Prof. Kazuyuki Fujita was granted the title of “Tohoku University Prominent Research Fellow,” which is given to young researchers who challenge original research that opens up new frontiers.

Prof. James E.Young (University of Manitoba, Canada) and Dr. Monica Perusquía-Hernández (NAIST) gave us talks.

The following commentary article was published in Journal of Information Processing (JIP).

• Ken Fujiwara, Miao Cheng, Chia-huei Tseng, Yoshifumi Kitamura. AI Understands Human Emotions and Gets Close to People: Reading Emotions from Bodily Movements: The Development of the Motion Unit AI. Journal of Information Processing, Vol.64, No.2, pp.e25-e31 (2023-01)

The following commentary article was published in the January 2023 issue of SENSAIT.

• Yoshifumi Kitamura, Ken Fujiwara, Taku Komura. Emotion Estimation from Human Body Movements and Generation of Emotionally Rich Movements of Characters – Toward the Realization of Humanity-rich Telecommunication.

We enjoyed a year-end-party and welcomed new members.

WISS 2022 (The 30th Workshop on Interactive Systems and Software) was held.

Mr. Taichi Tsuchida made an oral presentation.

• 土田太一，藤田和之，池松香，Sayan Sarcar，高嶋和毅，北村喜文．TetraForce: スマートフォンの表裏両面に対する垂直・剪断方向の力を入力可能な磁気式インタフェース．

There was a tour visiting our laboratory in the last day of the workshop.

Yokohama Global MICE Forum was held at Pacifico Yokohama and Prof. Yoshifumi Kitamura gave a lecture entitled “Designing the Next Normal of Academic Conferences”.

SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 was held in Daegu, South Korea.

Mr. Kumpei Ogawa and Mr. Yukai Hoshikawa demonstrated their works at the Extended Reality (XR) session.

Mr. Maakito Inoue and Mr. Gilles Pflumio joined as Student Volunteers and involved in the conference.

• Kumpei Ogawa, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kazuki Takashima, Yoshifumi Kitamura. Demonstration of PseudoJumpOn: Repetitive Step-up Jump in Virtual Reality.
• Yukai Hoshikawa, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kazuki Takashima, Morten Fjeld, Yoshifumi Kitamura. Demonstration of RedirectedDoors: Manipulating User’s Orientation while Opening Doors in Virtual Reality.

Future Society Design Program of Tohoku Forum for Creativity “Contributions of XR Technology to Education and Society: The Metaverse and International Collaborative Creation” International Symposium 1: The Metaverse and XR Technology Educational Applications and International Collaboration was held.
Prof. Yoshifumi Kitamura gave a lecture and Associate Prof. Kazuki Takashima participated in the panel discussion.

ISS 2022 (ACM Interactive Surfaces and Spaces Conference) was held in Wellington, New Zealand.

Mr. Taichi Tsuchida’s paper and Mr. Takahiro Nagai’s paper were accepted and they made oral presentations.

• Taichi Tsuchida, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kaori Ikematsu, Sayan Sarcar, Kazuki Takashima, Yoshifumi Kitamura. TetraForce: A Magnetic-Based Interface Enabling Pressure Force and Shear Force Input Applied to Front and Back of a Smartphone.
• Takahiro Nagai, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kazuki Takashima, Yoshifumi Kitamura. HandyGaze: A Gaze Tracking Technique for Room-Scale Environments using a Single Smartphone.

IVRC LeapStage was held in the Science Agora 2022 at Telecom Center, Tokyo.

A team of students from our laboratory exhibited ‘ “Te”mpura ‘, and it received “Waku-waku prize“.

• You can see the video from here -> [IVRC2022] “Te”mpura

ACM UIST 2022 (The Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology) was held in Bend, Oregon, U.S.A.

Ms. Yuki Onishi’s paper was accepted and she made an oral presentation.

Mr. Keito Uwaseki and Mr. Ryota Gomi demonstrated their works.

• Yuki Onishi, Kazuki Takashima, Shoi Higashiyama, Kazuyuki Fujita, Yoshifumi Kitamura. WaddleWalls: Room-scale Interactive Partitioning System using a Swarm of Robotic Partitions.
• Keito Uwaseki, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kazuki Takashima, Yoshifumi Kitamura. ConfusionLens: Dynamic and Interactive Visualization for Performance Analysis of Multiclass Image Classifiers.
• Ryota Gomi, Kazuki Takashima, Kazuyuki Fujita, Yoshifumi Kitamura. A Triangular Actuating Device Stand that Dynamically Adjusts Mobile Screen’s Position.

Dr. Benjamin Tag (University of Melbourne) and Assistant Prof. Ryo Suzuki (University of Calgary) visited our laboratory.

We demonstrated our research to them.

Dr. Benjamin Tag gave us a talk in a hybrid format.

The open house of the Research Institute of Electrical Communication (RIEC) was held in Hybrid.

And our laboratory introduced our research activities with demonstrations.

Prof. Yoshifumi Kitamura gave a lecture at the Tohoku University Industry-University-Industry-Government Forum 2022 (the lecture video is available here).

• Theme：”Humanity-rich Telecommunications Pioneered by Nonverbal Information — Utilization of both Cyber and Real Space”

After the forum, there is a tour visiting our laboratory.

Open Symposium on “Designing the Next Normal of  Academic Conferences” was held by onsite & online hybrid. (The video is available now in a limited basis)

Prof. Yoshifumi Kitamura chaired the session and Assistant Professor Kaori Ikematsu gave a lecture from our laboratory.

We enjoyed Imoni party.

Third grade students of National Institute of Technology, Sendai College visited our lab.

We show them our research and discussed it with them.

Yuki Onishi won the 3rd prize in the research presentation contest “Falling Walls Lab Sendai 2022” held at TFC Tohoku Forum for Creativity.

Prof. Haruo Noma (College of Information Science and Engineering, Ritsumeikan University) visited our laboratory.

And Prof. Noma gave us a lecture on his latest research about haptic technology.