We investigated the memory task performance and the central nervous activity after smelling two kinds of pan-fired Japanese green tea to examine their physical and psychological effects. Twenty eight subjects participated in this study. We used Koushun and Kouju for test samples, which were made by different manufacturing processes. After smelling each odor sample, a memory task and an arithmetic task were used to test mental stress. Electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded before and after smelling the test samples, and EEG activity was estimated for 4 frequency bands (alpha 1, alpha 2, beta 1 and beta 2). The profiles of mood states (POMS) and the visual analog scale (VAS) after mental stress task were completed for subjective assessments. The results showed that the odor of Kouju may induce a positive emotion. It may also affect the EEG band power of beta 1 at right frontal region and improve memory task performance.

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This paper proposes an interactive context search system for exploratory analysis of exchange rate data. As the fluctuation of exchange rate is influenced by various kinds of events, it is important to know how a certain type of events will influence the fluctuation, and type of events common to similar time periods. This paper defines two types of context search functions: summarizing events occurred in similar time periods, and searching events along with corresponding time periods. In order to find similar time periods, this paper employs the approach of Kansei Engineering. That is, suitable similarity calculations for temporal data is selected according to the level of granularity a user is interested in. This paper shows the experimental results on similarity calculation with different granularities, and those with test participants conducting exploratory analysis. Experimental results show the participants could analyze relationship between exchange rate and events with using the proposed system.

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This paper presents a completely new and simple audio amplifier system using the opto-coupling of LED (Light Emitting Diode) and PD (Photo Diode), without using conventional devices such as Transistor, IC and Vacuum Tube. This paper also describes the reason why the opt-coupling device works in the same way as a bipolar junction transistor and explains why the audio amplifier can be realized in a very simple form. Since we have felt that the presented audio amplifier shows good sound with very low noise, we have evaluated the characteristics of sound signal from the audio amplifier. As for the Kansei evaluation, we have obtained the experimental result that it varies depending on the type of songs (music). NAA is inferior CAA (Conventional Audio Amplifier) in some items. However, it was found to be comparable to the overall.

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The purpose of this study is constructing the measuring method of indication performance on papers and electronic displays to quantitatively assess the visibility. We have developed novel photometric equipment: a charge-coupled device sensor that can measure the distribution of luminance. Various types of papers printed a sinusoidal wave pattern with predetermined spatial frequency and brightness contrast: contrast sensitivity chart have been assessed by human. Also, they have been measured and parameterized. The visibility evaluation model which predict the human assessment from photometric parameter has been built by means of multiple regression analysis. This model can be applied to electrophoretic electronic paper (e-paper). It is our expectation that the measuring method will be useful to develop new displays which contains good visibility.

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Human interaction with social networking services (SNS) is currently a very active research area. SNS posts, such as tweets, allow users to broadcast their ideas in short form of text, voice, or images, using mobile devices and computers. Text and speech enriched with emotions is one of the major ways of exchanging ideas, especially via telephony and SNS. By analyzing a voice stream using a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and Log Frequency Cepstral Coefficients (LFPC) based system, different emotions can be recognized. Using a simple Java client, recognized emotions can be delivered to a server as an index. A mobile client can then retrieve the emotion and display it through colored icons. Each emotion is mapped to a particular color, as it is natural to use colors to represent various expressions. Not only colors, we also use avatar animation models in different environments for the expression of different emotions.

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The main purpose of this study is to explore physiological parameters that are usable for tactile softness differentiation. Two pillows and a cushion which were different in tactile softness (perceived compressibility and resilience) were chosen as the samples. 10 healthy students participated in the physiological test. Each of them was tested on three days, twice a day with the same sample involved. Each subject was required to keep quiet, compress the sample and keep quiet again in succession during a whole test. ECG (electrocardiography), PPG (photoplethysmography) and RSP (respiration) signals were recorded simultaneously during each physiological test. Several parameters indicating cardiovascular and respiratory reactions were calculated based on these signals. The statistical analysis results revealed that, HFnorm (normalized power of high-frequency components) calculated from the power spectrum of PWTT (pulse wave transmitting time) might be a very promising parameter which can be used for tactile softness differentiation.

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Previous studies have demonstrated that the association between numbers and space affects our various behaviors. However, whether this association influences temporal processing is unclear. To address this issue, we examined the effect of spatial order of presented numbers on time perception. Participants viewed five horizontally aligned digits ranging from 1 to 9. The numerical magnitude of the digits increased from left to right (Small-Large condition), decreased from left to right (Large-Small condition), or was randomly distributed (Random condition). Participants were asked to reproduce the duration of the presentation of the stimuli by pressing the spacebar. We found that the reproduced duration was shorter in the Small-Large condition than in the other two conditions. This temporal illusion might be explained by the “coding efficiency” model of time perception, that states that perceived stimulus duration is determined by the fluency of neural processing.

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This manuscript was withdrawn at the request of the authors. December 10, 2014.

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