# Research — Rintaro Makino

I design subtle interventions that emerge between people and technology.

## Externalizing Bodily Information Through a Geometric Agent

- Year: 2026
- Published at: VRSJ Annual Conference 2026
- Keywords: HCI, Affective Computing, Embodiment, Agent Design

Internal states like tension or fatigue are hard to notice, let alone feel as your own. We use the emotional impressions that a shape's form and movement evoke to externalize these changes as a geometric agent, shown on a wearable device, a tabletop robot, and a shared display.

Related publications:
- [身体情報を外在化するエージェント表現の検討](https://www.conference.vrsj.org/ac2026/program/doc/4A2-13.pdf)

## Paper Gallery: Making Paper-Summary Slides a Community Asset

- Year: 2025
- Published at: Interaction 2025 / WISS 2025
- Keywords: HCI, Research Support, Knowledge Sharing, Community

Paper-summary slides created in seminars and reading groups make research visually accessible, but often become scattered after presentations. Paper Gallery is a web system that automatically builds a slide database through existing information-sharing platforms. Its searchable gallery supports knowledge discovery and communication among researchers through shared slides.

Related publications:
- [Paper Gallery: 論文要約スライドをコミュニティの資産に](https://www.wiss.org/WISS2025Proceedings/data/paper/13.pdf)
- [Paper Gallery: A Web Gallery for Using Paper-Summary Slides](https://www.interaction-ipsj.org/proceedings/2025/data/pdf/2B-21.pdf)

## Moderate Facilitation with Multiple Small Robots

- Year: 2025
- Published at: ICEC 2025 / HAI Symposium 2025 / EC 2024
- Keywords: HCI, HAI, Social Robots, Facilitation

Naming a quiet participant to prompt them to speak puts them, and everyone else at the table, on edge. We built small tabletop robots that instead move toward whoever has spoken least, as if they want to listen in — nudging participation without singling anyone out.

Related publications:
- [Multiple Robots Enable Moderate Facilitation Through Approaching Movements in Group Discussions](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-032-02555-5_53)
- [Gentle and Balanced Facilitation with Multiple Robots](https://hai-conference.net/symp2025/proceedings/pdf/P2-20.pdf)
- [Interaction Design of a Small Robot for Loose Facilitation](https://ipsj.ixsq.nii.ac.jp/ej/?action=repository_uri&item_id=238782&file_id=1&file_no=1)

## Pixel Board: An LED Board for a Sense of Coexistence

- Year: 2024
- Published at: INTERACTION 2024
- Keywords: HCI, Co-presence, Connected Devices, Community

Pixel Board is a grid of full-color LEDs designed to create a sense that other people are present in a shared community. Multiple remote users can manipulate its display over the internet.

Related publications:
- [Pixel Board: Development of an LED Board That Conveys a Sense of Coexistence](https://www.interaction-ipsj.org/proceedings/2024/data/pdf/1C-67.pdf)

## How Should a Robot End an Interaction?

- Year: 2024
- Published at: INTERACTION 2024
- Keywords: HAI, Social Robots, Conversation, User Experience

Service robots need to end one conversation before helping the next person, but a unilateral ending can feel uncomfortable. This study used a crowdsourced survey to examine when a robot should announce that an interaction is about to end.

Related publications:
- [How Should a Robot End Interaction with a User: Consideration from the Timing of Notice of Termination](https://www.interaction-ipsj.org/proceedings/2024/data/pdf/3B-58.pdf)