The world of mushrooms
Yasuhiro Minami, Minako Sawaki, Kohji Dohsaka, Ryuichiro Higashinaka, Kentaro Ishizuka, Hideki Isozaki, Tatsushi Matsubayashi, Masato Miyoshi, Atsushi Nakamura, Takanobu Oba, Hiroshi Sawada, Takeshi Yamada, Eisaku Maeda · 2007
Our new research project called concentrates on the creation of new lifestyles through research on communication science and intelligence integration. It is premised on the creation of such virtual communication partners as fairies and goblins that can be constantly at our side. We call these virtual communication partners mushrooms.To show the essence of ambient intelligence, we developed two multimodal prototype systems: mushrooms that watch, listen, and answer questions and a Quizmaster Mushroom. These two systems work in real time using speech, sound, dialogue, and vision technologies.We performed preliminary experiments with the Quizmaster Mushroom. The results showed that the system can transmit knowledge to users while they are playing the quizzes.Furthermore, through the two mushrooms, we found policies for design effects in multimodal interface and integration.