Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order
Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order
A System for Mobile Active Music Listening Based on Social Interaction and Embodiment
Mobile Networks and Applications
Embodied cooperation using mobile devices: presenting and evaluating the Sync4All application
Proceedings of the International Working Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces
A wearable projector-based gait assistance system and its application for elderly people
Proceedings of the 2013 ACM international joint conference on Pervasive and ubiquitous computing
| Hi-index | 0.00 |
Everyone has probably experienced the phenomenon where their footsteps unconsciously synchronize with their partner while walking together. This interpersonal synchronization of body motion has been widely observed and is significant in the context of social psychology. However, the mechanism of this embodied cooperation still remains obscure and has not been substantially developed as an engineering application. In this study, by assuming "mutual entrainment" as an interpersonal synchronization mechanism, we establish a new cooperative walking system between a walking human and a walking robot (an agent as a virtual robot). In this system, rhythmic sounds corresponding to the timing of footsteps are exchanged between them on the basis of our previous studies. As a result, it was demonstrated that the two walking rhythms adapt mutually after the start of interaction, and stable synchronization is generated automatically. This global entrained state exhibits dynamic stability with small fluctuation in the walking period. Applying this method to walking support for Parkinson's disease and hemiplegia patients, its effectiveness in stabilizing the walking of the patient was shown. These results indicate the importance of interpersonal mutual entrainment of rhythmic motion for walking support, and new human-robot interaction technologies are expected as an extension of this framework.