Digital audio–tactile maps (DATMs) on touchscreen devices provide valuable opportunities for people who are visually impaired (PVIs) to explore the spatial environment for engaging in travel activities. Existing solutions for DATMs usually require extensive training for the PVIs to understand the feedback mechanism. Due to the shortage of human resources for training specialists, as well as PVIs’ desire for frequent practice to maintain their usage skills, it has become challenging to widely adopt DATMs in real life. This paper discusses the use of large language models (LLMs) to provide a verbal evaluation of the PVIs’ perception, which is crucial for the independent practice of DATM usage. A smartphone-based prototype providing DATMs of simple floor plans was developed for a preliminary investigation. The evaluation results have proven that the interaction with the LLM could help the participants better understand the DATMs’ content and could vividly replicate them by drawings.

Presenting visual information, called phosphenes, is a critical method for providing information on the position of obstacles for users of walking support tools for the visually impaired. A previous study has established a method for presenting phosphenes to the right, center, and left of the visual field. However, a method for presenting information on the position of obstacles around the feet using phosphenes, which is essential for the visually impaired, has not been clarified. Therefore, in this study, a method for presenting phosphenes in the lower visual field is presented, towards the aim of realizing a safe walking support tool. Electrode placement is proposed in this paper for the presentation of phosphenes to the right, center, and left of the lower visual field based on the electrode placement method used in the previous study, which presents the phosphene in three locations of the visual field. In addition, electric field simulation is performed, focusing on the electric field value on the eyeball surface, in order to observe whether the proposed electrode placement is able to stimulate the intended region. As a result, it is shown that the intended region on the eyeball surface can be stimulated locally with each of the proposed electrode placements.

Walking support systems are essential for blind people. In this study, the presentation of phosphene position is focused on as a method to detect obstacles for blind people. When the phosphene is used in a walking support system, it is necessary to accurately present the phosphene in at least three directions of the visual field. Controlling the presentation of phosphene position has been reported in several previous studies. However, methodologies to present phosphene in multiple directions without any electric interference have not as yet been investigated. In this study, therefore, appropriate stimulation factors are clarified by the simulation of electric field on the eyeball surface which is strongly related to the presentation of phosphene position in the visual field. As a result of the simulation, it was revealed that the distance of each electrode does not give a significant effect to the eyeball surface. However, the phase of alternating current significantly changed the electric field on the eyeball surface. From investigation of the simulation results, it was clarified that the transition of the electric field on the eyeball surface can be controlled using anti-phase stimulation. In addition, the methodology to present the phosphene at least in two directions was verified.

The number of people who use airplanes has increased year by year. However, most passengers have a feeling of discomfort during a long-distance flight. One of the factors is the lack of temperature control in the cabin. If air conditioning control can be adjusted to each passenger’s thermal sensation, the whole comfort in the cabin would be improved. Therefore, a personal air conditioning control method is required for airplanes. In order to implement personal air conditioning adapted to individual thermal sensation, this study proposes a seat-type air conditioning system that adjusts the temperature to each part of the body and aims to clarify the appropriate temperature setting in consideration of individual thermal sensation. As a result, the appropriate degree of temperature setting change was clarified based on the thermal sensation index. It was found that changing the temperature setting by 2.5 °C per scale of the thermal sensation improved the passenger’s comfort. Furthermore, people who tend to feel cold were found to be more sensitive to temperature changes. It is concluded that personalized air conditioning is possible based on individual thermal sensitivity characteristics. For prospects, it is desirable to study a system that automatically predicts the thermal sensation taking into account individual thermal sensitivity characteristics.

Using a phosphene has been discussed as a means of informing the visually impaired of the position of an obstacle. Obstacles underfoot have a risk, so it is necessary to inform the visually impaired. A previous study clarified a method of presenting phosphene in three directions in the lower vision; however, the simultaneous presentation of these phosphenes has not been discussed. Another study discussing the effect of electrical interference when stimulating the eyeball with multiple electrodes indicated that it is important to select appropriate stimulation factors to avoid this effect. However, when the stimulation electrodes are arranged remarkably close, there is a high possibility that the stimulus factor presented in the previous study will not apply. In this study, a method for simultaneously presenting phosphenes in the lower vision is presented. The electrode arrangements reported in the previous study to present phosphene in the lower field of vision are used, and the difficulty in the simultaneous presentation of multiple phosphenes in the lower vision is the focus. In this paper, the method of designing the stimulation factors is discussed numerically when the electrodes are arranged remarkably close. As a result, it is shown that stimulation factors different from the previous research were appropriate depending on the distance between the electrodes.

Agile attitude control of nanosatellites is increasingly required for high-resolution imaging, yet actuators that provide agility on larger spacecraft do not scale down well: reaction wheels are torque-limited and slew slowly, while miniaturized control moment gyroscopes (CMGs) deliver high torque but their stored wheel momentum produces a gyroscopic coupling torque that degrades fine pointing—an inherent agility–precision trade-off on low-inertia 3U platforms. This paper presents a two-step variable-speed CMG (VSCMG) strategy that preemptively decelerates the wheel momentum once the attitude error falls below a threshold, attenuating the gyroscopic torque before fine pointing and thus decoupling slewing from precision pointing. It is validated on an experimentally grounded model: a fabricated 1U-class four-CMG pyramid ($90\times 90\times 105$ mm, 584 g), gimbal dynamics identified experimentally ($93.2\%$ fit) and regulated by an integral-type optimal servo, and bench-measured wheel dynamics. At 560 km under aerodynamic and gravity-gradient disturbances, the strategy completes a 90° slew in 25.3 s at a mean slew rate of $3.55°/\mathrm{s}$ with $0.42°$ accuracy—$4.5\times$ faster than a reaction-wheel system and $12\times$ more accurate than single-mode CMG operation—with a Lyapunov-based stability guarantee. The spacecraft-level closed-loop performance is established in closed-loop simulation, while the component-level ground experiments verify only that the assumed wheel-speed and gimbal-rate envelopes are achievable on the prototype; the present work is thus a simulation study supported by experimentally identified actuator models, not a system-level experimental demonstration. These results show that momentum-managed VSCMG control substantially relieves the agility–precision trade-off within a 1U envelope under the single-axis 90° slew studied here, extending CMG-class agility to small form-factor satellites previously confined to reaction wheels.