The purpose of this study is to find out which factor of the healing robot is important by rating each person's impression of the robot. The three factors of the results of the analysis are efficiency, relief and how ideal the robot is. People who have experience interacting with the robot want a more genuine robot, but people who do not have experience interacting with the robot want a robot which is comfortable and gives them a feeling of relief. Concerning degrees of mental health, it was discovered that people prone to depression demand that their robots be intellectual and serious. People who are tired and tend to hostile want a robot whose performance is highly efficient. How people judge the appearance of the robot depends on their character or willingness to interact with the robot. The appearance of the robot is important because the robot's appearance affects people's minds, making them think it's clever and performs well. In order to produce greater healing results, it became desirable to design a robot whose external appearance takes into account differences among individuals.

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The emotional responses of the brain to the three different kinds of auditory stimulation inputs are investigated. The auditory stimulation inputs are a series of regular and monotonous click sound, aqua sound, i. e. sound with tones similar to sound of “koto” created with chaotic interval in “suikinkutsu”, an underground water “koto”, and music which contains loudness and frequency fluctuations over a wide range of frequency. As the quantitative indices of dynamical behaviors of brain activity, the time variations of the spectral power of α rhythm and the correlation dimension are assessed by means of spectral analysis and chaos analysis on the human electroencephalographic (EEG) data measured at right and left temporal lobes and frontal lobe. The power of α rhythm decreases for click sound stimulation, whereas increases remarkably for both stimulation of aqua sound and music. This fact suggests that the power of α rhythm can be an index for the pleasant emotional response of the brain. The time variation of correlation dimension during auditory stimulation is small for click sound stimulation and is very large for both stimulation of aqua sound and music. The power variation of α rhythm seems to reflect the time variation of correlation dimension. It may be concluded that the pleasant emotional response of the brain can be brought by the stimulation pattern which causes some dynamical variations of correlation dimension.

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An important challenge facing modern society is solving the problems caused by the accumulation of fatigue and stress. This paper presents the results of an experiment that aimed to clarify the physiological effects of sound stimuli. Seven types of sound stimulus were presented to ten subjects, aged 19-24 years (8 males and 2 females), and changes in autonomic nerve activity measured. Three types of constant sound were created from averaged electrocardiographic RR intervals, and four types of irregular sound were created from fluctuations in electrocardiographic RR intervals. Each subject completed several 5-minute phases in which they were exposed to each type of sound. The results indicated that the sound created from fluctuations in heartbeat intervals had physiological effects on the subjects. In particular, the heartbeat intervals of subjects were affected by the irregular sounds rather than the constant sounds. Consequently, a significant correlation was observed between sound stimulus and subjects' heartbeat intervals in the latter half of the experiment. In conclusion, the present results suggest that fluctuations in subjects' heartbeat intervals were affected by the sound created from fluctuations in heartbeat intervals.

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This paper describes effects of stereoscopic 3-D images with dynamic optical correction on asthenopia recovery. The authors have developed a stereoscopic 3-D display with dynamic optical correction. In this study, the authors carried out two experiments in order to examine the effectiveness of asthenopia recovery using the 3-D display. In experiment 1, visual acuity tests and asthenopic subjective symptoms were performed before and after viewing stereoscopic 3-D images on the display, and the degree of asthenopia recovery was evaluated. In experiment 2, the subjects were persons whose work basically involved using VDTs all day long. Experiments in asthenopia recovery were carried out in the evening. Measurements were also taken in the morning in order to determine normal daytime vision. Additionally, a refraction feedback function for presenting stereoscopic 3-D images on the display was used for making the viewer's distance vision more effective. The results of the experiments suggested that asthenopia recovery using stereoscopic 3-D images with optical correction was more effective than 2-D images. It was suggested that although these asthenopia recoveries might be temporary, viewing stereoscopic 3-D images with optical correction created refreshing sensations such as felt upon awakening.

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This article was retracted. See the Notification.

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