Masatake Higashi
Papers
6
Total Citations
96
H-Index
4
About
Masatake Higashi is a pioneering researcher in socially assistive robotics, with a focus on developing human-robot interaction systems for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). His work centers on using robots to improve imitation skills—a critical developmental milestone often impaired in autism—through algorithms that mimic and evaluate human motion. His most cited paper, "Mimicking and Evaluating Human Motion to Improve the Imitation Skill of Children with Autism Through a Robot" (2011, 60 citations), demonstrates a robot’s ability to assess and enhance a child’s imitative behavior in real time. Higashi also introduced a novel framework for transferring natural human gestures to robots using symbolic postures, eliminating the need for training data, as detailed in his 2010 work (5 citations). His earlier contributions include unsupervised approaches to robot joint attention (2009, 4 citations) and social learning mechanisms for humanoid robots (2008, 3 citations), as well as emotion-monitoring systems for adaptive games for children with mild autism (2007, 3 citations). By bridging robotics, cognitive science, and therapeutic intervention, Higashi’s work has laid foundational groundwork for robots as tools in developmental therapy, with direct implications for improving social communication in children with ASD.
Research Focus
Key Achievements
Top Papers
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- 2
- 3The Extraction of Symbolic Postures to Transfer Social Cues into Robot5 citations · 2010
- 4Unsupervised approach to acquire robot joint attention4 citations · 2009
- 5Development of a social learning mechanism for a humanoid robot3 citations · 2008
- 6