Kimiya Yamaashi’s research while affiliated with Hitachi, Ltd. and other places

This paper describes our off-board car navigation system. Our off-board car navigation system has (1) a center to provide navigation functions using the latest maps and POT (Point Of Interests) through the internet; and (2) a more compactly sized client terminal compared to conventional on-board systems. We evaluated the system. The concept of the system was evaluated as acceptable, but some problems that need solutions were identified. © 2003, The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. All rights reserved.

Amount of data for operators is increasing, but the amount of information, which operators obtain is not increasing because conventional human interfaces only focus on human foreground awareness. Users usually obtain information with both of background and foreground awareness. This paper proposes a new human interface style (awareness oriented human interface), which exploits the human background awareness. The human interface promotes the operator's abilities of recognition by, 1) providing information for both of foreground and background awareness simultaneously, 2) information navigation between foreground and background awareness, 3) awareness oriented information processing, 4) supporting public awareness for multiple operators.

Users of conventional digital videoconferencing tools are typically limited to a single static view of their environment with no opportunities to move about or to obtain a general mental model of the communication space. The Ubiquitous Media Space (UMS) offers a viable solution to these problems, using the internet, while observing the restrictions of limited bandwidth. UMS supports background awareness and navigation with an active floor plan or another motorized camera and exploits sensors to provide additional background information regarding remote activity. Because the system is accessible through a web browser, UMS offers to make the world into a media space.

Supervisory systems such as in power plants require complex tasks for users to communicate with each other. During a maintenance period or in case of system malfunctions, skilled staff members have to go to the actual field of the plant involved and check equipment directly, and operators in the central control room have to support for staff members. But, it is very difficult for operators to contact the appropriate staff member and encourage collaboration, because there is no way to know current location of the staff member and to contact him/her directly. In addition, supervisory system users need to use several different styles of communication which depend on the phase of the users tasks. For example, an operator may get collaboration between staff members by personal intervention as well as need the help of other operators to do difficult task . Also, they have to switch styles of communication frequently. We propose a new extended user interface model to overcome these problems and we propose a system based on the model. Communi-Board, which is a notice board system, provides seamless communication with dispersed staff members by two functions. One is quick contacting to dispersed staff members by chasers which indicate member locations, and the other is automatic changing of communication styles covering all situations by simple action.

This paper describes a telepresense system that provides users background awareness with the following two features. 1) we provide telepresence users with one wide-angle view and a controllable view. To simplify navigation, the two views are seamlessly linked together. Therefore, a user can obtain a detailed view of the specified region by selecting a region of a wide angle view. 2) we provide sensor information from the remote location to notices the user relevant events that may require attention. These tools significantly enhance users' awareness of their remote surroundings.

This paper describes techniques for the retrieval of recorded multimedia data for supervisory control systems. Currently these systems operators can only retrieve recorded data individually. We developed new techniques to access all recorded data is synchronization. The techniques enable users to retrieve multimedia data such as sensor data and videos simultaneously, and also enable users to obtain the desired related data, including objects in videos, by "Drag and Drop" operation. All these techniques allow operators to exactly and quickly analyze phenomena in the systems based on the recorded multimedia data.

In physical presence, you are most aware of your immediate surroundings, such as what is at your feet or who is beside you, and less aware of objects further away. In telepresence, almost the opposite is true. Due to the nature of the medium, you are most aware of what is in front, often at a distance, as dictated by the limited view of the camera. Even where remote camera control is possible, the range of exploration is limited and the logistics of control are typically awkward and slow. All of this adds up to a pronounced loss of awareness of the periphery in telepresence. The research described here attempts to compensate for these problems through two mechanisms. First, we provide telepresence users with two separate views, one wide-angle and the other, a controllable, detailed view. To simplify navigation, the two views are seamlessly linked together, so that selecting a region of one will have an effect in the other. Second, we utilize sensor information from the remote location to provide the user with notification of relevant events that may require attention. Together, these tools significantly enhance users' awareness of their telepresence surroundings.

The operation of complex real-world systems, such as industrial plants, requires that multiple users cooperate in monitoring and controlling large amounts of information to supervise complex processes. The Court yard system supports such cooperative work by integrating an overview on a shared large screen and detail on individual screens. This integration is realized by two approaches: (1) providing an implicit way of transferring mouse and keyboard control between the shared and individual screens, and (2) supporting association between the overview on the shared screen and per-user detail on individual screens. Courtyard allows a user to move a mouse pointer between the shared and individual screens as though they were contiguous, and to access per-user detailed information on the user’s individual screen simply by pointing to an object on the shared screen. Courtyard selects the detailed information according to the tasks assigned to the pointing user under a division of labor. The former approach results in an interface that is as simple, intuitive and consistent to use as that for a single screen. The latter enables a user to retrieve easily and quickly detailed information needed for performing the assigned tasks without being distracted by information for others.