Research / Embodied Media Lab

Research Staff at Embodied Media Lab

The research side of my practice focuses on haptics, embodied interaction, and XR systems that make otherwise invisible sensations legible through implementation and prototyping.

Focus
Shared sensation through haptics, robotics + HCI, and XR interaction development
Research Affiliation
Keio University Graduate School of Media Design, Embodied Media Lab
Background
Private-Sector R&D
01 Current themes

Current themes.

Rather than separating concept from build, I approach research as something that needs to be implemented, tuned, and felt in order to be understood.

  1. 01

    Shared Sensation Through Haptics

    Research into how tactile signals can help people share intention, presence, and felt understanding across bodies and distance.

  2. 02

    Robotics + HCI

    Prototyping interfaces that reshape relationships between people and environments by crossing robotics, control, and spatial interaction.

  3. 03

    XR Interaction Development

    Developing and validating XR interactions that shape bodily understanding, co-action, and presence through prototyping.

02 Master’s Research

Master’s research in one frame.

This project is the clearest single frame for my current research direction: how tactile sharing can shape togetherness and presence during collaborative work in MR.

2025

Master’s Research / March 2025

Sense-LinQuest: designing a "sense of collaboration" through tactile sharing in MR spaces

A master’s research project centered on Sense-LinQuest, a system for tactile sharing in MR spaces designed to strengthen the sense of collaboration during co-located and remote collaborative work.

As multi-user work in mixed reality becomes increasingly feasible, sustaining a strong sense of presence and togetherness remains difficult, especially when tactile experience is absent. This project developed Sense-LinQuest, a system that shares haptic information in real time between participants so that each user can feel the consequences of another person’s interaction during collaborative work.

Contribution
Through the design and implementation of a tactile sharing system, the project established a basis for evaluating how shared haptics can influence togetherness and presence in MR collaboration.
03 Related lead-author study

Related lead-author study.

Alongside the master’s research, this study shows another way I have approached tactile sharing and interpersonal understanding through visual intervention in XR.

2024

The 29th Annual Conference of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan

Intersubjective Design

A foundational study of intersubjective design that examines how visual interventions on another body affect shared haptic sensation in XR.

This lead-author study examines how visual interventions on another person’s body in XR can alter self-perceived touch and interpersonal understanding when physical constraints are no longer reliable cues.

Role
Lead author, responsible for the research design, implementation, and evaluation.
04 Research Contributions

Research contributions.

This part gathers both how I contribute to research and the papers or presentations that came out of that work.

Most of my research contributions emerge where systems need to move from idea to reality: hardware and software implementation, prototyping, and experimental integration.

  1. 01

    Implementation

    Building the hardware and software systems that let research questions become testable.

  2. 02

    Prototype

    Turning ideas into devices, interactions, and experiences that can be touched and revised.

  3. 03

    Integration

    Connecting sensors, control, capture, and presentation into cohesive experimental systems.

05 Selected Papers & Presentations

Selected papers & presentations.

Lead-author and co-authored work are listed together here, with the emphasis placed on the specific role I played in each project.

  1. 01 2024 Lead-author study

    Foundational Study of Intersubjective Design for Multi-person Haptic Interaction in Digital Space

    Venue
    Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan (September 2024)
    Authors
    Jinsuke Morita, Tanner Person, Rodan Umehara, Sohei Wakisaka, Kouta Minamizawa, and Arata Horie
    Contribution
    Lead author responsible for the study design, system implementation, and evaluation.
    Open publication
  2. 02 2026 Co-authored publication

    ROomBOT: A Room as an Assistive Robotic Interface based on Cable-Driven Parallel Robotics

    Venue
    TEI ’26: Proceedings of the Twentieth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction
    Authors
    Masahiro Ohta, Takatoshi Yoshida, Tomoya Sasaki, Jinsuke Morita, Hideaki Nii, and Kouta Minamizawa
    Contribution
    A co-authored study to which I contributed through cable-winch-related hardware design.
    Open publication
  3. 03 2025 Co-authored publication

    Experience Sharing Box: A Platform for Capturing, Storing, and Playback of Multisensory Memory

    Venue
    SA Emerging Technologies ’25: Proceedings of the SIGGRAPH Asia 2025 Emerging Technologies
    Authors
    Haruomi Higashi, Yufan Zhu, Jack Brophy, Ismael Rasa, Jinsuke Morita, Arata Horie, Takatoshi Yoshida, and Kouta Minamizawa
    Contribution
    A co-authored publication to which I contributed through hardware fabrication and spatial-capture rig design.
    Open publication
  4. 04 2025 Co-authored publication

    A Study on 3D Journaling in Daily Life and Context-dependent Memory Recall

    Venue
    Proceedings of the 30th Annual Conference of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan (September 2025)
    Authors
    Emi Koizumi, Jinsuke Morita, Haruomi Higashi, Mark Armstrong, Sohei Wakisaka, Takatoshi Yoshida, and Kouta Minamizawa
    Contribution
    A co-authored publication to which I contributed across requirements definition, point-cloud capture, data processing, and interactive implementation.
    Open publication
06 End Mark

Contribution records continue.

Publications here are framed less as lead-author output and more as research contributions through implementation, technical support, and prototyping.

Project Contributions