Masaki Kuribayashi

HCI Researcher at Woven By Toyota

Interest: Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Accessibility, Human-Centered AI

News

Aug. 2026: One paper is accepted to VRST 2026!
Aug. 2026: Will Serve as CHI 2027 Associate Chair.
Aug. 2026: One paper is accepted to ASSETS 2026 Poster!
July. 2026: Will Serve as UIST 2027 Poster Associate Chair.
July. 2026: One paper is accepted to UIST 2026!
Apr. 2026: Joined Woven By Toyota as an HCI Researcher!

Bio

Apr. 2026 - Current: HCI Researcher at Woven By Toyota
May. 2026 - Current: Research Fellow at Waseda University
Apr. 2023 - Mar. 2026: Ph.D. Student at Waseda University
Apr. 2023 - Mar. 2026: Research Fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (DC1)
Aug. 2024 - Mar. 2026: Part Time Researcher, Miraikan Accessibility Lab, Miraikan - The National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation
Aug. 2025 - Oct. 2025: Intern, Woven By Toyota
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

Projects

* indicates equal contribution.

Virtual Exploration for Blind People to Perceive Geometric and Spatial Features

VRST 2026

Masaya Kubota, Masaki Kuribayashi*, Renato Ribeiro*, and Shigeo Morishima

ACME: A Multi-Cultural, Multi-Embodiment Social-Navigation Dataset

arXiv

Shashank et al

SnowEcho: End-to-End Blind Skiing Assistance System Using Spatial Audio for Simulated Dynamic Slope

UIST 2026

Yuta Taguchi, Toshihiro Hirano, Masaki Kuribayashi, Yichen Peng, Chen-Chieh Liao, Erwin Wu, Hideki Koike, and Shigeo Morishima

Map-less Navigation for Blind People

PhD Thesis

Masaki Kuribayashi

Robot-Assisted Group Tours for Blind People

CHI 2026

Yaxin Hu, Masaki Kuribayashi, Allan Wang, Seita Kayukawa, Daisuke Sato, Bilge Mutlu, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa

How Does Delegation in Social Interaction Evolve Over Time? Navigation with a Robot for Blind People

CHI 2026

Rayna Hata, Masaki Kuribayashi, Allan Wang, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa

Time-Aware Assistive Navigation

ICRA 2026

Masaki Kuribayashi*, Zhongkai Shangguan*, Eshed Ohn-Bar

Memory-Maze: Scenario Driven Visual Language Navigation Benchmark for Guiding Blind People

RA-L 2025

Masaki Kuribayashi*, Kohei Uehara*, Allan Wang, Daisuke Sato, Renato Ribeiro, Simon Chu, and Shigeo Morishima

Understanding and Supporting Formal Email Exchange by Answering AI-Generated Questions

CHI 2025

Yusuke Miura, Chi-Lan Yang, Masaki Kuribayashi, Keigo Matsumoto, Hideki Kuzuoka, and Shigeo Morishima

CHI 2026 Honorable Mention, Azusa Ono Memorial Award

WanderGuide: Indoor Map-less Robotic Guide for Exploration by Blind People

CHI 2025

Masaki Kuribayashi, Kohei Uehara, Allan Wang, Shigeo Morishima, and Chieko Asakawa

Azusa Ono Memorial Award

SlopeNav: A Realtime Wearable Blind Ski Assistance System with Adaptive Path Planning for Simulated Environments

AHs 2025

Toshihiro Hirano, Yichen Peng, Masaki Kuribayashi, Erwin Wu, Shigeo Morishima, and Hideki Koike

Text to Blind Motion

NeurIPS 2024

Hee Jae Kim, Kathakoli Sengupta, Masaki Kuribayashi, Hernisa Kacorri, Eshed Ohn-Bar

Snap&Nav: Smartphone-based Indoor Navigation System For Blind People via Floor Map Analysis and Intersection Detection

MobileHCI 2024

Masaya Kubota*, Masaki Kuribayashi*, Seita Kayukawa, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Shigeo Morishima

ChitChatGuide: Conversational Interaction Using Large Language Models for Assisting People with Visual Impairments to Explore a Shopping Mall

MobileHCI 2024

Yuka Kaniwa*, Masaki Kuribayashi*, Seita Kayukawa, Daisuke Sato, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, Shigeo Morishima

Exploration of Sonification Feedback for People with Visual Impairment to Use Ski Simulator

AHs 2023

Yusuke Miura, Erwin Wu, Masaki Kuribayashi, Hideki Koike, Shigeo Morishima

PathFinder: Designing a Map-less Navigation System for Blind People in Unfamiliar Buildings

CHI 2023

Masaki Kuribayashi, Tatsuya Ishihara, Daisuke Sato, Jayakorn Vongkulbhisal, Karnik Ram, Seita Kayukawa, Hironobu Takagi, Shigeo Morishima, and Chieko Asakawa

Corridor-Walker: Mobile Indoor Walking Assistance for Blind People to Avoid Obstacles and Recognize Intersections

MobileHCI 2022

Masaki Kuribayashi, Seita Kayukawa, Jayakorn Vongkulbhisal, Daisuke Sato, Chieko Asakawa, Hironobu Takagi, Shigeo Morishima

LineChaser: A Smartphone-Based Navigation System for Blind People to Stand in Line

CHI 2021

Masaki Kuribayashi*, Seita Kayukawa*, Hironobu Takagi, Chieko Asakawa, and Shigeo Morishima

Azusa Ono Memorial Award

Exploring Blind People’s Information Needs for Sightseeing Narration Generated by Vision-Language Models

ASSETS 2026 Poster

Arata Ito, Seita Kayukawa, Masaki Kuribayashi, Daisuke Sato, Chieko Asakawa, and Shigeo Morishima

`Thank God I’m Fly!'': A Gyaru Persona Chatbot for Adopting a Positive Mindset to Prevent and Mitigate Negative Emotions

CHI 2026 Posters

Momoka Ikegami, Masaki Kuribayashi, Takuya Kato, Saizo Aoyagi, Tatsunori Hirai

Awards

2020年度早稲田大学小野梓記念学術賞(Azusa Ono memorial award 2020) - Mar. 2021
WISS最優秀論文賞(WISS best paper award) - Dec. 2020
2024年度早稲田大学小野梓記念学術賞(Azusa Ono memorial award 2024) - Mar. 2025

Academic Service

Reviewing

Associate Chair of CHI 2027
Associate Chair of UIST 2026 Poster
Associate Chair of CHI 2025 LBW
External Reviewer of ASSETS, CHI, IMWUT, Mobile HCI, ICRA, UIST, and HRI

Committee Member

WISS2026 Program Committee
Assistants to Local Chairs, Organizing Committee of CHI 2025
Miraikan Accessibility Networking Event Organizer

Fellowships

Research Fellowship for Young Scientists (DC1) JSPS (日本学術振興会特別研究員DC1) - Apr. 2023 - Mar. 2026
Scholarship for Outstanding Master Students Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO) (日本学生支援機構奨学金全額返済免除 ) - Apr. 2021 - Mar. 2023
Isao Okawa Scholarship for Information Technology Science(大川功情報通信学術奨学金) - Mar. 2023
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

Talks

Introduction to Accessibility Research (Hong Kong Japanese School) - May 2023
PathFinder: Designing a Map-less Navigation System for Blind People in Unfamiliar Buildings (Forum on Information Technology (FIT 2024)) - Sep 2024
Research Introduction; Map-less Navigation System for Blind People (A11y Meetup, Cybozu (Japan)) - Feb 2025
PathFinder: Designing a Map-less Navigation System for Blind People in Unfamiliar Buildings (Global Creative Leaders Society, The University of Tokyo) - Mar 2025
WanderGuide: Indoor Map-less Robotic Guide for Exploration by Blind People (CHI 2025 Symposium) - May 2025
Navigation System for Blind People (Creative Japan Session at Siggraph ASIA 2025) - Dec 2025
Accessibility Research for Blind People in the AI Era: What Is Left to Do? (Seminar at Nakamura Lab Meiji University) - May 2026
視覚障害者のMap-less Navigation System実現のための協調インタラクション (SSII 2026 Organized Session 人が使う画像センシング) - Jun 2026