魅力的とカワイイ
Cute & Kawaii
Cuteness triggers an innate socioaffective response in virtually all people. Our research focuses on the Japanese cultural instantiation of cuteness, a cultural export that features in products from video games to virtual companions to social robots to AI toys. One trajectory is the science of kawaii vocalics, created by Dr. Seaborn, where we research the properties and effects of kawaii voice phenomena. Kawaii embodiments can affect first impressions, trust, rapport, and compatibility and potentially charm and disarm users unaware. We explore emotional responses and behaviour with cute and kawaii computer offerings.
Kawaii Computing
Kawaii computing is a field of study that explores the Japanese concept of cute in interactive experiences with computers, within and outside of Japan.
カワイイ・コンピューティングは、ヒューマン・コンピュータ・インタラクションの文脈における日本の「カワイイ」の概念を探求している。我々は、コンピュータとのインタラクティブな体験における「カワイイ」の社会文化的特徴を考察する。
Online at: Website
Cute & Kawaii
Selected Publications
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Modelling Kawaii Vocalics
Little is known about kawaii as a sound phenomenon. Do features of visual kawaii transfer? What unique properties do kawaii voices have? We ask foundational questions to develop a a model of kawaii vocalics.
音の現象としてのカワイイについてはほとんど知られていない。視覚的なカワイイにはどのような特徴があるのか？カワイイ音声にはどんなユニークな特性があるのか？我々は問う。
Voice & EmbodimentCute & Kawaii
Selected Publications
2909664
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Kawaii Game Voice UX
Kawaii game voice user experiences (voice UX) are characterized by visual and sound phenomena associated with characters and other diegetic agents.
カワイイゲーム音声UX（ボイスUX）は、キャラクターや他のダイスジェティックエージェントに関連する視覚的・音響的現象が特徴です。
Critical PlayCute & Kawaii
Selected Publications
2909664
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Kawaii Voice & Body
Is kawaii perceived the same way in voice and body? We explore whether and how the two differ and intersect through a variety of voices and characters.
Voice & EmbodimentCute & Kawaii
Selected Publications
2909664
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Cute & Deceptive
Charming and disarming: when characters are cute, we may be influenced to unknown ends, unawares. We critically examine the deceptive potentials of cute and kawaii computer agents, social robots, and AI toys.
Decoding the NegaverseCute & Kawaii
Selected Publications
2909664
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音声UX
Voice & Embodiment
Voice is a natural mode of communication, used to deliver information (speech) and express characteristics of the speaker (vocalics). Advances in audio signal processing and machine learning have pushed voice user experiences (voice UX) to the forefront of modern human-computer interactions. We explore the paradigm of voice UX and its embodiments through systematic reviews, critical design studies, and controlled experiments.
Voice Against Bias
Can voice influence attitudes towards age? We aim to find out with MAKOTO, our “older adult” voice assistant.
音声は年齢に対する意識に影響を与えることができるのか？お年寄りぽい音声アシスタント「MAKOTO」を使って、それを明らかにすることを目指します。
Online at: Website
Subversive DissentVoice & Embodiment
Selected Publications
2909664
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Evaluating Voice UX
We're exploring ways to measure and evaluate interactions with voice-based agents, interfaces, and environments.
音声エージェント、インターフェース、環境とのインタラクションを測定・評価する方法を模索しています。
Voice & Embodiment
Selected Publications
2909664
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Morphologies in Voice and Body
What kinds of bodies should voice-based agents have, if any? We explore a range of modalities and morphologies.
音声ベースのエージェントは、どのような身体を持つべきなのでしょうか。私たちは、さまざまなモダリティとモルフォロジーを探求しています。
Voice & Embodiment
Selected Publications
2909664
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Culturally Sensitive Voice UX
Voice is a powerful mode of communication among people and with computers. Yet, we must consider the sociocultural and linguistic contexts. One person's "eh?" is another person's "ne~"!
Identity & PowerVoice & Embodiment
Selected Publications
2909664
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Gender Ambiguity in Computer Voices
We explore the notion of gender ambiguity as a way of understanding how different people gender (or not gender) computer voices.
Identity & PowerVoice & Embodiment
Selected Publications
2909664
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Vocal Sycophancy
Sycophancy in conversational agents, like chatbots, has almost entirely focused on the text medium. Does voice-based sycophancy exist? Is it equally affirmative, flattering, and excessively agreeable?
Decoding the NegaverseTrust & RelianceVoice & Embodiment
Selected Publications
2909664
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アイデンティティと権力
Identity & Power
Identity and power operate through design practice and objects with respect to overlapping factors of social identity, such as gender, age, and race. Designers, knowingly or not, draw on social models of how we look and sound, think and behave, and interact with the world. Users, too, respond in kind. We approach this phenomenon from an intersectional perspective, focusing on whether human diversity is reflected in design and research practice as well as how user reactions are shaped by biases embedded in the design of intelligent agents and interactive experiences.
Gender Neutrality in AI
We critically examine whether and how virtual AI (like chatbots) and embodied AI (like robots) can be designed and perceived as gender-neutral.
ロボットや他の人工知能がジェンダー中性と認識されるかどうかを探っています。
Funded by: Engineering Academy Young Scientist Encouragement Award
Identity & Power
Selected Publications
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Social Identity in Robots
We're exploring how social identity affects human-robot interactions and perceptions of robots, including and beyond gender.
社会的アイデンティティが人間と人工知能の相互作用にどのような影響を与えるかを探検します。
Identity & Power
Selected Publications
2909664
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Biases in Robots and AI
We're approaching biases within and around us from an intersectional lens.
私たちの中や周りのバイアス・偏見に、交差点的なレンズを実施すると研究します。
Funded by: Engineering Academy Young Scientist Encouragement Award
Identity & Power
Selected Publications
2909664
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Social Identity in AI
Agentic and interactive AI like ChatGPT are imbued with human-derived social identities. We critically examine how and what the effects may be.
Identity & Power
Selected Publications
2909664
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Evaluating Gender Perceptions
What is "gender," what does it mean "to gender," and how do we capture this "gendering" in a standard and understandable way? We aim to develop standards, measures, and methods.
Identity & PowerMeta Operandi
Selected Publications
2909664
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Meta-Level Biases
Bias does not only exist in the minds of participants and within the code of machines—it also acts within professionals and practice. We critically examine biases on the "expert side."
Identity & PowerMeta Operandi
Selected Publications
2909664
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Agender Euphoria in Play
Agender euphoria is the experience of self-fulfillment, freedom, and bliss in gender-free environments, embodiments, and interactions. We define and explore this experiential phenomenon.
Identity & PowerSubversive DissentCritical Play
Selected Publications
2909664
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批判的なプレー
Critical Play
Play and games are foundational elements of human societies and personal development, from childhood onwards. Simulations, digital play, and video games draw in people of all ages, for all kinds of motivations. Games offer a space where the rules of reality can be suspended. We critically explore and entertain new forms of engagement within and orientations towards interactive play and games.
Maldaimonic Game UX
Maldaimonic player orientations and experiences are all about having fun being bad without harming others.
マルダイモニックなプレーヤーの志向と経験は、他人を傷つけることなく、悪いことを楽しむことにあります。
Decoding the NegaverseCritical Play
Selected Publications
2909664
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Deception in Games
Deception lurks in digital play spaces and video games, within the rules and mechanics and characters and monetization schemes.
Funded by: JST PRESTO (Sakigake) #JPMJPR24I6
Online at: Website
Decoding the NegaverseCritical Play
Selected Publications
2909664
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ネガバースに潜む危険性
Decoding the Negaverse
Are we living in a negaverse? Critical scholarship has drawn attention to a range of ways in which technology exploits, affords, or even celebrates negative experiences. Deceptive patterns and persuasive interfaces, misinformation and fake news, and even gamified offerings can have adverse effects, intentionally or not. We explore how negative user experiences and orientations play out across a range of interactive systems, as well as how they can be disrupted.
ELEMI: Exoskeleton for the Mind
Exploring whether and how a metacognitive agent can help us grapple with misinformation on social media.
メタ認知エージェントがSNS上の誤報に対処するのに役立つかどうか、またどのように対処するかを探ります。
Funded by: DLab Challenge Grant 2020
Decoding the Negaverse
Selected Publications
2909664
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Theorizing Interface Deception
We are aiming to develop sound and standard theories, terms, and taxonomies of interface deception, from "dark patterns" to deceptive design to manipulative UI to interface sludge.
ダークパターン、欺瞞的なインターアクション、説得力のあるインターフェイスを探ります。
Funded by: JST PRESTO (Sakigake) #JPMJPR24I6
Online at: Website
Decoding the Negaverse
Selected Publications
2909664
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Deceptive Patterns in Japan
We carry out culturally-sensitive research on deceptive patterns or ダークパターン in Japan, covering a range of e-commerce contexts.
Funded by: JST PRESTO (Sakigake) #JPMJPR24I6
Online at: Website
Decoding the Negaverse
Selected Publications
2909664
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信頼と依存
Trust & Reliance
Trust is the foundation of fulfilling human-human connections. Interactive and agentic technologies, like chatbots, AI toys, and social robots, portray humanlike personas, embodiments, and interactions that may elicit distrust, cultivate overtrust, or facilitate reliance. We critically examine the matter of trust in modern-day interactive computing.
Trust in AI
What factors affect trust and reliance in AI-based agents, systems, and environments? Exploring layperson and expert perspectives.
AIを活用したエージェント、システム、環境に対する信頼や信用に影響を与える要因とは？一般人や専門家の視点を探ります。
Funded by: DLab Challenge Grant 2020
Trust & Reliance
Selected Publications
2909664
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Time & Trust
A lot of research on interactive agents and AI focuses on short-term engagements. However, realistic use with implications for trust and reliance is often longitudinal.
Trust & Reliance
Selected Publications
2909664
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体制を揺るがす抵抗
Subversive Dissent
Design is a powerful means of creating change in the world. Often, the same material and strategies can be deployed for purposes empowering or disempowering, altruistic or self-serving, capitalistic or collectivist. In these projects, we unearth and subvert power structures and unwelcome norms through critique and (re)design.
User-Led (Re)Design
Experts prescribe the user experience and presume usability, with perhaps some user involvement or user testing. Instead, we explore power-shifting participatory action, co-design, and user-led design practice.
Subversive Dissent
Selected Publications
2909664
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Disrupting Generative AI
Generative AI and its purveyors have infiltrated everyday life, including knowledge production, creative processes, personal rights and sensibilities, and common speech. We explore critical interventions against Generative AI dominance and misuse.
Meta OperandiSubversive Dissent
Selected Publications
2909664
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メタ方法論
Meta Operandi
Let us zoom out and consider the meta level of research practice. From meta-analysis and meta-synthesis to new measures and validation of instruments to Open Science and Open Source to cross-cultural translation projects, we aim for aspirational rigour in pursuit of human knowledge.
Systematic Review-lution
We aim to increase awareness and rigour in systematic review work, drawing inspiration from the shoulders of giants, while adapting existing standard protocols to epistemological and methodological diversity.
システマティック・レビューに対する認識と厳密性を高めることを目指しています。 HPで詳しく読めます。
Online at: Website
Meta Operandi
Selected Publications
2909664
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Project Translate Japan
Our goal is to translate all Japanese research into Japanese for the Japanese public and provide these translations in Open Science venues like Jxiv.
私たちの目標は、すべての日本の研究を日本の人々のために日本語に翻訳し、これらの翻訳をJxivのようなオープンサイエンスの場で提供することです。
Meta Operandi
Selected Publications
2909664
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Better Reporting
We aim to increase standardization and quality in reporting human participant research by developing templates and tools that integrate with publication formats and venues. The flagship project is the RUSH checklist for HRI.
Funded by: World Research Hub Programme
Meta Operandi
Selected Publications
2909664
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Independent
日常的なインターフェイスにおける ダーク・パターンの発見と解体
Discovering and Dismantling Dark Patterns in Everyday Interfaces
Online manipulation and interface deception are pressing, global threats to everyday users of the Internet. At the user interface (UI) level are tricky and coercive interactive elements found in everyday digital products, variably known as "dark patterns," deceptive designs, and manipulative UI. As a PRESTO・さきがけ fellow, I aimed to untangle the nature of such forms of interface deception in Japan, discover how are they perceived by professionals and the public, and explore how they can be redressed.
Timeline
October 2024 to March 2028 due to JST regulations and my move to Cambridge, the grant was cancelled in January 2026
Principal Investigators & Collaborators
Prof. Katie Seaborn (Science Tokyo)
Prof. Tomohiro Nagashima (Saarland University)
Funding & Web
Collaboration
カワイイ音声UX
Kawaii Vocalics
This project will focus on the novel concept of kawaii vocalics. The two research trajectories are: (i) what is the nature of kawaii vocalics compared to kawaii visuals, which comprises almost all work on kawaii science so far (theoretical extension); and (ii) what emotions and behaviour do kawaii voices elicit compared to kawaii visuals (methodological extension).
Timeline
April 2024 to March 2028
Principal Investigators & Collaborators
Prof. Katie Seaborn (Science Tokyo)
Dr. Jun Kato (AIST)
Dr. Mayu Koike (Science Tokyo) (left in December 2025)
Dr. Xiuzhu Gu (Science Tokyo) (joined in December 2025)
Funding & Web
JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research B (KAKENHI Kiban B)
Collaboration
ロボットの芳香
Aromanoidics
We explored people's mental models of robot scent: imagined and real. To this end, we conducted exploratory human participant research on scent-to-robot matching and controlled experiments of different scents for different robots. We aimed to spark research on robot aroma and olfactory interaction. The results may be used in the design of robots that work closely with people, such as in the workplace, in the home, as (aroma)therapeutic robots, and in customer service settings, especially at storefronts.
Timeline
June 2023 to June 2024
Principal Investigators & Collaborators
Prof. Katie Seaborn (Science Tokyo)
Prof. Gentiane Venture (The University of Tokyo)
Funding & Web
Independent
偏見に対抗する音声
Voice Against Bias
We explored the use of a virtual assistant with the voice of an older adult as a novel method of reducing implicit ageism. Such cognitive biases, as natural functions of the human mind, are influenced by the external world in positive and negative ways. Through co-design methodologies, intergenerational user studies, and long-term "in the wild" evaluations, we examined whether voice assistant "elders" could shift biases in a prosocial direction.
Timeline
April 2021 to March 2025
Principal Investigators & Collaborators
Prof. Katie Seaborn (Science Tokyo)
Funding & Web
JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (JSPS KAKENHI Wakate)
Collaboration
プロジェクト・エレミ
Project Elemi
Our goal was to create and evaluate Elemi, an "exoskeleton for the mind." In short, Elemi is an AI-powered intelligent support system designed to augment metacognition in social media environments. Built with and for the public, Elemi helps people grapple with the misinformation crisis online by leveraging a range of evidence-based realtime strategies, from blurring out known misinformation to prompting reflection before consuming suspicious content.
Timeline
September 2020 to March 2022
Principal Investigators & Collaborators
Prof. Jacqueline Urakami (Science Tokyo)
Prof. Hiroki Oura (Science Tokyo / Tokyo University of Science)
Dr. Yeongdae Kim (Project Researcher, Science Tokyo)
Funding & Web
