We invited Professor Yu-Chiang Frank Wang from National Taiwan University to give a lecture entitled “Towards Reliable VLA in Physical AI: Reasoning, Efficiency, and Truthfulness.”

Kumpei Ogawa (completed his doctoral program in March 2026) has been selected for the 2025 Dean’s Award of the Graduate School of Information Science. This award is given to students in each department of the Graduate School of Information Science who are recognized for their particularly outstanding academic performance. Mr. Ogawa’s doctoral dissertation was titled “Research on VR Redirection Techniques Incorporating Physical Space Constraints.”

Researcher Guanghan Zhao gave oral presentations on the following two accepted papers at the 33rd IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR & 3DUI) 2026, a top conference in the field of virtual reality research. The papers will be published on IEEE Xplore at a later date.

• Guanghan Zhao, Yangyang Cai, Kazuyuki Fujita, Robert W. Lindeman, Yoshifumi Kitamura: BlanchTouch: Bringing Fingertip Blanch Detection into Mixed Reality for Touch Input on Flat Surfaces, Proceeding of 2026 IEEE Conference Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR & 3DUI) （IEEE Xplore で 公開予定）
• Guanghan Zhao, Louis Teys, Gyeonghwan Yang, Shengdong Zhao, and Yoshifumi Kitamura: FanType: Intention-Inferring Fan-shaped Thumb Interface for Text Entry on Small XR Keyboards, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics （IEEE Xplore で 公開予定）

The research introduction video page for the Interdisciplinary ICT Research Center for Cyber & Real Spaces, headed by Professor Yoshifumi Kitamura, has been released.

The sixth research meeting of the Neural Stimulation Interface Research Committee will be held at Tohoku University on March 6, 2026. As part of this meeting, we conducted a lab tour of our laboratory today for members of the Neural Stimulation Interface Research Committee. We received many valuable comments.

the Neural Stimulation Interface Research Committee

Professor Kazunori Terada of Gifu University visited and gave a talk titled “Reading Minds, Moving Minds: Bayesian Theory of Mind and the Science of Behavioral Change Signals.”

Dr. Eddie Chua, Deputy Head of the Plasma Physics and Diagnostics Division at ASTAR (Singapore Agency for Science, Technology and Research), visited us and gave a talk titled: Data, Models, and Materials for Fusion Energy: Computational and AI-Driven Research at the ASTAR FEAT Centre

Mr. Kumpei Ogawa’s Doctoral Dissertation Final Defense (public session) was held.

The title of the dissertation was “Research on VR Redirection Techniques Incorporating Physical Space Constraints.”

The main research groups of the Interdisciplinary ICT Research Center for Cyber & Real Spaces have expanded their research activities by relocating from the main building of the Research Institute of Electrical Communication to the newly completed Global Connect Hub – Atelier Q∞, located directly south of it.

Dr. Woan-Shiuan (Winnie) Chien, an Incoming Assistant Professor at the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering of National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University (NYCU), Taiwan, with whom we are conducting collaborative research, visited us and gave us a talk. The titke of her talk was “Multimodal Interaction Modeling: Bias-Aware Emotion Understanding in Interactive Contexts“.

Prof. Jason Orlosky from Augusta University, School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, with whom we are conducting collaborative research, visited us and gave us a talk. The titel of his talk was “Mixed Reality Interfaces for Industrial Workflows”.

Our joint research project with Asst. Prof. Yang Jianfei (School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering) at Nanyang Technological University (NTU Singapore) has been accepted for the “Tohoku University-NTU Singapore Joint Research Fund.” This fund was established to promote and encourage joint research between Tohoku University and NTU Singapore. Out of 15 applications, three projects were selected following a joint review by both universities.

• Project Title: Safeguarding Elderly Users in Embodied Task Planning with LLM
• NTU Principal Investigator: Asst. Prof. Yang Jianfei (School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering)
• Tohoku University Principal Investigator: Professor Yoshifumi Kitamura (Research Institute of Electrical Communication)

Article page of Global Engagement Division, Tohoku University

Professor Yasuaki Kakehi from the Graduate School of Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo, gave us a talk. He also visited our research theme demonstrations and provided us with many valuable comments.

December 8
As part of a joint research project (inter-organizational collaboration (international)) with the Research Institute of Electrical Communication, Prof. Rob Lindeman and Dr. Yasas Sri Wickramasinghe from HIT Lab NZ, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, visited us. They gave a presentation and we held a discussion on research themes.

Ryo Ooka’s presentation received the Interactive Presentation Award (Program Committee) At WISS 2025 (the 33rd Workshop on Interactive Systems and Software),

Dynamically Controllable Softness Seat Device
Ryo Ooka (Tohoku University), Kazuyuki Fujita (Tohoku University), Hana Nakamoto (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation), Yusuke Yokosuka (Mitsubishi Electric Corporation), Yoshifumi Kitamura (Tohoku University)

Mr. Manato Abe made a poster presentation at International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE 2025) held in Chennai, India.

• Manato Abe, Masako Hayashi, Yoshifumi Kitamura. Objective Evaluation Metrics from Behavioral Logs in Metaverse-Based International Virtual Exchange: Total Movement Distance and Learners’ Self-Reported Intercultural Understanding, Proceedings of the International Conference on Computers in Education (ICCE 2025).

We participated in the 59th Joint Relay Race of ECEI and RIEC.

Prof. Yoshifumi Kitamura gave a lecture titled “International Conference Networking Making Use of Unique Venues – from the Perspective of an Academician” at the “International Conference Networking at Unique Venues” event (a Japan Tourism Agency project) held at Sendai Ryokusaikan and Sendai City Museum.

• ユニークベニューでの国際会議ネットワーキング（Poster）

An interview article featuring Professor Yoshifumi Kitamura and others regarding the organization of the international conference CHI 2025 held in Yokohama has been published.

• IkiCHI:Harnessing Ikigai to Find Communal Purpose (CHI 2025)

On November 18, 2025, Professor Yoshifumi Kitamura served as a lecturer for the MICE Business Seminar: Practical Edition, hosted by the Yokohama Convention & Visitors Bureau, held at La Banque du Loa, a Yokohama City-designated Tangible Cultural Property located in Yamashita-cho, Naka Ward. He delivered a lecture titled “The Candid Thoughts of a University Researcher Hosting an International Conference.”

(Program link: https://business.yokohamajapan.com/mice/ja/news/detail/?id=3924)