NTT Communication Science Laboratories Human Information Science Laboratory

Human Information Science Laboratory

Human Information Science Laboratory uses approches such as information science, psychophyics, and neuroscience to investigate mechanisms underlying our perception, emotion, and motion, for understanding how environmental and social information is processed in human body and brain. The research findings are expected to serve as fundamentals of future information technologies that are conceptually novel and user-friendly.

Researchers

Hearing

Sensory
Integration

Emotion

Interface

Speech

Brain
Disorder

Name	Research area
Makio KASHINO Executive Director
Toshihiro Takada

Trainees

Keiko MASUTOMI	Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Keita MITANI	Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Sho OTSUKA	Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo
Ken　WATANABE	Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Shinpei YAMAGISHI	Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Youhei YAMAGUCHI	Interdisciplinary Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology
Sanae YOSHIMOTO	School of Integrated Arts and Social Sciences, Japan Women's University

We can easily perceive material of objects. How does this ability develop after birth? Our psychological experiments showed that infants become able to discriminate between glossy and matte surface at around 7-8 months of old.

The temperature perceived upon contact does not merely depend on the physical temperature of the object. In fact, it is also affected by the way of touch. We demonstrated the illusions that manifest this phenomenon and investigated its underlying mechanisms. When the three fingers touch the objects in different temperature combinations, the illusions resulted from the thermo-tactile interaction will occur. For example, a finger that is not physically warmed will feel warm, while the fingers that are physically warmed will become not as warm.The advancement of this study will shed light on the neutral mechanism of object recognition using touch and contribute to human interface technology, such as the development of thermal displays.

Human Information Science Laboratory

Topics

Members

Researchers

Trainees

Research Groups

Selected Publications

Inquiry & Accsess