FootstepsMixer: A Tool to Express Multiple People's Footsteps in a Footstep Transmission System for Awareness Support

摘要

Recently, the number of people living in single-person households has increased. Although the numbers of sensor-based services that monitor personal safety are increasing, they do not provide the feeling of living in a multi-person household. In this study, we attempt to realize a system that shares the sounds of a distant family household, thereby creating the impression that the family household is nearby. Using this system, we devised a method to express people's activity in a remote location and evaluated the system experimentally. We considered multiple-footstep expression methods and based on experimental results, identified the most suitable method. Herein, we propose a "FootstepsMixer," a tool that expresses the actions of multiple people using the optimal footstep expression method. With this tool, users can easily express footsteps in an exaggerated manner and can set the number of people and the maximum volume of each footstep. We also consider what type of motion expression can be realized using the proposed tool.