# Projects — Shieru Suzuki

Last updated: 2026-09-13

## ChanceOperator (2024–2025)

A system that induces non-self-initiated playing movements by electrical muscle stimulation and examines improvisers' responses and preparation

- Field: Electrical muscle stimulation / improvisation / HCI
- Role: First author; design and implementation
- URL: https://cl-land.pages.dev/en/projects/chanceoperator/

A system that involuntarily moves the fingers and elbow of a performer improvising over a looped audio track by electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), producing playing at timings the performer did not initiate.

A preliminary study examined the performer's experience and behavioral strategies in responding to the stimulation after the fact; presented orally at the 10th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Ecological Psychology (2026).

### Specifications

- Hardware: Custom 3-channel EMS circuit (Push / Release / Jump)
- Instruments: Ableton Push 2, AKAI LPD8
- Software: Ableton Live, SuperCollider, Python

### Operation

- Input: Track tempo; triggers at random timing
- Output: EMS bursts induce finger press, release, and elbow flexion, operating audio effects
- Intervention strength: Continuously adjustable by the performer
- Safety: The unstimulated hand can stop stimulation immediately and return to manual playing

### Videos

- ChanceOperator demo: https://youtu.be/AOMQ2Akv7j4

### Outputs

- 身体アクチュエーション技術と協働して即興演奏する音楽家の体験と行動戦略─予備的検討 — Japanese Society for Ecological Psychology, 10th Annual Meeting (reviewed). DOI: https://doi.org/10.24807/jep.18.1_55

## ExudedVestibule (2022–2025)

Enhancing cutaneous haptics at several body sites by synchronizing galvanic vestibular stimulation with wind

- Field: Galvanic vestibular stimulation / mid-air haptics / HCI
- Role: First author; design and implementation
- URL: https://cl-land.pages.dev/en/projects/exudedvestibule/

A system that extends air-cannon mid-air haptics with galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS). When GVS induces a sense of body sway and wind is presented in synchrony, the perceived intensity of the wind increases.

Wind arrival and the induced sway are synchronized to ±2 ms. A GVS hardware kit was also published in HardwareX (2025).

### Specifications

- Configuration: Air cannon + galvanic vestibular stimulation (GVS)
- Hardware: Custom GVS device (48 g), air cannon
- Control: Arduino, Python, BLE
- Method: Threshold measurement, motion capture

### Operation

- Input: Automatic triggering and synchronization by the system
- Output: Enhanced airflow perception
- Synchronization: ±2 ms

### Videos

- ExudedVestibule (SIGGRAPH 2023 demo): https://youtu.be/cyJfiS5AyeE
- Viewing experience at a pavilion, Expo 2025 Osaka: https://youtu.be/PNa3F1HVh8M

### Outputs

- ExudedVestibule: Enhancing Mid-air Haptics through Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation — ACM SIGGRAPH 2023 Posters. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3588028.3603648
- Design and evaluation of a voltage-controlled current source for galvanic vestibular stimulation research — HardwareX 22 (Journal). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ohx.2025.e00647
- ACM SIGGRAPH 2023 Student Research Competition, semi-finalist (top 16%)
- Application: a pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka — a viewing experience adding a sense of sway to footage of life aboard a ship (2025)

## BOS Airflow Visualization (2019–2021)

Visualizing air-density changes around the body with background-oriented schlieren, and a real-time FPGA processing demo

- Field: Flow visualization / FPGA / HCI
- Role: First author; design and implementation
- URL: https://cl-land.pages.dev/en/projects/bos/

Air-density changes around the body are visualized with the background-oriented schlieren (BOS) method; interaction with objects and humans based on the visualized flow was reported at the international conference HCII 2021.

Real-time processing on an FPGA (Zynq) was implemented in Verilog.

### Specifications

- Method: Background-oriented schlieren (BOS)
- Software: Python, Jupyter Notebook
- Hardware: Real-time processing on FPGA (Zynq)
- HDL: Verilog 2001
- Capture: Interchangeable-lens camera
- Output: Density gradient (spatial) mapped to grayscale

### Videos

- Case study: https://youtu.be/DjbdIgu7dPY
- Real-time BOS visualization on FPGA: https://youtu.be/KbkI_YWRnuc

### Outputs

- Interaction with objects and humans based on visualized flow using a background-oriented schlieren method — HCII 2021 (LNCS, Springer). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78468-3_9
- Presentation: Campus OJT Hardware Course, University of Tsukuba — real-time BOS density-field visualization on FPGA

## Noisy Object (2019)

A media apparatus that gives a physical object, by mechanical motion, the appearance of video noise

- Field: Media apparatus / kinetic
- Role: Creator
- URL: https://cl-land.pages.dev/en/projects/noisyobject/

The behavior of video noise and glitches is implemented as the motion of a physical object. The object changes continuously but appears discrete to the eye.

### Videos

- The Presence of Noise Signs: https://youtu.be/XA2NKwM3xVo

### Outputs

- Grand Prize, Sobo Award, University of Tsukuba