In 2006 the Services and Supports for Persons with Disabilities Act came into effect, and Type B Continuous Vocational Aid Centers (VACs) were required to support persons with disabilities, design and develop merchandising products to be sold, and improve user wages. This study clarifies the issues regarding development and sales of vocational aid products and necessary support based on (1) questionnaires with 580 local governments and intermediate support organizations throughout the country and (2) visit surveys of local governments and welfare shops actively conducting development and sales support activities for vocational aid products. As a result, in order to solve issues, it is suggested that support for 1: improvement in product value added, 2: enhancement of marketing functions in product planning and sales, 3: efforts to strengthen collaborative activities among VACs are indispensable.

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Comfort is one of the performance factors which affects the satisfaction of road users. In this study, we present an evaluation method based on multiple alternative plans for the improvement of road comfort at the maintenance and management stage. One alternative is to elevate vehicle running performance by improving the road surface with the mill-and-overlay method. Another alternative is to increase comfort by improving the landscape elements of the road. By successfully combining these two measures, it is possible to propose an effective repair plan. This study targets the Hakone Turnpike and evaluates the relationship between landscape elements and comfort and flatness as measured by IRI. Next, it was verified whether the target performance line can be secured using biaxial evaluation of landscape elements and flatness. The costs for improving the performance of sections not reaching the target were also compared.

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Robot-assisted therapy has gained attention as one of mental health measures. In this paper, we investigated the influences of soft tactility on psychological and physiological stress relief effects to verify whether soft robots or hard robots are effective as therapy robots. Resultantly, we confirmed that psychological stress relief effects obtained by interaction with soft robots are significantly higher than that with hard robots, particularly reducing tension and depression, improving vigor. And we also verified that physiological stress relief effects, especially increasing alpha waves, obtained by interaction with soft robots are significantly higher, too. In addition, we found that soft tactility may have effects of inhibiting reduction users' motivation for interaction. These results suggest that soft robots are more effective as therapy robots.

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In this paper, we conduct a questionnaire survey on the web, and investigate how the impressions people feel from viewing stimulus images change by combination of fonts and background colors constituting the images. For the background colors, we adopt a total of six primary colors; three primary colors of light consisting of red, green and blue, and three primary colors of paint consisting of cyan, magenta and yellow. For the fonts, we adopt Gothic and Mincho types, and use non-bold and bold faces in each type. As impression scales used for rating impressions from stimulus images, we use not only “Legibility” and “Readability” conventionally used but also “Destruction,” “Passion,” “Nature,” “Peace,” “Honesty,” “Calmness,” “Freshness,” “Coolness,” “Sexy,” “Love,” “Curiosity,” and “Happiness,” which were selected from words representing impressions of the six primary colors.

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The purpose of this study is to clarify how the selection process in product purchase affects its result. Specifically, the authors investigated whether the change in selection occurs depending on the order of presenting product attributes the watch as the target. As a result, most of the subjects changed the selection result depending on the presentation order of the product attributes. Next, the authors classified the timepiece using mathematical quantification theory class III and visualized the similarity and the selection process of the watch selected by the subjects. As a result, the authors discussed the subjects' commitment to products and the influence on selection results by the selection process. In the future, the authors will use the findings of this study to aim for proposals of indicators and scales to quantify consumers' commitment to products.

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The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of package inserts of over-the-counter incorporating pictograms on information acquisition and preference. In this study, elderly (mean age=73.0 years) consumers were read one of the 3 inserts (A: insert with pictograms, B: insert with greater spacing between paragraphs, C: insert with larger font size) and asked to perform two information acquisition tasks: (a) Information recalling test, and (b) Information searching test. Afterwards, participants were given all inserts and asked to rank them according to preference using Scheffe's method of paired comparison. Results of Information recalling test shows that the correctness of Group A was significantly higher than that of Group B and C. Information searching test revealed that Group A had an accurate positioning rate that was significantly higher than those of Group B and C. The results of Scheffe's method of paired comparison show that the presence of pictograms was found to contribute positively to preference.

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Designer stimulated by historical product can create refresh semantics appearance modern design. The aim of this article is to find out the preference relationship between modern design and its stimulation historical product by user preference and similarity evaluation to explore this design approach discipline. Fourteen famous chairs are taken as case study. Two questionnaires are carried out by 184 participants. The result shows most modern chairs win positive preference by the key preference factors of delightful, simple, beautiful, long life utilization, safe independent variable. And the armrest and backrest are significant to preserve and inherit historical chair essential main features. Based on the results, this article gives out the conclusion that historical product stimulating stimulation design is valuable and have discipline model to follow by user preference and similarity evaluation.

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The change of facial color and expression reflects our mental or physical condition. Previous behavioral studies indicated that there is a strong interaction between facial color and expression perception. This study investigated the contribution of facial color to expression recognition in blur images with the measurement of behavior and pupillary change. In the experiment, the face stimuli of facial colors (natural color, reddish) with different expressions (neutral, and anger) in 3 blur levels were presented. Participants performed a task of expression identification to the stimulus. Behavioral results indicated that the facial color has a significant contribution to expression recognition as blur level increases. Then, the results of pupillometry showed that the reddish-color provided the information necessary to identify anger. These results showed the contribution of facial color increases in both psychophysics and pupillary experiment as blur level increases, which suggested that facial color emphasizes the characteristics of specific facial expression.

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In recent years, virtual reality (VR) has made remarkable progress. Then, many devices and contents for VR systems have also actively developed. In our previous research, we evaluated a “feeling of excitement” of VR systems using biosignals and proposed the standard deviation of NN intervals (SDNN) and R-R interval variability (RRV) from electrocardiograms (ECGs) as useful physiological indices. In this paper, we evaluated a retailed VR animation content developed for PlayStation VR (PSVR). Based on the results of evaluation, we constructed models by regression analysis using various physiological indices of ECG as their variables.

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The current international trade transaction processes among ASEAN countries are facing high-costs structure because of the redundant paperworks. Furthermore, multiple languages used in these processes make the problems more difficult. In this paper, a framework of system, which helps to resolve the problems is proposed. The system can generate an optimized process of paperworks from a complex process. First, an international trade transaction model, which is an underlying basis of the framework is defined. Second, an international logistics ontology, which has been developed for describing the model is shown. Then, an algorithm for optimizing information flows is proposed. Furthermore, a case study is shown in order to explain the proposed framework. This framework contributes to reduce the paperwork costs of international trade transaction processes.

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In this study, we focused on brain activity that reflected the decision-making process of customers. We used the shopping simulation task as a model of daily shopping, in which a variety of product images were used as visual stimuli for the sequential delayed matching-to-sample paradigm. We recorded EEG data from 12 normal subjects and examined the event-related potentials (ERPs) in two conditions; the subject selected one (target) out of 8 products (nontargets) either “to buy” (positive condition) or “NOT to buy” (negative condition). We observed stronger ERPs to the targets than to the nontargets in both the positive and negative conditions. The magnitude of the response was, however, greater in the positive than negative condition especially around 400 ms after the stimulus presentation. These results suggest that such an enhance response of the ERP might be useful for the indicator of the purchasing intention of the customers.

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The cars are classified by cars' body types. However the characteristics are basically similar at first sight, so it is difficult to distinguish the differences among those cars' body types. Therefore, in this study, we considered that cars' characteristics could be analyzed by using deep learning and image recognition technology, developed a system to visualize the judgment and characteristic parts of cars' body types. Specifically, we made renderings of the CG model of 30 cars by setting 360 viewpoints in 1 degree increments around each car. Deep learning was performed using these 2D images as teacher signals. The car body type recognition probability of each angle is graphed, and the characteristic parts of each car body type are visualized. As a result, we clarified the visual angles and the pars contributing the judgment of cars' body types.

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This study aims to produce the car front grills that are more attractive for local consumers. In our study, the visual impression observed in the front grills of Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) have been investigated by using many adjectives and compared the effect of design types on the visual impression between Japanese and Thai consumers. Twenty-one pairs of antonym adjectives such as ‘glossy’ and ‘matte’ were selected, thirteen photo images were prepared, and the Semantic Differential (SD) method was used to quantify the consumers’ visual impression for our experiment. SD data from two nations was analyzed by the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), and it was clear that the visual impression structure for a car front grill was different between Japanese and Thais, in particular, the most important principal components by the PCA were expressed by the term LUXURY and CONTRAST for Japanese, whereas STYLE and LIGHTNESS for Thai people.

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In order to increase the number of videos playback, we researched on the thumbnail images and the titles which were selected by the viewers. We built the samples and conducted the questionnaires in order to reveal the factors that make a great influence on the evaluation and be clear about the positive levels. We revealed the viewers decide the videos under the influence of the images rather than sentences and words. Also, Images factors are particularly effective for males. On the other hand, females are more affected by sentences and words than males. This research revealed the guidelines that YouTuber creates thumbnail images and titles and the elements to incorporate according to the target the males or the females. As a starting point of this research, we will be able to conduct more detailed research on thumbnail images and titles.

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This study investigated the effect of quantity limited sales label on product attractiveness. Moreover the correlation between personal characteristics and the effect of limited sales labels were examined. It was showed that quantity limited sales labels given to products with a positive impression increase the attractiveness of the product. On the other hand, for products with a negative impression, it was found that the effect of the quantity limited sales labels was not obtained. And the effects of limited sales labels were not affected by personal characteristics.

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We approached to find out the difference of Japanese and Western restaurant management, and Japanese restaurant managements between Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. In Japan, restaurants with long history tend to have good reputation as good restaurants and the good restaurants information are shared by mouth to mouth. On the other hand, good restaurants in Europe are judged by Michelin Guide and restaurants with famous chefs lead to be famous restaurants. Information about good restaurants in Japan are less visible than European restaurants. We studied restaurants in Japan, and compared the management between Japanese and Western restaurants and areal differences among Japanese restaurants. The differences of strategy and chef's career are observed between Japanese and Western restaurants. We also found that there are differences among Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo in terms of history and career management of chefs.

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