Research 2025.07

EmbodyCraft

Exploring Haptic Embodied Experiences for Reflective Practice in Throwing Clay

🏆 The 29th VRSJ Conference, Young Researcher Award
EmbodyCraft

身体感覚を他者と共有することで、より高い能力や創造性を発揮できる時代が2050年には到来します。得意なことは掛け合わせ、苦手なことは補い合うことで、新しい能力をあっという間に学べる未来が実現します。技能の記録・再生システムや複数人で連携して操作するロボットを通じて、能力を補うだけではなく、元の能力を遥かに超える技や感性など、1 + 1 > 2になる共創を生み出します。

In 2050, a new era will emerge where sharing bodily sensations with others unlocks greater abilities and creativity. By combining strengths and complementing weaknesses, people will be able to instantly acquire new skills. Through systems that record and replay expertise, and robots co-operated by multiple individuals, this future will enable not only the compensation of limitations but also the creation of abilities and sensibilities far beyond one’s own—realizing a world where 1 + 1 > 2.

日本工芸産地協会の協力のもと、職人が制作の中で手や指で感じている「触覚」や、腕に込めた「力覚」を記録し、それらを体感できる技能伝送システムと、職人の動きと感覚のデータをもとに技能を身体を通じて伝える技能融合ロボットアバターを開発しました。これにより、従来は長い年月をかけた修行を必要としてきた、職人の持つ“コツ“や感覚の伝承を加速します。本映像では、沖縄で300年の伝統を持つ壺屋焼の窯元・育陶園の熟練職人たちとともに、陶芸技能をデジタル技術で記録・再現し、職人同士や陶芸初心者との間で、言葉では伝えきれない“ワザ“を、デジタル化された感覚を通じて共有する取り組みを紹介しています。

With support from the JAPAN CRAFT & LOCALITY ASSOCIATION, we have developed a skill transmission system that records and reproduces the haptic sensations felt by a craftsperson’s fingers and arms, along with a skill-sharing robotic avatar that transmits craft techniques by integrating the artisan’s movements and sensory data.These technologies enable the transfer of a craftsperson’s “touch” and embodied sensibility—skills that once required years of dedicated apprenticeship and could not easily be conveyed in words.In this video, we highlight our collaboration with Ikutouen, a 300-year-old Tsuboya pottery studio in Okinawa. By digitally capturing and reproducing the techniques of master artisans, we enable these subtle, wordless skills to be shared both among craftspeople and with pottery novices through digitized sensations.

Publications

  • ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2025, LBW presentation
  • IEEE World Haptics Conference 2025, Presentation & Demonstration