An approach supporting spatial workspace collaboration via a video-mediated communication system is described. Based on experimental results, the following were determined to be the system requirements to support spatial workspace collaboration: independency of a field of view, predictability, confidence in transmission and sympathy toward the system. Additionally, a newly developed camera system, the GestureCam System, is introduced. A camera is mounted on an actuator with three degrees of freedom. It is controlled by master-slave method or by a touch-sensitive CRT. Also, a laser pointer is mounted to assist with remote pointing. Preliminary experiments were conducted and the results are described herein.

Advances in virtual reality technology have enabled the creation of virtual environments (VEs) with significantly high visual fidelity when compared to real environments (REs). In this study, we use a high-fidelity VE to examine two effects caused by alternating VE and RE experiences: “context-dependent forgetting” and “source-monitoring errors.” The former effect is that memories learned in VEs are more easily recalled in VEs than in REs, whereas memories learned in REs are more easily recalled in REs than in VEs. The source-monitoring error is that memories learned in VEs are easily confused with those learned in REs, making discriminating the source of the memory difficult. We hypothesized that the visual fidelity of VEs is responsible for these effects and conducted an experiment using two types of VEs: a high-fidelity VE created using photogrammetry techniques and low-fidelity VE created with primitive shapes and materials. The results show that the high-fidelity VE significantly improved the sense of presence. However, the level of the visual fidelity of the VEs did not show any effect on context-dependent forgetting and source-monitoring errors. Notably, the null results of the context-dependent forgetting between the VE and RE were strongly supported by Bayesian analysis. Thus, we indicate that context-dependent forgetting does not necessarily occur, which will be helpful for VR-based education and training.

In manufacturing, augmented reality (AR)-based remote instruction systems, which enable workers to receive instructions from an avatar, are widely used. In this study, we developed such a system and investigated the effect of the body representation level of the avatar on the quality of AR-based remote instruction. Drawing on the avatar designs of previous works, three different avatar designs (“Hand only”, “Hand + Arm”, and “Body”), representing three body representation levels, were created. In the experiment with a within-participant design, the avatar pointed at blocks sequentially and participants touched each block as soon as they identified it. The results of the experiment indicate that an AR-based remote instruction system with a “Body” avatar exhibits higher usability and can enable the participants to have a lower workload and higher efficiency.

The monotony of movements makes frozen shoulder rehabilitation an boring task for certain patients. This study posits that gamification and the presence of others can effectively address this issue. Accordingly, we developed a virtual reality (VR) application for frozen shoulder rehabilitation exercises and empirically examined the effects of gamification and the presence of others on rehabilitation duration. A user study on 32 subjects revealed that the integration of game elements into a VR rehabilitation program significantly prolonged the rehabilitation duration ( p < 0.001, d = 0.983). Additionally, the rehabilitation duration was considerably longer when participants performed the rehabilitation program with others ( p < 0.05, d = 0.455).

Gastroenterological endoscopic surgery needs complex surgical skills such as a sensation of body movement and manipulation of the endoscope that is hard to be explained verbally. Prior research reported that endoscopic surgery is one of the most challenging surgery to teach. Thus, surgeons need long-term practice to master the skills. To support learning such skills, we developed a surgical scene replay system. First, we surveyed 12 surgeons to reveal the reason for the difficulty and elicited three requirements for our system: (1) provide multiple videos that include an endoscope, a fluoroscopy, and hand manipulation for the endoscope to observe the surgery from multiple aspects; (2) visualize an experts' gaze position to understand experts' intention of hand manipulation, and (3) enlarge the size of the gazed video to inform learners where they should pay attention to. Our user study with the system indicates that participants could understand the experts' intentions and tacit knowledge easier than the existing video materials.