Masahiro FURUKAWA, Ph.D. (June 1982, Born in Japan)
m.furukawa [at] tachilab.org / Facebook / Twitter / Youtube / Skype (masahiro.furukawa)

-Keio University, Graduate School of Media Design (KMD), Assistant Professor, 
-Tachi Laboratory, JST-CREST "Haptic Media" Project 

Address:
[Lab.] Kono Bldg 3rd floor, 1-2-15 Hiyoshi-honcho, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, 223-0062, Japan 
[Univ.] 4-1-1, Hiyoshi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 223-0061, Japan

News

1. KUSUGURI is accepted in Augmented Human 2012 (Feb. 8, 2012).
2. Looming Silhouette is accepted in Augmented Human 2012  (Feb. 8, 2012 ) .
3. Stop Motion Goggle is accepted in Augmented Human 2012  (Feb. 8, 2012 ) .
4. KUSUGURI was appeared in SIGGRAPH ASIA 2011. KUSUGURI: Visual Tactile Integration for Tickling [Web][Project Page] (Dec. 4, 2011)

Academic Education

May 2010, The University of Electro-Communications (at Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems) Ph.D.in Engineering 
Title of  Dissertation: "The Study of Information Media with Using Whisker Structured User Interface"
Apr. 2009, Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University, Inami Group, Visiting Researcher 
Apr. 2007, The University of Electro-Communications, Doctoral Course Student
(at Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems) 
May 2007, The University of Electro-Communications (at Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems) Master of Engineering 
May 2005, The University of Electro-Communications (at Department of Mechanical Engineering and Intelligent Systems) Bachelor of Engineering 

Professional Career

Membership of Academic Societies 

ACM / IEEE / Virtual Reality Society of Japan / Robotics Society of Japan / Human Interface Society

Research Interest

Haptic Interface, Interactive System

Projects

It is widely known that tickle sensation is not only induced by direct contact but also induced by the gesture near the body surface. This phenomenon can be utilized for the remote communication as a way to present pseudo haptic sensation with visual cue. In this paper, this pseudo haptic sensation was combined with vibration and tickle sensation was evaluated. The result revealed that combination of vibration and the visual cue presenting the gesture near the body surface induces as strong tickle sensation as the real tickle.

Vection Field (2010-)  

2011/05/05 16:45 added

Fur Display (2009)

Wearable computing technology is one of the methods that can augment the information processing ability of humans. However, in this area, a soft surface is often necessary to maximize the comfort and practicality of such wearable devices. Thus in this paper, we propose a soft surface material, with an organic bristling effect achieved through mechanical vibration, as a new user interface. We have used fur in order to exhibit the visually rich transformation induced by the bristling effect while also achieving the full tactile experience and benefits of soft materials. Our method needs only a layer of fur and simple vibration motors. The hairs of fur instantly bristle with only horizontal mechanical vibration. The vibration is provided by a simple vibration motor embedded below the fur material. This technology has significant potential as garment textiles or to be utilized as a general soft user interface.

Sensitivity of Human Hairy Skin with Vibrotactile Stimulation through Body Hair (2007)

This paper reports the detection threshold of human hairy skin with the use of a direct vibrotactile stimulus to the hair on human hairy skin. We designed an experimental method to quantify the psychological effect and developed a stimulation instrument to directly stimulate the hair. This vibrotactile stimulation was provided from the tip of tweezers which traveled horizontally or vertically against the human skin. The stimulation point was the approximate middle region of the hair on the middle finger and forearm. A psychological experiment was conducted based on the hypothesis that a frequency characteristic exists on hairy skin with direct stimulus to the hair. As a result, a significant difference depends on frequency was obtained with ANOVA. It was described that the vibrotactile stimulus was conducted to Pacinian by the body hair on the middle finger which has so small section area. This is conflicting finding concerning the size of the contactor which can conduct the stimulus into the lower layer of skin. However, this thresholdcurve and also the introspection reports of participants support this novel finding.

Publication

Awards

1. Masahiro Furukawa, Hiromi Yoshikawa, Taku Hachisu, Shogo Fukushima, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, “Vection Field” for Pedestrian Traffic Control, Augmented Human international conference, 2011 (Tokyo, March 12-14 2011) [web] [Best Paper Award] (Refereed, Oral Presentation)
2. Erika SAWADA, Tatsuhito AWAJI, Keisuke MORISHITA, Masahiro FURUKAWA, Tomohisa ARUGA, Ryuta TAKEICHI, Tomoko FUJII, Hidetoshi KIMURA, Noriyoshi SHIMIZU, Shinya IDA, Takuji TOKIWA, Maki SUGIMOTO, Masahiko INAMI, BYU-BYU-View: A Wind Communication Interface，Laval Virtual 2008，Laval France，April 9-13.2008. (Refereed Exhibition) [web] [Interfaces et Materiels Award]

Conference Paper (International only)

1. Masahiro Furukawa, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, Susumu Tachi, KUSUGURI: Visual Tactile Integration for Tickling, SIGGRAPH ASIA 2011, Emerging Technologies, December 12-15, 2011, Hong Kong [Web][ACM Portal] (Accepted, to be appeared)
2. Hiromi Yoshikawa, Taku Hachisu, Shogo Fukushima, Masahiro Furukawa, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, Vection Field for Pedestrian Traffic Control, ACM SIGGRAPH 2011 Emerging Technologies, Canada Vancouver, 7-11 August 2011 [PDF][web][ACM Portal]
3. Ryuta OKAZAKI, Michi SATO, Shogo FUKUSHIMA, Masahiro FURUKAWA, Hiroyuki KAJIMOTO, Tactile Enhancement Structure Mimicking Hair Follicle Receptor, World Haptics Conference 2011 (Istanbul, Turkey June 22-24 2011) [web] (Refereed, Oral Presentation)
4. Masahiro Furukawa, Hiromi Yoshikawa, Taku Hachisu, Shogo Fukushima, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, “Vection Field” for Pedestrian Traffic Control, Augmented Human international conference, 2011 (Tokyo, March 12-14 2011)  [PDF][web][ACM Portal] [Best Paper Award] (Refereed, Oral Presentation) 
   ISBN: 978-1-4503-0426-9 doi>10.1145/1959826.1959845
5. Yuki Kuniyasu, Shogo Fukushima, Masahiro Furukawa, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, Weight Illusion by Tangential Deformation of Forearm Skin, Augmented Human international conference, 2011 (Tokyo, March 12-14 2011) [PDF][web][ACM Portal] (Refereed, Demo, canceled)
   ISBN: 978-1-4503-0426-9 doi>10.1145/1959826.1959836
6. Kanako Aou, Asuka Ishii, Masahiro Furukawa, Shogo Fukushima, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, The Enhancement of Hearing using a Combination of Sound and Skin Sensation to the Pinna, UIST'10, October 3-6, 2010, New York, NY, USA. (Refereed, poster)
   ISBN: 978-1-4503-0462-7 doi>10.1145/1866218.1866248
7. Masahiro Furukawa, Yuji Uema, Maki Sugimoto and Masahiko Inami, Fur Interface with Bristling Effect Induced by Vibration,  The first Augmented Human International Conference, France Megève, April 2-3, 2010 [web] (Refereed, Oral Presentation)
   ISBN: 978-1-60558-825-4 doi>10.1145/1785455.1785472
8. Masahiro Furukawa, Naohisa Nagaya, Yuki Hashimoto, Hiroyuki Kajimoto, Masahiko Inami: Measurement of the Detection Thresholds of Hair on Human Hairy Skin using Direct Vibrotactile Stimulation, Third Joint Eurohaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems(World Haptics Conference 2009 Proceedings), pp.127-131 , March 2009  [web] (Refereed, poster)

Exhibition

1. Masahiro Furukawa, Yuji Uema, Atsushi Okoshi, Naohisa Nagaya, Takuji Tokiwa, Maki Sugimoto, Masahiko Inami, Fur Display, SIGGRAPH ASIA 2009 Emerging Technologies, December 16-19, 2009. [ACM portal](Refereed, Technical Exhibition)
2. Naohisa Nagaya, Masahiro Furukawa, Maki Sugimoto, Masahiko Inami: Stop Motion Goggle, Ars Electronica 2009, September 5th 2009 - May 17th 2010 [web] (Permanent Installation)
3. Naohisa Nagaya, Masahiro Furukawa, Maki Sugimoto, Masahiko Inami: Surrounding of Firefly: Stop Motion Goggle for Luminary Objects, Laval Virtual 2009，Laval France，April 22-26.2008. [web] (Refereed, Technological Exhibition)
4. Naohisa Nagaya, Fabian Foo Chuan Siang, Masahiro Furukawa, Takuji Tokiwa, Maki Sugimoto, Masahiko Inami: Stop motion goggle, ACM SIGGRAPH 2008 new tech demos, Aug 2008. (Refereed, Technological Exhibition)  [ACM portal] [PDF]
5. Erika SAWADA, Tatsuhito AWAJI, Keisuke MORISHITA, Masahiro FURUKAWA, Tomohisa ARUGA, Ryuta TAKEICHI, Tomoko FUJII, Hidetoshi KIMURA, Noriyoshi SHIMIZU, Shinya IDA, Takuji TOKIWA, Maki SUGIMOTO, Masahiko INAMI, BYU-BYU-View: A Wind Communication Interface，Laval Virtual 2008，Laval France，April 9-13.2008. (Refereed, Technological Exhibition) [web] [Interfaces et Materiels Award]
6. Masahiro Furukawa, Mitsunori Ohta, Satoru Miyajima, Shoichi Hasegawa, Masahiko Inami, Support System for Micro Operation Using a Haptic Display Device, International conference on Virtual Reality and Telexistence Proceedings, pp.310-311, 2007.  [IEEE Xplore] (Refereed, poster)
7. Erika SAWADA, Shinya IDA, Tatsuhito AWAJI, Keisuke MORISHITA, Tomohisa ARUGA, Ryuta TAKEICHI, Tomoko FUJII, Hidetoshi KIMURA, Toshinari NAKAMURA, Masahiro FURUKAWA, Noriyoshi SHIMIZU, Takuji TOKIWA, Maki SUGIMOTO, Masahiko INAMI, BYU-BYU-View: A Wind Communication Interface, ACM SIGGRAPH 2007 Full-Conference DVD-ROM Emerging Technologies, San Diego, Aug 2007. [ACM portal] [PDF] (Refereed, Technical Exhibition)
8. Yuki HASHIMOTO, Minoru KOJIMA, Tomoyasu MITANI, Satoru MIYAJIMA, Naohisa NAGAYA,Masahiro FURUKAWA, Junichiro OHTAKI, Akio YAMAMOTO, Masahiko INAMI, Conspiratio, Laval Virtual 2005, Laval France, Apr.2005 (Invited Exhibition)

Research Grants

Commission Member

Dec. 2011 - Committee Member of Annual Conference, VRSJ
Apr. 2011 - Committee Member, Workshop for Haptic Display and Computation, VRSJ
Feb. 2011 - Committee Member, EC2011 
Jan. 2011 - Planning Committee, International Virtual Reality Contest
June 2009 - Newsletter Editorial Board, VRSJ
Apr. 2007 - Planning Committee Student Member, International Virtual Reality Contest
Apr. 2007 - Planning Committee Student Member, Interactive Tokyo 

Programming Languages

C/C++, Visual C++, N88Basic, Visual Basic, OpenGL, OpenCV, DirectX, PIC, CCS, Assembler, HTML, Perl, C-shell, Objective-C

OS

Windows, Unix, Mac 

Applications

After Effects, Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere, MS-Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Eagle, Rhinoceros, SolidWorks, MATLAB, MPLAB, SciLab, LaTeX, Max/MSP, Puredata

TOEIC Score 

725 (May. 2009)

last update Feb 7th, 2012