Numerical Evaluation Method of Effect of Psychological Factors on Sensible Temperature

Abstract

In Japan, nuclear accident at Fukushima has been causing a severe shortage in electric supply. As a consequence, it is of critical importance to save electricity by restraining the use of the air conditioner during the summer. Thus, in this study, the effect of KANSEI multimedia such as movies with scents on sensible temperature was investigated in order to find a way to make people feel cool with the minimal use of the air conditioner. For this purpose, a new definition of sensible temperature which takes into account the effect of visual images and scent is proposed. Subjects’ answers to a questionnaire and biological responses are evaluated using visual image in a large screen in a high-defined experimental room where room temperature and humidity can be controlled at a particular degree. Using this definition, subjects’ sensing temperature is mathematically evaluated using Principal Component Analysis by treating adjectives on a questionnaire as explanation variables. Through this experiment, we found out that the exciting content increases sensible temperature while relaxing content decreases it. Also it turned out that visual images with relaxation aroma is more effective in reducing sensible temperature than visual images alone.