We present a soft, thin, and flexible haptic display that uses the dielectric elastomer actuator called e-Rubber, which is composed of slide-ring polymer material (SRM). In this research, we propose application examples that demonstrate the flexibility and wearability of the haptic display.

While having strong social networks is essential for good quality of life, socializing gets more difficult as we age even if we are surrounded by people in a nursing home setting. Care staff and family members want to be able to connect with residents/loved ones but have limitations (time constraints, unsure how), and it can be challenging to feel a connection to another resident who has differing abilities. We propose that through sharing strong positive memories, members of a nursing home community (residents, care staff, and families) will be able to build empathy for one another and thus strengthen their community bonds. By applying multi-modal technologies to a familiar medium, the book, we provided a means by which intergenerational users, from various backgrounds, could interact with and gain meaning from the content.

Experiencing a professional basketball game while staying in a remote place, we built a system to transmit the haptic information of the match venue to a remote place. By sensing the sounds of the floor with 8 microphones installed under the floor of the match venue and outputting from the 2 stages at the live feeling venue, we provided an experience such as a realistic feeling as if we were in the basketball court.

TeleSight enables cooperative experience with a Non-HMD user in the real world by reproducing the VR space and the avator of HMD user using robot and projection system. It aims at presenting embodied interaction between virtual and real.

Fusion is a telecollaboration system that allows two participants to share the same point of view and physical space for remote operation and collaboration. The system is designed as a backpack, and is operated in three different modes: direct collaboration, enforced body guidance, and induced body motion, enabling effective communication.

Flow Zone is a VR experience that provides a rich, synesthetic environment to center the player’s focus on the present moment and catalyze a flow state. We use body movement and poi as the medium to dynamically create and interact with music, enabling players to embody both DJ and dancer simultaneously. Music synchronizes with visuals and haptics using VR and our custom haptics suit to create a fully immersive experience where life melts away and only creative and self-expression remain. Find happiness and wellbeing through flow, and emerge rejuvenated by entering the Flow Zone.

“Synchronized Running” is a running support system for the blind marathon. The device proposed is in the shape of a knee brace.
During the blind marathon, the blind runners pair up with sighted runners to help guide them.
The biggest issue in this sport is the lack of the guide runners that can assist the blind athletes.
Moreover, the first time blind and sighted people run together, physical disparity often occurs.
Therefore, it is difficult for blind and sighted people to match each other's running tempo.
By using “Synchronized Running”, when the blind runner’s foot hits the ground, the vibration is sent to the escort runner’s ankle brace.
When the escort runner feels the vibration, she can understand the blind runner’s running tempo.
This way, every pair can experience comfortable, enjoyable, and synchronized running despite any handicap, through adjusting and understanding each other’s running tempo.

In the fairy tale "Pinocchio," "When Pinocchio tells a lie, his nose extends." What if it really happens to us human beings? PinocchioVR expresses the sensation of human noses extending using the Body Ownership illusion. We provide this illusion through a combination of HMD visuals and a nose-pulling sensation.