Masaki Kuribayashi 

Ph.D. student (2nd 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

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

早稲田大学小野梓記念学術賞(Azusa Ono memorial award), Mar. 2021

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

Text to Blind Motion Project

Built and analyzed motion & text dataset of motion of blind people.

Accepted to NeurIPS 2024. Coming soon.

[Neurips 2024] [DOI] [PDF] [Poster]

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]

Memory-Maze Project

Developed a benchmark and VLN model for guiding bind people.

Ongoing project.

[PDF] [Poster]

PathFinder Project

Developed a map-less navigation system on a suitcase-shaped robot for blind people to navigate unfamiliar buildings.

Accepted to CHI2023.

[CHI 2023] [DOI] [PDF] [Slides]

Blind Ski Simulator Project

A project to make ski simulators accessible for blind people.

Accepted to Augmented Humans 2023.

[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.

[Mobile HCI 2022] [DOI] [PDF] [Slides]

A picture of blind man using LineChaser.

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

[Link]


[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


Publications

Full Papers and Journals

[F1] 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]

[F2] 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) 

[Mobile HCI 2022] [Paper] [DOI] [Slides]

[F3] 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).

[CHI 2023] [Paper] [Slides]

[F4] 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). 

[Augmented Humans 2023] [DOI] [PDF]

[F5] 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

[F6] 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) 

[F7] Hee Jae Kim, Kathakoli Sengupta, Masaki Kuribayashi, Hernisa Kacorri, Eshed Ohn-Bar. 2024. Text to Blind Motion.Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS)

[F8] Masaki Kuribayashi, Kohei Uehara, Allan Wang, Daisuke Sato, Simon Chu and Shigeo Morishima. 2024. Memory-Maze: Scenario Driven Benchmark and Visual Language Navigation Model for Guiding Blind People, arXiv.
[DOI]

Short Papers and Posters

[S1] 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).

 [Mobiquitous2021] [PDF] [Poster]

[S2] 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).

[Siggraph Asia 2022] [DOI] [PDF]

[S3] 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).

[CVPR2023 Workshop][Paper]

[S4] 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).

[Assistive Robotics]

[S5] 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)

[UrbanAccess]

Japanese Papers

[J1] 栗林雅*, 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]

[J2] 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)

[WISS2021] [PDF] [Slide]

[J3] 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)

[WISS2022] [PDF]

[J4] 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) 

[INTERACTION2023] [PDF]

[J5] 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)

[WISS2023]

[J6] 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)

[WISS2023]

[J7] 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.

Academic Service

Assistants to Local Chairs, Organizing Committee of CHI2025

External Reviewer of ASSETS, CHI, IMWUT, 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

[Twitter][Google Scholar][LinkedIn]