the surrounding environment is sufficient. Moreover, a questionnaire distributed after another field experiment on public roads revealed that there is a demand for an affordable price comparable to an existing normal electric buggy, without considering safety and maneuverability.

We are developing Robotic Communication Terminals (RCTs), which are an integrated mobility support system to assist elderly or disabled people who suffer from impaired mobility. In this paper we describe two elements of the system: environment-embedded terminals (EETs) and a user-carrying mobile terminal. The EETs are designed to detect and track all moving objects on the road and sidewalk in a residential area. We are also developing an Intelligent City Walker (ICW) as a user-carrying mobile terminal. The ICW helps the user avoid collisions using its own resources or alerts from EETs. It also displays various information obtained from all RCT terminals. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

We have been developing the Robotic Communication Terminals (RCT) as a mobility support system for elderly and disabled people, which assists their impaired elements of mobility - recognition, actuation, and information access. The RCT consists of three types of terminals: "Environment Embedded Terminal (EET)", "user-carried mobile terminal", and "user-carrying mobile terminal". The EET system robustly detects moving objects at an outdoor surveillance site all day, and presents walkers with information about their surroundings. In this paper, as a part of the EET, we propose a method for detecting moving objects based on temporal differencing using adaptive thresholding calculated from intensity changes in the past few frames. For 23 cases of video evaluation, a high detection rate was measured under the variations caused by meteorological effects. We also have developed a test bed system that provides real-time road information detected by the EET to the map-based terminal. In the case of three clients, we demonstrate that users can receive the information from the EET with a 0.152[sec] time delay. © 2006 IEEE.

This paper introduces Mobility Support GIS which provides the accessibility information of routes for all pedestrians including the disabled and elderly people. We have developed universal-designed data of barrier/barrier-free terrains and facilities which satisfies all pedestrians' needs for routes and area accessibility information retrieval, and collected the data of barrier/barrier-free objects in Koganei City (approx. 12km(2)) and famous sight-seeing area of Kyoto (approx. 2km(2)) by exploring roads. These prototype systems have intelligent user interface which offers suitable accessibility information to all pedestrians with different physical difficulties and preferences. Our final goal is to publish the GIS development know how as a guideline, to release software tools for developing and managing the GIS and to propose the universal database as a Japanese standard.

我々は, 市街地の歩行者に対して, 認知, 駆動, 及び情報入手の三つの要素行動を包括的に支援するようなシステムとしてロボティック通信端末を開発している.本論文では, その構成要素である一般道路監視システム(環境端末)とユーザ搭乗型知能移動ビークルIntelligent City Walker (ICW)とによる屋外環境認識, 及び認識結果のユーザへの提示方法について述べる.環境端末では, さほど交通量の多くない道路においてあらゆる動物体の軌跡を求めることを目的とする.その検出においては正規化距離を用いるほか, 夜間においては画面中の光源の有無によって状態を分類し, その状態に適したアルゴリズムを選択・実行している.また, 追跡には, 画面上での複数物体の重なりに対しロバストな時空間MRFモデルを用いた手法を用いている.一方, 知能移動ビークルICWは市販の電動スクーターに超音波センサ・赤外線センサ・ステレオカメラを取り付けて周辺の環境認識と障害物の自動回避を可能にしているほか, ロボティック通信端末の他端末からネットワークを通じて情報を得, それを搭乗者に提示できるようになっている.