Soft Entrainment: Co-emergence of “Maai” and Entrainment by Rhythm Controller - Emotional Engineering - page 73

Rhythm of purposive action (punch)
Rhythm of pre-stored action (subconscious bodily action)
Fig. 2 Rhythm of purposive action and pre-stored action
Maai with opponents by being on their toes while keeping rhythm prior to pur-
posive action, as seen in sports such as boxing and baseball (Fig. 2 ). In this
manuscript, we call such a subconscious bodily action “pre-stored action.” In the
Japanese fencing art Kendo, in which it is important to co-create Maai with the
opponent, players fl fluctuate the tip of their swords prior to purposive action in order
to respond to the opponent's unpredictable action and thus co-create Maai with
opponent [ 12 ] . This shows that the rhythmic creation of pre-stored action both
relates to the co-emergence of Maai and provides for the possibility of creating
action. Consequently, we develop a system for examining how the entrainment of
pre-stored action relates to the improvisational co-emergence of Maai.
However, it is dif ! cult to separate pre-stored action (subconscious bodily action)
and purposive action because both actions are expressed in one body (Fig. 2 ) .
Therefore, we focus on communication using avatars in virtual space and develop a
rhythm controller for extracting pre-stored action from controller operation (Fig. 3 ) .
In light of the abovementioned conditions, there are three requirements for the
rhythm controller.
1. Ability to manipulate the avatar through the rhythmic operation that precedes
avatar motion
2. Ability to move the avatar back and forth through rhythmic operation
3. Ability to create a diversity of rhythms depending on the situation or inde-
pendently change both the cycle and amplitude of the rhythm controller oper-
ation with freedom.
We need requirement 1 to make the rhythmic controller operation corresponding to
pre-stored action precede purposive action (avatar motion). We need requirement 2