We examined the correspondence between the subjective expression texture (psychological quality) and the physical information (physical quality) of the Urushi coatings. We applied black Natume which was coated with Urushi, cashew resin paint and polyurethane resin paint with semi matted-glossy coatings (brushing process and spraying process) as the samples, Psychological qualities were evaluated by three groups of subjects. For physical qualities, the glossiness, color, and the light reflection characteristics, via the prototyped optical measurement devices, have been assessed. As a result, a group of Urushi crafts specialists valued the characteristic texture of matted through semi matted-glossy coatings as “Mukkuri (swelling)” and “Atatakami (warm feeling)” and regarded as “Suki (favorite)” in the overall evaluation. These psychological qualities were considered to be related to the difference in L* value excluding regular reflection light in color measurement and the pixel value of the light reflection characteristic measurement by the optical measurement system manufactured, a trial based. And these differences were able to be characterized as an inherent of Urushi coatings which is not discovered in cashew resin paint and polyurethane resin paint.

Prior studies suggest that an office environment is associated with communication-related psychological factors, including emotional state, impressions of personality, and psychological distance. We developed a hypothetical model where three psychological factors are assumed to mediate the relationship between the office environment design and expectations for effective communication. To examine this hypothesis, we surveyed white-collar men (N=400) via questionnaires. The experimental framework investigated the effects of visual design factors on expectations for communication, with the three psychological factors as mediating factors. Path analyses revealed that the impressions of “bright” and “warm” in the office environment influenced emotional state and impressions of the personality, while the impression of “natural” affected the psychological distance. Further, our analyses showed that these three psychological factors are linked to expectations for communication and for trusting other individuals. These results suggest that an office environment that gives bright, warm and natural impressions may be facilitative for communication.

We sometimes feel a sense of strangeness/incongruity when looking at fake objects, impossible shapes, and other such drawings. However, it is unclear whether an expert’s sense/talent for identifying this feeling is different from that of a layperson. In this study, the authors looked for experimental participants from two professional education courses: architectonics and informatics. The participants drew three-plane drawings of three types of shaded solids: (a) “impossible object,” (b) illusory solid object that can generate “impossible motion,” and (c) normal solid without these optical illusions. The results of this experiment suggested that participants learning architectonics didn’t sense incongruity while drawing type-(a) solids; the architectural students sensed a possibility of existence of impossible solids because they could estimate true shapes of the impossible solids from the silhouettes of the drop shadows. Therefore, it was inferred that receptivity to incongruity differs depending on expertise and experience.

When we play three-dimensional computer graphics (3DCG) video games of third-person point of view, we can usually control both an avatar and a camera. There are some enemy characters in the CG game world, and we often lose contact with an enemy after the avatar collides with it. In this paper, we propose a camera control system that the view point makes a half turn in a horizontal direction after the avatar collides with the enemy. The camera shows both of the avatar and the enemy from the backside of the avatar. In addition, we propose a representation technique that obstacles make translucent to avoid occlusion when the avatar collides with the enemy. As a result of subjective evaluation experiment, it was shown that the visual effects of the proposed techniques useful to enhance affective impressions. Therefore, we think that the proposed techniques contribute to qualities of action video games.

Mizuhiki is a decorative Japanese cord and used for gift-money envelopes. This study shows our investigation results regarding impressions given by Mizuhiki. The advantages are the clarification for impression structure, the use of an analysis method focusing on two factors, and the development of an interactive visualization tool. First, we got five factors from factor analysis. The factors are gorgeousness, grace, favorability, novelty, and loveliness. We analyzed the relationships between two factors using a robust PCA, thereby we could know some effect factors for increasing or decreasing the impressions belonging to two factors. In addition, we developed a new visualization tool for impressions of Mizuhiki and confirmed the effectiveness via users’ experiments.

Almost fashion apparels (over 90 %) sold in Japan are made in china. In early times of 21st century (2001-2010), Japanese fashion apparel Co. (manufacturing wholesale or manufacturing and retail) investigated to advance into China market. Business men of Japanese fashion apparels thought to be easy to advance there because of low level of Chinese fashion items. However, Japanese fashion apparel Co. which succeeded to advance there is only one (UNIQLO, First Retailing). Income of Chinese people in that time and purchasing power were very low. In contrast, tenant rent of Chinese shopping center was relatively high. Business consultant in that time pointed out that it was the reason to failed to advance into China market. However, we referred to the opinion of a business manager of Japanese OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) company who succeeded to advance into China. He said that appropriate time to succeed in China market was 2002 at the latest. 2005 was too late to succeed in Chine market. We thought that the main reason to failed to advance there was that Japanese fashion business Co. in that time couldn’t make items which were sold enough in Chine market. As a consequence of it, Japanese companies couldn’t pay the fixed cost to maintain their tenants. That is to say, fashion apparels designed by Japanese fashion designers hard to realize cash. We call the ability to realize cash of a fashion apparel as “product power” and the ability to realize that of a shop as “sales capabilities”. Here, we explained the relation between product power and sales capabilities by using differential equations, commonly known as the “Lanchester model”. By using her model, we guessed the relationship between product power and payment of fixed cost. The reason to fail to advance into China market is inferred to inability of Japanese fashion designer.

Recently, value-sharing consumption and participation behaviors triggered by words and images transmitted by celebrities, bloggers, and friends are attracting attention. The focus of this research is to clarify the various processes involved in sharing these values, and to contribute to the business management of an industry that relies heavily on sense and emotion. First, I define the idea of value-sharing, then I outline three hypotheses of the processes involved in sharing these values, followed by establishing my hypothesis model. In order to test these hypotheses, I conducted a survey targeted to influencers and event attendees, and conducted a psychological experiment about memory infiltration. The hypotheses were partially supported, however the hypothesis model leaves room for further verification. This research revealed images shared on social media were associated with memories of previously encountered images and real-life memories, and participants showed a unification of a positive state of emotions with others.

This study aimed to evaluate the influence of the work posture due to palm rejection on the mental workload caused by handwriting using a stylus. We conducted an experiment, in which the work posture due to palm rejection and the screen tilt angle were evaluated using the input time and the NASA task load index. The results indicated that when the screen tilt angle was 0-30°, the mental workload could be reduced by enabling palm rejection; however, the input time was not affected. Moreover, after examining the influence of the screen tilt angle, we concluded that tilting the screen by 20-30° would be most preferable, regardless of whether palm rejection occurred or not.

We discussed how people behave on seeing kawaii animal toys. Many studies have indicated the effects of kawaii emotions. However, few have described how they are expressed behaviorally. Therefore, this paper reports observable behavioral indicators. Specifically, we observed 4 human behaviors: smiling, touching, talking, and watching (kawaii toys or people) - during conversations when they see animal toys. Participants were divided into two groups. One (kawaii group) selected the animal toys that they felt had the most kawaii, and another (non-kawaii group) selected the animal toys that they felt had the least kawaii. Time to behavior was measured by annotation software, analyzed by analysis of variance. Comparison of groups showed that kawaii group was smiling, talking, and watching people for a longer time. Conversely, non-kawaii group was watching animal toys for a longer time. These results deepened our understanding of human behavior caused by kawaii emotion.

This study is to induce by the factor analysis the factors of wakuwaku, the positive emotions at work,and to get them structured by the covariance structure analysis. The authors identified five factors composed by twenty-five items as factors of wakuwaku, and then discovered that it is the circulating structure by using the covariance structure analysis. They quantitively validated those factors and its structure by the confirmative factor analysis and the PANAS analysis to prove the efficacy of the structure.

In this study, we conducted a three-part study to divide individuals into segments using subjective evaluation of the exterior design of vehicles and to reveal the characteristics of each segment. In Study 1, 98 participants judged similarity of evaluation items for vehicle exterior design which collected in preliminary study to select the appropriate items. In Study 2, 782 participants evaluated 42 vehicle designs by 29 items selected in Study 1 and their level of preference. Cluster analysis based on the correlation between impression evaluation and preference showed that individuals could be divided into 7 segments. In Study 3, the characteristics of each segment were compared using a scale on tendency of judgment and attention to the meaning of products in purchase behavior. Results showed that some of the high-class-oriented segments tend to use affective judgement and attend to symbolic meaning than the compact-oriented segments.

An utterance-output device, such a smart speaker, has been focused on. The device, which talks automatically or by being operated remotely, may support parenting at home. For parenting supports, it is important for children to recognize common ground in conversation with the device. This would contribute to children being interested in the device and interacting actively. Meanwhile, interactions between children, who have various personality, and utterance-output devices have not been fully investigated yet. This study investigated how personality affected children’s cognition of common ground in conversation with the utterance-output device and their behaviors. The results indicated that the less nervous, more emotionally stable, or more adaptable to communication different from that at home children are, the more closely they engage with the device, or spontaneously they clean toys based on receiving proposals from the devices. These would be related to children’s cognition of common ground in conversation through pretending.