NTT Research and Development 2012 Review of Activities

Overview

Transmission and digital encoding/decoding delays in telecommunication seriously impair the quality of interactive network services. For instance, when cursor motion is delayed during writing, the user feels a resistive/sluggish sensation (see B in the top-left figure). However, efforts to reduce these delays are obstructed by theoretical and economical limits. To circumvent these limits, we have developed a new technology that uses implicit human brain functions to improve the user experience of controlling delayed systems.

Features

• In the implementation example shown in the right figure, a specific color pattern, which does not disturb the operation, is overlaid on the background of the display.
• An optic flow is defined as moving that pattern, and by making the flow respond to the operator’s hand movements, the resistive sensation caused by the delay can be alleviated.
• Our method exploits implicit motor-control functions in the human brain that tend to accelerate hand movement in the direction of the optic flow.

Application scenarios

• The method can be used in the following interactive network services having transmission or digital encoding/decoding delays in order to reduce resistive and sluggish sensations that make it harder to perform tasks and induce mental fatigue.
  - Robotic remote-controlled operation with realtime visual feedback
  - Network games requiring realtime manual operation with visual feedback
  - Interactive window operation of remote computers
  - Handwriting on the remote computer through a telecommunication network