Masaki Kuribayashi
Ph.D. student (Final year) in Waseda University, Morishima lab.
My research interest is Accessibility (Navigation for blind people) and visual language navigation.
I am funded by JSPS Gakushin as a Research Fellow of Yong Scientists until 2026 (DC1).
Please contact me at my e-mail address or refer to my CV if you are interested!
Enjoy drinking beer (IPA), watching&playing rugby, playing with my parakeet, and snowboarding!
I am expected to obtain a Ph.D. degree in Engineering in March 2026.
I am actively looking for a job after graduation. Please let me know if there is any opportunity!
Preferred location of work: Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States.
News
03. Apr. 2025, My co-authored paper has been recognized as a honorable mention by CHI2025!
05. Mar. 2025, I was awarded a Ono Azusa Memorial Award by Waseda University! Also, my co-authored paper has been awarded a Ono Azusa Memorial Award!
21. Feb. 2025, One paper has been accepted to AHs 2025!
17. Jan. 2025. Two papers have been accepted to CHI 2025!
30. Sep. 2024. One paper has been accepted to Neurips 2024!
18. Jun. 2024. Two papers have been accepted to MobileHCI 2024!
11. Nov. 2023. I will be serving as an Assistant of Local Chair, Organizing Committee for CHI2025, which will be held in Yokohama, Japan.
14. Oct. 2023. I have been part of a video from GitHub interviewing Chieko Asakawa, one of my mentors. See the video here.
Work Experience
Apr.2023- Current: Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (DC1)
Aug. 2024- Current: Researcher, Miraikan Accessibility Lab, Miraikan - The National Museum of Merging Science and Innovation
Jan. 2024- May. 2025: Visiting Researcher, H2X lab, Boston University, Advisor: Eshed Ohn-Bar
Apr. 2021 - Jan. 2024: Research Intern, IBM Research - Tokyo, Advisor: Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Tatsuya Ishihara
Jun. 2022 - Sept. 2022: Visiting Researcher, Cognitive Assistance Lab, Carnegie Mellon University, Advisor: Daisuke Sato, Chieko Asakawa
Awards, Fellowships and Scholarship
Awards
2020年度 早稲田大学小野梓記念学術賞(Azusa Ono memorial award 2020), Mar. 2021
2024年度 早稲田大学小野梓記念学術賞(Azusa Ono memorial award 2024), Mar. 2025
WISS最優秀論文賞(WISS best paper award), Dec. 2020
Fellowships and Scholarships
Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC1) JSPS, Accepted for Apr. 2023 - Mar. 2026 (日本学術振興会 特別研究員DC1)
Scholarship for Outstanding Master Students, Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), Apr. 2021 - Mar. 2023. (日本学生支援機構 奨学金 全額返済免除 )
Isao Okawa Scholarship for Information Technology Science, Mar. 2023 (大川功情報通信学術奨学金)
Visiting support from Super Global University (SGU), ICT & Robotics, Waseda University, Jan. 2024. - May. 2025.
Scholarship for short-term study abroad, Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), Jan. 2024. - May. 2025.
Travel support from The Telecommunications Advancement Foundation to MobileHCI 2024 (Melbourne), Oct. 2024.
Research Project
AI-Powered Mail Draft System Project
Developed a system to assist people in drafting emails with AI.
Accepted to CHI 2025. Led by Yusuke Miura.
Built and analyzed motion & text dataset of motion of blind people.
Accepted to NeurIPS 2024. Led by Hee Jay Kim.
[Neurips 2024] [DOI] [PDF] [Poster] [Data]
Developed an LLM-integrated system for blind people to enjoy shopping malls.
Accepted to MobileHCI 2024.
[Mobile HCI 2024] [DOI] [PDF] [Slides]
Developed an indoor navigation system that utilizes floor map information.
Accepted to MobileHCI 2024.
[Mobile HCI 2024] [DOI] [PDF] [Slides]
PathFinder Project
Developed a map-less navigation system on a suitcase-shaped robot for blind people to navigate unfamiliar buildings.
Accepted to CHI2023.
Blind Ski Simulator Project
A project to make ski simulators accessible for blind people.
Accepted to Augmented Humans 2023. Led by Yusuke Miura.
[Augmented Humans 2023] [DOI] [PDF] [Slides]
Corridor-Walker Project
Developed a map-less navigation system on a smartphone for blind people to avoid obstacles and recognize intersections.
Accepted to Mobile HCI 2022.
Developed a smartphone-based navigation system for blind people to stand in line.
Accepted to CHI 2021.
[CHI 2021] [DOI] [PDF] [Slides] [Presentation]
Talks
[T1] 栗林雅希, アクセシビリティ研究紹介と受験体験談, 香港日本人学校
Masaki Kuribayashi, "Introduction to Accessibility Research and My Experience of “Juken”", Hong Kong Japanese School
[T2] Masaki Kuribayashi, "PathFinder: Designing a Map-less Navigation System for Blind People in Unfamiliar Buildings", Top Conference Session, Workshop on Interactive Systems and Softwares (WISS2023)
[Link] [Slide]
[T3] Masaki Kuribayashi, "PathFinder: Designing a Map-less Navigation System for Blind People in Unfamiliar Buildings", Top Conference Session, FIT2024
[T4] 栗林雅希, 研究紹介：視覚障害者のための地図なし案内システム, A11y Meetup
Masaki Kuribayashi, "Research Introduction; Map-less Navigation System for Blind People", A11y Meetup, Cybozu, Japan
[Link]
[T5] 栗林雅希, PathFinder：視覚障害者のための事前準備した地図を必要としない案内ロボット
Masaki Kuribayashi, "PathFinder: Designing a Map-less Navigation System for Blind People in Unfamiliar Buildings", GCLS, University of Tokyo
[T6] 栗林雅希, WanderGuide: 視覚障害者がどこでも散策を楽しむためのスーツケース型案内ロボット, 市民公開講座 / 横浜市MICE次世代育成事業「CHI 2025 シンポジウム」
Masaki Kuribayashi, "WanderGuide: Indoor Map-less Robotic Guide for Exploration by Blind People", CHI 2025 Symposium
[Link]
Publications
Full Papers and Journals
[1] Masaki Kuribayashi*, Seita Kayukawa*, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, and Shigeo Morishima (* - equal contribution). 2021. LineChaser: A Smartphone-Based Navigation System for Blind People to Stand in Line. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021).
早稲田大学小野梓記念学術賞(Azusa Ono memorial award) [CHI2021] [DOI] [English Paper] [English Presentation]
[2] Masaki Kuribayashi, Seita Kayukawa, Jayakorn Vongkulbhisal, Daisuke Sato, Chieko Asakawa, Hironobu Takagi, Shigeo Morishima. 2022. Corridor-Walker: Mobile Indoor Walking Assistance for Blind People to Avoid Obstacles and Recognize Intersections. In Proceedings of the 24th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. (Mobile HCI 2022)
[3] Masaki Kuribayashi, Tatsuya Ishihara, Daisuke Sato, Jayakorn Vongkulbhisal, Karnik Ram, Seita Kayukawa, Hironobu Takagi, Shigeo Morishima, and Chieko Asakawa. 2023. PathFinder: Designing a Map-less Navigation System for Blind People in Unfamiliar Buildings. In Proceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2023).
[4] Yusuke Miura, Erwin Wu, Masaki Kuribayashi, Hideki Koike, Shigeo Morishima. 2023. Exploration of Sonification Feedback for People with Visual Impairment to Use Ski Simulator. Augmented Humans 2023 (AHs 2023).
[5] Yuka Kaniwa*, Masaki Kuribayashi*, Seita Kayukawa, Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Shigeo Morishima (* - equal contribution). 2024. ChitChatGuide: Conversational Interaction Using Large Language Models for Assisting People with Visual Impairments to Explore a Shopping Mall. In Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. (Mobile HCI 2024)
[6] Masaya Kubota*, Masaki Kuribayashi*, Seita Kayukawa, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Shigeo Morishima (* - equal contribution). 2024. Snap&Nav: Smartphone-based Indoor Navigation System For Blind People via Floor Map Analysis and Intersection Detection. In Proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. (Mobile HCI 2024)
[7] Hee Jae Kim, Kathakoli Sengupta, Masaki Kuribayashi, Hernisa Kacorri, Eshed Ohn-Bar. 2024. Text to Blind Motion.Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)
[8] Toshihiro Hirano, Yichen Peng, Masaki Kuribayashi, Erwin Wu, Shigeo Morishima and Hideki Koike. 2025. SlopeNav: A Realtime Wearable Blind Ski Assistance System with Adaptive Path Planning for Simulated Environments. Augmented Humans. (AHs2025).
[9] Masaki Kuribayashi, Kohei Uehara, Allan Wang, Shigeo Morishima and Chieko Asakawa. 2025. WanderGuide: Indoor Map-less Robotic Guide for Exploration by Blind People, In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025).
[10] Yusuke Miura, Chi-Lan Yang, Masaki Kuribayashi, Keigo Matsumoto, Hideki Kuzuoka, and Shigeo Morishima. 2025. Understanding and Supporting Formal Email Exchange by Answering AI-Generated Questions, In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2025). Honorable Mention
Short Papers and Posters
[11] Masaki Kuribayashi, Seita Kayukawa, Jayakorn Vongkulbhisal, Daisuke Sato, Chieko Asakawa, Hironobu Takagi, Shigeo Morishima. 2021. Designing a Smartphone-Based Assistance System for Blind People to Recognize Intersections and Obstacles in Indoor Corridors. Mobile and Ubiquitous Systems (Mobiquitous 2021).
[12] Yusuke Miura, Masaki Kuribayashi, Erwin Wu, Hideki Koike, Shigeo Morishima. 2022. A Study on Sonification Method of Simulator-Based Ski Training for People with Visual Impairment. SIGGRAPH Asia 2022 Posters (SA '22 Posters).
[13] Masaki Kuribayashi, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Shigeo Morishima. 2023.Textual and Directional Sign Recognition Algorithm for People with Visual Impairment by Linking Texts and Arrows. The IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition AVA: Accessibility, Vision, and Autonomy Meet Workshop (CVPR 2023 Workshop).
[14] Masaki Kuribayashi, Kohei Uehara, Allan Wang, Daisuke Sato, Simon Chu and Shigeo Morishima. 2024. Memory-Maze: Benchmark and Visual Language Navigation Model for Guiding Blind People. Robotics: Science and Systems Assistive Robotics Workshop (RSS 2024 Workshop).
[15] Hee Jae Kim, Kathakoli Sengupta, Masaki Kuribayashi, Hernisa Kacorri, Eshed Ohn-Bar. 2024. A Multi-Modal Dataset for Urban Navigation by Blind Individuals. (ASSETS 2024 Workshop)
Japanese Papers
[16] 栗林雅希*, 粥川青汰*, 髙木啓伸, 浅川智恵子, 森島繁生 (* - equal contribution). LineChaser: 視覚障碍者が列に並ぶためのスマートフォン型支援システム.インタラクティブシステムとソフトウェアに関するワークショップ (WISS). 2020. (査読あり, ロング口頭発表)
WISS最優秀論文賞(WISS best paper award) [WISS2020] [PDF] [Slide] [Presentation Video]
[17] 栗林雅希, 粥川青汰, Jayakorn Vongkulbhisal, 浅川智恵子, 佐藤大介, 髙木啓伸, 森島繁生. Corridor-Walker: 視覚障害者が障害物を回避し交差点を認識するためのスマートフォン型屋内歩行支援システム. インタラクティブシステムとソフトウェアに関するワークショップ (WISS). 2021. (査読あり, ロング口頭発表)
[18] 三浦悠輔, Wu Erwin, 栗林雅希, 小池英樹, 森島繁生. 視覚障害者単独でのスキーシミュレータ利用のためのフィードバックシステム. インタラクティブシステムとソフトウェアに関するワークショップ (WISS). 2022. (ポスター発表)
[19] 三浦悠輔, Wu Erwin, 栗林雅希, 小池英樹, 森島繁生. 視覚障害者がスキーシミュレータを用いるための聴覚フィードバックの検討. インタラクション. 2023. (査読あり, 口頭発表)
[20] 久保田雅也*, 栗林雅希*, 粥川青汰, 髙木啓伸, 浅川智恵子, 森島繁生 (* - equal contribution). フロアマップ解析と交差点検出を利用した視覚障害者のための案内システム. インタラクティブシステムとソフトウェアに関するワークショップ (WISS). 2023. (ポスター発表)
[21] 神庭有花*, 栗林雅希*, 粥川青汰, 佐藤大介, 髙木啓伸, 浅川智恵子, 森島繁生 (* - equal contribution). ショッピングセンターにおける散策体験向上を目的とした大規模言語モデルを用いた視覚障害者のためのナビゲーションシステム. インタラクティブシステムとソフトウェアに関するワークショップ (WISS). 2023. (ポスター発表)
[22] 久保田雅也*, 栗林雅希*, 粥川青汰, 髙木啓伸, 浅川智恵子, 森島繁生 (* - equal contribution). フロアマップ解析と交差点検出を用いた不慣れな屋内空間における視覚障害者のための案内システム. 情報処理学会第208回ヒューマンコンピュータインタラクション研究会. 2024.
[HCI研究会]
[23] 栗林 雅希, 上原 康平, Allan Wang, 森島 繁生, 浅川 智恵子. 視覚障害者の探索を支援する事前準備した地図を必要としない案内ロボット. インタラクティブシステムとソフトウェアに関するワークショップ (WISS). 2024. (ポスター発表)
[WISS2024]
[24] 三浦 悠輔, 楊 期蘭, 栗林 雅希, 松本 啓吾, 葛岡 英明, 森島 繁生. AIによる質問を利用したメール返信支援システムの評価. インタラクティブシステムとソフトウェアに関するワークショップ (WISS). 2024. (ポスター発表) Helpfeel賞受賞
[WISS2024]
Media (Selected)
IBM Research Blog New smartphone app to navigate blind people to stand in lines with distances. May 7. 2021
HDBLOG.it In coda e distanziati: app per smartphone aiuta i non vedenti. May 10. 2021
sina新浪科技 IBM研发LineChaser应用 帮助盲人在排队时与他人保持距离. May 10. 2021
SLASHGEAR Smartphone app helps blind people stand in socially distanced lines. May 10. 2021
HT Tech IBM's latest app helps visually impaired users stand in socially distanced lines. May 10. 2021
Global Accessibility News IBM Researchers Develop Smartphone App to Enable Social Distancing. May 11. 2021
CNET 視覚障がい者もソーシャルディスタンスを保って列に並べる--IBMが支援アプリを開発. May 11. 2021
AXIS Web Magazine 視覚障碍者が列に並ぶことができる スマートフォン型支援システム「LineChaser」. May 13. 2021
Academic Service
Assistants to Local Chairs, Organizing Committee of CHI2025
Associate Chair of CHI LBW 2025
External Reviewer of ASSETS, CHI, IMWUT, and Mobile HCI
Contact
Address: 55N406, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 169-0072, Japan
E-mail: rugbykuribayashi@toki.waseda.jp
Phone: (+81) 070-4455-3236