Published papers

In this study, we specify the design of an artificial intelligence (AI) player for a communication game called “Are You a Werewolf?” (AI Wolf). We present the Werewolf game as a standard game problem in the AI field. It is similar to game problems such as Chess, Shogi, Go, and Poker. The Werewolf game is a communication game that requires several AI technologies such as multi-agent coordination, intentional reading, and understanding of the theory of mind. Analyzing and solving the Werewolf game as a standard problem will provide useful results for our research field and its applications. Similar to the RoboCup project, the goal of this project is to determine new themes while creating a communicative AI player that can play the Werewolf game with humans. As an initial step, we designed a platform to develop a game-playing AI for a compe tition. First, we discuss the essential factors in Werewolf with reference to other studies. We then develop a platform for an AI game competition that uses simpli fied rules to support the development of AIs that can play Werewolf. The paper reports the process and analysis of the results of the competition.

A demand response method that does not inconvenience consumer lifestyles is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and ensure power supply stability. In general, electric power conservation is motivated by monetary incentives or environmental concerns such as carbon dioxide emissions reductions and power failure probabilities. In this study, methods that induce consumers' power conservation actions were developed by presenting anthropomorphized/visualized information. This study involved improving experimental interfaces involving methods that closely replicate the actual way in which electric appliances are used in consumers' daily lives. Moreover, a small community model such as a micro grid was built to calculate the total amount of consumption power and CO2 emissions of each electric appliance. The experiment involved twenty participants to test power saving behaviors by using the developed interface. The experimental results indicated that the method of presenting visualized information strongly induced users' electric power saving behaviors when compared with other methods.

Gaze and eye contact are frequently in social occasions used among sighted people. Gaze is considered as a predictor of attention and engagement between interlocutors in conversations. However, gaze signals from the sighted are not accessible for the blind person in face-to-face communication. In this paper, we present functional work-in-progress prototype, E-Gaze glasses, an assistive device based on an eye tracking system. E-Gaze simulates natural gaze for blind people, especially establishing the "eye contact" between blind and sighted people to enhance their engagement in face-to-face conversations. The gaze behavior is designed based on a turn-taking model, which interprets the corresponding relationship between the conclusive gaze behavior and the interlocutors' conversation flow.

In this paper, we focus on the Werewolf Game. The Werewolf Game is an advanced communication-game in which winning or losing is directly linked to one's success or failure in communication. Therefore, we expect exponential developments in artificial intelligence by studying the Werewolf Game. In this current study, we propose a psychological model that considers multiple perspectives to model the play of a human such as inferring the intention of the other side. As one of the psychological models, we constructed a "one's self model" that models the role of others as viewed from their own viewpoint. In addition, to determine whether one's opinion is reliable after inferring other's intentions, we also constructed an "others model" that models the role of others as viewed from their viewpoints. Combining these models, we showed through experimentation that a combined approach achieved better results, i.e., higher win percentages.

© 2015 ACM. A demand response method is expected to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and make stable power supply. A demand control depends on electric power suppliers' intention in many cases and therefore users are forced to be inconvenient in their way of life. We now need to develop an innovative method which encourages users to participate in a demand response and electric power saving action without their patience. Usually, the electric power saving behaviors are motivated by pecuniary incentives or environmental concern such as carbon dioxide emissions reduction and power failure probability. On such background, this paper evaluates the effectiveness of the attempt to encourage people's engagement in electric power saving action with the method of presenting information such as numeral, visualized, and anthropomorphized information regarding pecuniary incentives and environmental concern. The result shows that the method of presenting anthropomorphized information strongly induced users' electric power saving behaviors than other methods.

Children suffering with learning and developmental disorders require daily training to develop their social skills. However, such daily training is sometimes not provided because it requires interactive help from therapists, and lots of special programs required for the training. We proposed an immersive digital dollhouse that enhances traditional psychological play therapy with sensors installed, while provides feedback from the sensors to the computer graphics (CG). The immersive digital dollhouse provides an immersive space for children, which develops their communication skills through their imaginary play with the complement of CG for enhancing the understanding of their situation, and it is easy to use in their home as daily training. We conducted an experiment with a 6-year old child with a similar level as the older children with developmental disorders. We found that the number of reactions was twice as many as with a normal dollhouse, and the number of miscommunications was less than onetenth.