Photographs and CG images are generally rendered using perspective projection. However, we sometimes feel incompatibility when we see these images. This is because the perspective projection image does not always represent the visual impression of real space. We believe that clarifying human visual characteristics will enable us to create more realistic images. A previous study investigated the human perception of size in real space and proposed a magnification-rate function that shows the relationship between the subjective visual size of the object to be drawn and the observation distance. The images that applied the magnification-rate function were closer to the impression in real space than the perspective projection images. However, these results were verified only for single-point perspective landscapes. In this study, we applied the magnification-rate function to images portraying a two-point perspective landscape to investigate the impression of the images. Results show that the magnification transformed images were evaluated to be closer to the impressions in the real space than the perspective projected images. This is similar to the evaluation of the transformed images for one-point perspective landscapes, suggesting that image transformation using the magnification-rate function is effective for two-point perspective landscapes.

Previous study indicated that the simplicity of a visualized situation could play an important role in comprehension and emotion. However, the effect of the art style was never discussed. As an art style with minimalist aesthetic, pixel art’s popularity and value are not well explained. This study is aimed to investigate the difference between pixel and vector art style by comparing one of the visualized situations extracted from previous study and the pixelated counterpart.

166 valid responses were collected (69 males & 97 females). Participants were randomly separated into 2 groups, presented with 2 different art styles. After observing the visualized situation, they filled in a questionnaire asking about their understandings, evoked emotions, how realistic it feels, and how easy for them to picture themselves in the situation. ANOVAs and multiple regression analyses were conducted and results showed that art style did not have a big impact on emotions, whereas for pixel art style, the older the participant is, the easier they could picture themselves being in the situation. Additional analysis using chi-square test found that people tend to believe the situation is in a past era when observing the pixel version. This study revealed the potential impact of pixel art style on people’s comprehension, tricking people to believe it is happening in a past era. This phenomenon should be taken advantage of in not only game design but also other media graphic design scenarios.

Applications operated on smartphones and other devices with a small user interface area on the screen and a large number of functions and contents will inevitably increase the number of operation procedures and make them more complicated. However, compared to the attention paid to information architecture and interaction in realizing intuitive user interfaces, less attention is paid to icons, and there are many examples where generic icons are used. Therefore, when icons and the functions they represent are different for each application, or when icons are unintelligible because of the distance between the user's mental model and the icons, the cognitive burden on the user is amplified, which may affect usability. We compared the usability of icons, one of the GUI elements, by focusing on their metaphors, and showed that the selection of metaphors that are in line with users' mental models has a positive effect on usability by improving the performance of task completion time and the number of errors. This study clarified the influence of the degree of congruence between the metaphor used and the user's mental model on the usability of icons, one of the GUI elements.

When purchasing home interior furniture and accessories, several factors determine what color to choose. People imagine how the item will look when it is actually placed in the room, and anticipate whether it will fit in the room or create the image they want. In order to help people make such decisions in stores and online shopping, we analyzed the relationship between room color and item color.Therefore, we prepared a home interior photo, processed the color of one item in the photo, and asked the subjects about their impressions. The color of the item was picked up from the colors used in the picture to harmonize with the impression of the room. Through the experiment, we found that even the color of a small item can affect the impression of the entire room, and that the color can easily change the impression.

Haptic technology provides users with an experience that is unattainable via audiovisual information alone. Researchers have previously attempted to synchronize tactile information with video to enhance the multimedia experience, although their studies were based on the assumption that visual information is present. Tactile stimuli usually act as additional information for a story and do not normally arouse people’s imagination regarding a story; a door opening, water dripping onto the floor, or someone walking across the floor is usually presented through visual information. In this study, we propose the “Otogi Box,” a cubic haptic interface that tells a story through tactile stimuli. The haptic interface provides a whole new user experience, letting them feel a story unfold in their hands. The interface independently vibrates each of its faces to provide various touch sensations using audio signals, in a manner that fits a specific story. We present “Dwarf’s House” as a demo story, wherein users feel that a dwarf realistically enters and exits the box. For instance, the right face vibrates as if a door is opening when the dwarf opens the door on the right side of the house. User evaluation was conducted to test the basic storytelling capabilities of the interface. The results revealed that the proposed interface could effectively present a simple story through tactile sense without any visual information, and enabled stimulation of users’ imagination in a unique manner.

It is well known that human sensitivity to color and expressive ability varies with age and gender. In addition, the perception, understanding, and comprehension of color vary according to developmental stage and color-related experiences.

This study is one approach to research to clarify the relationship between such "sense of color" as above and the developmental stages of children.

In this study, the coloring behavior of teenage subjects; elementary school, junior high school, and university students, to coloring book images were investigated using iPads. The characteristics of coloring and color schemes used in the coloring books were analyzed in order to explore the relationship with the developmental stages of the children.

The coloring book images; mandala-like patterns, used in the investigation were designed originally based on some preliminary investigations. Also the original palette of colors systematically arranged in hues and tones, was specified in order to quantitatively analyze the characteristics of the colors used in the coloring book.

The results showed that the hues of colors used with high frequency in coloring books changed as the developmental stage progressed, and that the range of tones by the combination of saturation and lightness widened.
It was also found that the color schemes were simple and easy to understand at younger ages, while the complexity of the color schemes increased as the children grew older.

To design affective spaces that promote stabilized living experience and user well-being, it is necessary to consider and be aware of how multiple perceptual information interact and influence the way we perceive space i.e. multimodal perception. This study aims to gain an understanding of how sensory cues influence the emotional evaluation of the spatial design. We analyzed how the change in levels of spatial elements was emotionally perceived in the presence and absence of scent and color. The results from the study presented that both scent and color significantly affected the emotional response to change in levels of spatial elements in different ways. The findings suggest that (1) in the absence of both color and scent, the spatial elements interacted to affect the participants’ moods related to being confused and feeling strained and tensed, (2) in the presence of a cool color (purple) and relaxing scent (lavender), spatial elements interacted to affect the participants’ mood related to feeling strained and tensed, (3) in the presence of a warm color (orange) and stimulating scent (orange), spatial elements interacted to affect the participants’ mood related to being unhappy. The findings of the study are worthy as they provide an insight into the influence of multimodality in spatial perception. They will help establish guidelines for incorporating perceptual information in spatial designs that provide stabilized living experience and enhanced individual well-being.

On the rise of China-chic, diverse trends have surfaced in the Hanfu development because of revivification and innovation. Understanding the perception and acceptance of potential users is vital for Hanfu development as it develops genuine confidence in their national identity and traditional culture. This study investigated and discussed the Kansei aspect of perception and acceptance of users in the appearance and structure of Hanfu. The study aims to grasp of characteristics of Kansei to identify the diverse style of Hanfu images to help designers understand the market needs of Hanfu products style and improve the attractiveness of a product. Two types of Hanfu were selected for evaluation. All data were gathered and analysed using semantic differential methods, descriptive statistics, factor analysis and hierarchical clustering analysis. Results revealed from two kinds of Hanfu: S01 can be categorised as practical and modern traditional Hanfu images, whereas S02 represented original and adequate fashionable Hanfu images. Finally, this paper is the first empirical research in Hanfu using the Kansei engineering method from users' perception and acceptance.

Although mental disorders have become a serious social problem, social stigma such as prejudice and misunderstanding inhibit adequate treatment for the patients. It is important to monitor our internal psychological and emotional states to prevent unconscious progression of mental disorders. This study aims to realize emotion-reacting garments and accessories in real-time, based on a passive and continuous emotion recognition system. Firstly, emotion-reacting fashion design is discussed for intelligent garments and accessories interacting with our body and mind. Next, this paper proposes a systematic design for the emotion-reacting garments and accessories, which uses emotion estimation analyzing facial expressions. To realize this system, a functionally extended collar made of transparent polycarbonate material is designed for integrating with the digital camera modules. Further, this paper discusses how to create physical stimulus on the emotion-reacting garments and accessories. Visual stimuli using RGB LEDs on the intelligent garments and accessories are designed for reflecting the emotions. In terms of audio stimuli, emotion-related keywords are used to select music played in the intelligent garments. Finally, prototypes reacting to emotions are demonstrated.

To retrieve multimodal candidate solutions for real users, we investigated the effectiveness of an interactive evolutionary computation (IEC) method with an artificial bee colony (ABC) algorithm. Using three types of bees (i.e., employed, onlooker, and scout bees), the ABC algorithm retrieves various candidate solutions. Our previous study showed the effectiveness of the IEC with the ABC algorithm while looking at various practical IEC parameters from a numerical simulation using a pseudo-user that imitates user preferences. The results showed that the IEC with the ABC algorithm could retrieve more multimodal candidates than the interactive genetic algorithm (IGA), the previous chief method of IECs. However, we did not examine the effectiveness of the IEC with the ABC algorithm for real users. In this study, we performed experiments to examine the effectiveness of the IEC with the ABC algorithm for real users using running shoe designs as an evaluation object. The investigations compared multimodal candidate solutions using the IGA method as a comparison tool, retrieving the performance of both methods. To evaluate candidates, we employed user gaze information to reduce user evaluation loads. The results showed that the evaluation time for evaluating candidates of the IEC with the ABC algorithm was shorter than that of the IGA method. Moreover, we confirmed that the IEC with the ABC algorithm could retrieve more multimodal candidate solutions than the IGA method.

We investigated the effect of men’s dress shirts on impressions of wearers’ motivation and performance in the workplace, and appearance. A ready-made commercial shirt was used as a reference. Four types of shirts associated with high status (a high-priced ready-made shirt, a custom-made shirt, a high-end brand shirt, and a luxury brand shirt) were presented either alone or with neckties, on identical mannequins. Fifty-one Japanese university students in their 20s and 85 office workers in their 20s to 60s evaluated their impressions of the shirts. We provided no information about the shirts. Compared with the standard shirt, the evaluations of some shirts associated with high status were higher in both groups of participants. However, the presence of wrinkles was associated with lower evaluations, even for luxury brand shirts. Wearing a necktie improved participants’ evaluation of appearance and impression for all shirts. Overall, the results revealed that dress shirts affected participants’ impression of wearers’ motivation and performance.

The judgement of bodily attractiveness has been reported to be associated with the psychological process for detecting physiological health- and fertility- related features. Femininity of female gait is also related to its attractiveness. However, it is unclear whether the femininity is always attractive in female gait, and what physical characteristics are perceived as attractive and/or feminine. In this study, we aimed to understand the root of the attractiveness of human movement by examining the relationship between attractiveness and femininity in female gait. We first created 30-second gait animations by using 3D motion capture data of 10 female non-models and 7 female runway models, where they walked with barefoot or high heels. Then, 60 observers evaluated the attractiveness and femininity for each animation. We compared the scores of attractiveness (A-scores) and femininity (F-scores) between models and non-models, and we examined the factors related to the evaluation (A-scores and F-scores): walkers height, weight, BMI, and the characteristics of movements. As a result, both A-score and F-score were high for models’ heel gait. On the other hand, in the other conditions, there were two types of attractiveness-femininity relationship: linear relationship (high A-score and F-score, or low A-score and F-score) and unequal relationship (high F-score but low A-score). We also found that walkers‘ weight and lumbar bending motion were associated with the evaluation.

This study tries to investigate the visual perception of footwear with interchangeable uppers, by conducting semantic differential evaluations. Investigators designed six replaceable upper shoes based on casual footwear and able to convert to formal leather shoes. Young women's willingness to buy and fifteen Kansei adjective pairs with reference to the published results were used to evaluate twelve footwear design renderings, based on a seven-point Likert scale. Factor analyses were performed to analyze the differences and factors between two types (casual shoes and after shifting to formal leather shoes). In the factor analysis of footwear styles, five factors were identified for casual shoes: evaluation, attention, fashion, protection, and temperament; and five factors for formal leather shoes: attention, formality, fashion, weight, and protection. Fashion is a crucial factor that influences the willingness of young women to buy shoes, whether they are focusing on casual shoe uppers or dress leather uppers.

Keywords: footwear design, product emotion, customer perception, shoe upper replacement

The purpose of this study was to investigate the symmetry relationship between evaluation of smoothness and roughness of fabrics and the physical factors related to the evaluations, using a set of images obtained by photographing the surfaces of eight fabrics. These fabric surface images were created by setting the distance between the fabric and the camera at approximately 1 m and gradually reducing the distance for each of the eight fabrics. Based on these images, we conducted an experiment to evaluate the smoothness and roughness of fabrics on a seven-level unipolar scale. Results showed that the evaluation characteristics of fabric smoothness and roughness with consideration of the shooting distance of the fabric surface images differed for each fabric. Furthermore, analysis of the correlation between evaluation of smoothness and roughness of fabrics indicated that symmetry was not established between evaluation of smoothness and roughness of some fabrics.

With the rapid development of artificial intelligence, companies have established exclusive chatbots to conduct conversational commerce and strengthen the emotional connection between customers and their brands. Therefore, shaping the chatbot personality to match the brand image is often the focus of chatbot design. This study investigates how users perceive chatbot personality via nonverbal communication (avatar, emoji, sticker) and explores the effect of chatbot personality on user satisfaction in a crowdfunding website. First, six chatbot conditions were selected using the Taguchi method. Then, an online survey based on the brand personality theory was conducted to investigate the impact of nonverbal communication on a chatbot's perceived personality. Based on the results, two chatbots with distinct personality traits, sincere and insincere, were selected as the conditions for the second experiment. Finally, participants interacted with one of the crowdfunding chatbots and received recommendations within FB messenger. One hundred fifty valid questionnaires and the click rate of participants during the experiment were collected to measure participants' satisfaction. The results showed that participants felt more satisfied with the "sincere" chatbot than the "insincere" chatbot. Furthermore, the personality of chatbots also affected participants' judgment on the message quality and the continuous intention to use chatbot services.

This research aims to develop an information-sharing system between customers and employees and try to put it into practical use. We named it "Caffe System (Customer Affection System)", a system for sharing customer service notes and customer feedback to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty and facilitate the sharing of customer information among employees.

As a non-mainstream service, "Message to customers" has been used by some stores. For example, Starbucks coffee is provided with a particular message service to impress customers: providing the drink with a message or illustration. But we have no way to know its specific impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty.

In this study, we launched the "cup message card", considering that we have been conducting demonstration experiments in a dine-in coffee shop. One of the focuses of this study was to investigate the satisfaction difference between "cup message card" and "conversation with clerks", which had already become one of the most mainstream service means.

Purpose of our research is to classify tea image at each shooting time.The flavor and quality of tea leaves change greatly depending on the time of picking.The more Umami ingredient “theanine”, the higher the quality.The more Astringent ingredient “catechin”, the lower the quality.Therefore, it is important to pick the tea at the timing when the theanine content is maximized.

In an actual farm, the timing of picking is decided at the leaf opening stage, not at the component analysis.The leaf opening period consists of 8 stages, from the germination period until the 7th leafopening period.As a rule of thumb, the highest quality is achieved at the 5th leaf opening stage.

Skilled technique is required to determine the leaf stage.We shoot a tea plantation with a large drone and analyze the shot image by deep learning.Analyzing each leaf opening stage leads to quality prediction.And I've been thinking about how to predict quality.

In order to determine the leaf opening stage, we tried to classify the images using a well-known method, Luminance histogram,Spectrum analysis by FFT and AKAZE.

However, none of the conventional methods were able to classify well.The cause is that it is difficult to extract the features due to the fuzzy of the tea image.

Therefore, we devised a classification method using deep learning.

We use DCGAN, SAE, LSTM and CWD.The originality of this research lies in the fact that these analyzes are not performed individually but continuously.

Today’s markets often offer different product solutions to the same customer need. In particular, new products offer new features requiring new customer behavior. This is typically driven by technology push, environmental concerns, or legal requirements. Due to inconvenience users do not easily change their behavior and thereby reject novel products unless they offer an obvious delight in the eyes of the user. Product developers need to take this in account when designing products. Tools such as UX, Kansei Engineering and Kano model are amongst those supporting product practitioners. This is exemplified by the affective evaluation of computer mice over three generations. It can be seen that in particular women have different affective needs in comparison to men related to auditive properties of mice. Hence it is important to adjust the user panel composition in accordance with the expected effect in order to avoid biases due to lacking diversity.

The study proposes a method for the assessment of e-shop product pages (PPs) through individual assessments of the touchpoints (TPs) customers interact with while using a PP (e.g., product title, main image, image gallery, Buy Box, rating/reviews number, product description, specifications, cross sales/recommended products, video, and product warnings) rather than an assessment of the product page as a whole. A specific Kansei list is created, customer preferences are collected, and touchpoints can be classified as positive, neutral, or negative (pain points). The assessment method was applied to the assessment of PPs of craft beer e-retailers. Once pain points were identified, two distinct types of TPs among them were individually analyzed (one visual, the Image gallery, and one textual, the Product description.) In both cases, a set of PPs were employed as stimuli and design elements that were deemed preferable by the customers were identified through Partial Least Squares analysis. The results provided valuable recommendations to web designers, content creators, and retailers for improving their PP content by taking into consideration the customers' emotional states and preferences.

The purpose of this study is to determine the amount of information that is interesting to users on a landing page for the purpose of purchasing a product. In this study, we clarified the amount of information that attracts the interest of users and what kind of information changes the interest of users. Specifically, we created three types of landing pages with different amounts of information for three products, and conducted an impression evaluation questionnaire. The three types of information on the landing pages were: (1) product image, product description and catch copy, (2) (1) with additional campaign information, and (3) (1) with additional product sales results and satisfaction levels. Using the impression evaluation data obtained after the questionnaire survey, we conducted a factor analysis for each product and analyzed the factors that influenced the evaluation. In addition, we clarified the website design that made a difference in the willingness to purchase the products and the evaluation items that caused the difference using t-test. As a result, it was found that users' willingness to purchase increased when information such as campaign information and actual results were included, and that reliability affected the willingness to purchase, especially for products that are used for a long time.

Regardless of going online or physical shopping, expectation disconfirmation due to the discrepancy between pre-purchase and post-purchase evaluation may occur from time to time. Thus, this study takes the tumbler as an example and aims to explore the reasons behind, as well as finding a suitable solution. It is hypothesized that the change of sensory dominance in product interaction from purchase to real use might lead to expectation disconfirmation. More specifically, if the user-product interaction during purchase can be better designed to ensure the consistent sensory dominance with real use, there is a chance to avoid expectation disconfirmation. A set of five scenarios of user-product interaction was first proposed by investigating the daily-use behavior of tumbler users. 15 female participants with the experience of tumbler use were then recruited to experience the traditional product interaction during purchase first. After at least three weeks, they returned to experience the new manner of user-product interaction during purchase. Subsequently, each participant took a tumbler home to use it for four consecutive weeks, during which she was required to provide subjective responses at the end of each week. Results showed that there is no sufficient evidence that ensuring consistent sensory dominance during purchase with real use can avoid expectation disconfirmation. Nevertheless, the findings through interviews support the need for doing so.

In the informatized era in which the graphic language has been the advantaged communication, design and digital culture construct cultural ecology of diversified design together, which promotes that the thinking, concept and aesthetic style of design present unique cultural value. Design public welfare posters with graphic elements full of emotions, namely perceptual graphic elements, based on perceptual image elements with visual innovation and the spreading effect of modern public welfare posters and combining with the updating of media and application of digital technology. The research included the investigation on the relationship of the new media literacy as an intermediary variable and the interest and confusion of aesthetic model. The research aimed to achieve the following goals: Research what effect the AI artistic creation will have on appreciators and whether the effect is great different from that from the creation of human artists. Standing by the needs of mass audience, evacuate new ideas and new modes for public welfare posters design, attempt to surpass the two-dimensional formal graphics, speed up the transformation upgrading of traditional public welfare posters. The result shows that it’s greatly critical to study the psychology of mass audience of public welfare posters and it’s also important to give full consideration to perceptual elements, visual experience and technological media.

Product recommendation systems have been instrumental in online commerce since the early days. Their development is expanded further with the help of big data and advanced deep learning methods, where consumer profiling is central. The interest of the consumer can now be predicted based on the personal past choices and the choices of similar consumers. However, what is currently defined as a choice is based on quantifiable data, like the product features, cost, and type. This paper investigates the possibility of profiling customers based on the preferred product design and wanted affects. We considered the case of vase design, where we study individual Kansei of each design. The personal aspects of the consumer considered in this study were decided based on our literature review conclusions on the consumer response to product design. We build a representative consumer model that constitutes the recommendation system's core using deep learning. It asks the new consumers to provide what affect they are looking for, through Kansei adjectives, and recommend; as a result, the aesthetic design that will most likely cause that affect.