Citizen participation workshops are widely used by the Japanese government to incorporate public inputs into policy-making. The KJ method in which participants write ideas on sticky notes and organize them on a large sheet of paper is commonly used. However, the visibility of grouped ideas decreases as the number of notes increases, hindering the interpretation and organization of discussions. To address this issue, this study proposes a hybrid analog-digital support system. After generating ideas with sticky notes, users photograph and upload the sheet. The system automatically detects and extracts notes, allowing users to group them using a simple interface and view the results in a tabular format. The evaluation experiments showed high detection accuracy using real workshop images and a fine-tuned object detection model. A user study with students indicated improved visibility compared with traditional methods. This system enhances the clarity and manageability of group work and facilitates effective citizen-driven policy-making processes.

1. [1] C. Kim and K.-Y. Nam, “Policymaking and the Design Workshop: A New Business Direction,” Design Management Review, Vol.28, Issue 4, pp. 14-20, 2017. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/drev.12096
2. [2] R. Scupin, “The KJ Method: A Technique for Analyzing Data Derived from Japanese Ethnology,” Human Organization, Vol.56, No.2, pp. 233-237, 1997.
3. [3] A. A. A. Cabrera, H. Komoto, and T. Tomiyama, “Supporting Co-Design of Physical and Control Architectures of Mechatronic Systems,” ASME 2011 Int. Design Engineering Technical Conf. and Computers and Information in Engineering Conf., pp. 1055-1062, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1115/DETC2011-48200
4. [4] A. Colle, K. Donaldson, and M. Dragone, “Co-design methodology for rapid prototyping of modular robots in care settings,” Frontiers in Robotics and AI, Vol.12, Article No.1581506, 2025. https://doi.org/10.3389/frobt.2025.1581506
5. [5] S. Amershi, D. Weld, M. Vorvoreanu, A. Fourney, B. Nushi, P. Collisson, J. Suh, S. Iqbal, P. N. Bennett, K. Inkpen, J. Teevan, R. Kikin-Gil, and E. Horvitz, “Guidelines for Human-AI Interaction,” Proc. of the 2019 CHI Conf. on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI ’19), Article No.3, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300233
6. [6] K. Kawada, K. Okamoto, T. Tamai, and Y. Ohnishi, “A Study on Developmentally Appropriate Programming Education Learning Materials for Lower-Elementary School Students,” J. Robot. Mechatron., Vol.31, No.3, pp. 441-451, 2019. https://doi.org/10.20965/jrm.2019.p0441
7. [7] J. Munemori and Y. Nagasawa, “GUNGEN: Groupware for a new idea generation support system,” Inf. Softw. Technol., Vol.38, Issue 3, pp. 213-220, 1996. https://doi.org/10.1016/0950-5849(95)01075-0
8. [8] K. Viriyayudhakorn, “Creativity assistants and social influences in KJ-method creativity support groupware,” Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, 2013.
9. [9] S. Tanaka and M. Miura, “Collaborative Group Label Work System Based on Web Technology,” 2017 6th IIAI Int. Congress on Advanced Applied Informatics (IIAI-AAI), pp. 915-918, 2017. https://doi.org/10.1109/IIAI-AAI.2017.141
10. [10] M. Miura and S. Kunifuji, “A Tabletop Interface Using Controllable Transparency Glass for Collaborative Card-Based Creative Activity,” 12th Int. Conf. on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information and Engineering Systems, Part II, pp. 855-862, 2008. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85565-1_106
11. [11] M. Miura, T. Sugihara, and S. Kunifuji, “GKJ: Group KJ Method Support System Utilizing Digital Pens,” IEICE Trans. Inf. Syst., Vol.E94-D, Issue 3, pp. 456-464, 2011. https://doi.org/10.1587/transinf.E94.D.456
12. [12] A. Kunz, S. Dehlin, T. Piazza, M. Fjeld, and T. Olofsson, “Collaborative whiteboard: Towards remote collaboration and interaction in construction design,” Proc. of the CIB W78 2010 27th Int. Conf., pp. 132-140, 2010.
13. [13] A. Lucero, “Using Affinity Diagrams to Evaluate Interactive Prototypes,” J. Abascal, S. Barbosa, M. Fetter, T. Gross, P. Palanque, and M. Winckler (Eds.), “Human-Computer Interaction – INTERACT 2015,” pp. 231-248, Springer, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22668-2_19
14. [14] R. Varghese and Sambath M., “YOLOv8: A Novel Object Detection Algorithm with Enhanced Performance and Robustness,” 2024 Int. Conf. on Advances in Data Engineering and Intelligent Computing Systems (ADICS), 2024. https://doi.org/10.1109/ADICS58448.2024.10533619
15. [15] N. Kajitani, Y. Oyamada, M. Mori, and H. Maenami, “Idea grouping support system,” Int. Conf. on Software Technology and Engineering (ICSTE), 2023.
16. [16] T. F. Iskandar, M. Lubis, T. F. Kusumasari, and A. R. Lubis, “Comparison between client-side and server-side rendering in the web development,” IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering, Vol.801, Article No.012136, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899X/801/1/012136