A Study on the Expression of “A sense of being alive”

- Flashing Lights, Sounds, and Changing Forms of the Artifact -

Abstract

This current research presents the elements of expressing a sense of being alive of the artifacts based on the results of three experiments. In recent years, robots and AI have become necessary products in the world, and there are the considerations of designing artifacts to express a sense of being alive by making them similar to humans. However, the received data about making the artifacts have a sense of being alive are only related to the abstract concepts, which are difficult to apply. Therefore, this study aims to determine the factors of the expression of a sense of being alive of the artifacts by performing comparisons between the expressing of a sense of being alive and the mechanical expression of the artifacts. Then, three experiment phases were conducted, which were a study on artificial expression via flashing lights, sounds, and changing forms. A set of questionnaires were distributed to the participants. The participants’ points of view were examined by employing multivariate analysis methods. The transition of the artificial expression in this research was turned into the figure of waveforms. Finally, four factors were selected as having the highest effect with expressing a sense of being alive from the human judgments, which were 1) the waveform with some fluctuations, 2) smooth waveforms, 3) an unexpected waveform, and 4) the waveform with unstable periods. This study’s results may further be applied to new products to allow them to express a sense of being alive.