Yukari Konishi
Japan
CAREER Enrolled in April 2015; Completed master’s degree in March 2017
I studied information science as an undergraduate and entered KMD for my graduate studies because I wanted to conduct research on how to create meaningful experiences leveraging this technology. While at KMD, I belonged to the Embodied Media Project team, where we collaborated with Enhance and Rhizomatiks on a project titled “Synesthesia Suit,” a multi-sensory, full-body experience of the VR game Rez Infinite. How do we create an immersive ex- perience for the player? How do we make players feel pleasure or discomfort and on which part of their body through the vibrations of the suit? How do we create a system that can deliver vibrations to the whole body? These are the questions that occupied me constantly as I conducted my research day and night in the lab. During the second year of my master’s program, I partici- pated in more than 20 demonstrations and conference presentations, both in Japan and overseas, and conducted proof of concept (PoC) of the product.
I joined a game company after graduation and I am currently involved in the development of system software, SDKs (software development kits) and accessories for the video game consoles. As an engineer, I am able to utilize the skills I have developed at KMD, while maintaining a design perspective on what kind of experience to deliver to users and creators.
(This article was written in March 2024.)