Under difficult COVID-19 situations, restricted movements and increasing stress demand casual counseling. Counseling in a virtual space would lower the psychological barrier to consultation by concealing the client and the counselor’s figure. This study examines whether the willingness to consult would change by the seriousness of consultation and the different appearances of the counselor’s avatar. As a result, in the serious consultation situation, the willingness to consult with the avatar in a white coat was high. In the informal consultation situation, the willingness to consult with the avatar wearing a hood was high. Furthermore, with eye-tracking, we found that people’s attentive areas were different by the situation and by the appearance of the avatar. These results suggest the potential for the avatar counseling system in the Metaverse and remote virtual reality (VR) counseling.

The impression of sharpness of body movements (Kire in Japanese) is critical for aesthetical evaluation of body movements in dance, gymnastics, and martial arts’ Kata. However, the basis of impression formation of sharpness has not been empirically investigated to date. This study was designed to clarify how body movements’ speed affected impression formation regarding body movements’ sharpness. We also examined the effects of unexpectedly fast body movements on impressions of sharpness. Participants rated the impressions of sharpness, subjective speed, and unexpectedness of body movements when viewing movies of Karate Kata performance. Multiple regression analysis and path analysis revealed that subjective speed and unexpectedness affected impressions of sharpness of body movements and that subjective speed also affected them through unexpectedness. These results suggest that manipulating the speed and unexpectedness of movements effectively enhances impressions regarding the sharpness of body movements.

The relationship between impression evaluation words (images) and physical cognitive elements related to dance poses was analyzed in advanced classical ballet dancers and beginners using rough sets. The cognitive evaluation mechanisms of the advanced and beginner groups were compared using the column scores of rough set analysis as indicators. In the image group where the correlation between the impression rating values of the advanced and beginner groups was high, the cognitive evaluation mechanisms of the advanced students matched those of beginners. In the image group where the correlation between the impression rating values of the advanced and beginner groups was low, the cognitive evaluation mechanisms of advanced dancers did not match those of beginners, which were more pronounced for the physical cognitive elements related to body sensation.

To protect evacuees in a large-scale earthquake, it is necessary to provide information that enhances a sense of threat, and encourages them to take immediate evacuation action. This study focuses on text notifications on smartphones, and investigate what kind of information expression is effective. Specifically, we compare the texts representing “danger” and “safety” respectively. The “dangerous” text indicates that a dangerous situation is approaching, while the “safe” text indicates that the situation is not safe, or that the safe situation will not be continued. This study verifies the effects of these two perspectives on awareness of evacuation and degree of threat to the disaster. That is, the same situation is presented in texts from the two different perspectives, and respondents answer their impressions of the texts. The results show that the “dangerous” text when the damage will be large and the “safe” text when the damage will be small increases the awareness of evacuation behavior.

In this study, we examined the relationship between “expression means” and “expression techniques” associated with the texts in the screen designs of the messaging applications and the emotional communication. First, we extracted the six types of emotion to be communicated, the four expression means, and the expression techniques for each expression means. After that, for each emotion, eight different screen design samples were created, and a questionnaire survey was conducted with 30 university students as subjects regarding the degree of transmission of the emotions. As a result of the analysis, it was found that although the specific expression means and the expression techniques differed in each emotion, they were generally effective in the expression means such as “the movement of the speech balloon and text”.

Currently, sound quality control using Active Noise Control (ANC) and Passive Noise Control (PNC) has been used as noise reduction methods. ANC has an effect on the low-frequency noise, and PNC affects the high-frequency noise. However, in the case of sound control, our previous study revealed that individual preference affects the sound impression strongly to each. In recent years, as the quality of automobiles is developing day by day, the driving sound of automobiles has become an essential factor affecting an auditory impression. In other words, the engine sound control has been shifting from noise control to sound design. In this study, we investigated how the impression of engine sound changes by sound absorbers. The engine sound in the automobile with or without sound absorbers was investigated. Furthermore, these sounds were analyzed by the SD method and factor analysis to find a subjective impression. As a result, the subjective indicator (adjective pair) that affected the auditory impression was clarified. Moreover, the possibility of adding specific sound impressions by changing sound absorbers was also conducted. The MUSHRA method was adopted as the evaluation method. The relationship between the frequency band that adds a specific impression and the auditory impression was clarified by the MUSHRA method.

Terms such as vulnerability, national resilience, and resilience are quite difficult for the residents and may not be properly understood by the residents. To that end, it is important to understand how residents understand related terms such as resilience and vulnerability. In this study, we conducted a questionnaire on terms related to vulnerability. Then, we sorted out what it be associated with vulnerability, national resilience, and resilience. Then, a similarity map of associative terms is created using quantification method of the third type. Furthermore, we examined the difference in associative images depending on the subject attributes.

Based on the concept of CS portfolio used in the service field, we proposed a design evaluation method that integrates positioning analysis, factor analysis, and evaluation ranking (design evaluation meeting), which are used in design process. Its potential and effectiveness were confirmed through a water bottle design case study. Specifically, this method consists of an overall positioning analysis based on CS analysis, a positioning analysis of the company (or other companies), and a design evaluation index. The second method is an analysis method focusing on the difference between the overall average of the CS analysis and the company’s own. The third method is an index of the sum of those differences. This index can be used to formulate Rough sets of decision classes, which is a factor analysis method, and therefore, a superior design specification could be obtained. In addition, in the process of analyzing the relationship between design preferences and purchases, we also found a method for calculating design segmentation.

Today, user experience is becoming more and more important in product development, but most methods are qualitative, and there are few quantitative methods. Therefore, based on the concept of anticipatory UX, which imagines the experience, and Hassenzahl’s definition of UX, we proposed a new method of analyzing UX by applying the concept of CS portfolio analysis. Through a case study of a questionnaire survey on bag design for women, we quantitatively showed which evaluation items among the pragmatic and hedonic attributes of the definition should be focused on to improve the UX, using Rough set analysis method as well. In the process, we introduced the concept of positioning analysis and proposed a new index to indicate the degree of UX. By using this index, we showed that design specifications with high UX degree can be obtained by Rough set analysis. In the future, we would like to verify the effectiveness of this proposal by applying it in practice.

With the increase of telecommuting by COVID-19, there is a growing trend toward the introduction of high-quality products, such as those designed to suit personal preferences, with the aim of creating a better home environment. In this study, a primitive shape that assumes the outline of a package is assumed, and an evaluation structure model that leads to the desire to touch is analyzed for a rotating object made of curves. In the experiment, we first conducted an interview survey using a rating grid to determine the rating scale. Next, a web-based questionnaire was conducted on 250 subjects in order to examine the causal model based on the covariance structure analysis. The results revealed that three factors, [Safety], [Healing], and [Appearance], influence the psychological desire to touch.

A sense of presence and unity is important in music. It has also been empirically pointed out that there is an emotion similar to a feeling of elation called “groove” in music listening and performance situations. In previous studies, “groove” has often been examined from the perspective of tempo and timing deviation from the beat, especially from the listener’s point of view. In this paper, we constructed a “model of the process of forming a sense of groove by players during cooperative performances of multiple players” through questionnaires and interviews, with the aim of systematically organizing the causes, factors, and elements that form the sense of groove. This model is expected to clarify the position of previous studies and help in both basic and applied research.

The UPI (University Personality Inventory) is a mental health check in which respondents answer yes or no to whether the symptoms indicated by each question match their own symptoms. The UPI consists of a questionnaire asking the presence of mental symptoms and a questionnaire asking the presence of physical symptoms. In this paper, we find strong causal relationships between mental symptoms and physical symptoms in UPI by calculating lift-value used in marketing. Then, by visualizing them as a network, we try to understand the overall causal relationships between mental and physical symptoms and obtain knowledge that can contribute to health of students. We also try to remove confounding from these lift-value. Confounding is the creation of spurious causal relationships by confounding factors. This paper has significance because 1) it shows effectiveness of using marketing methods to address health sector problem, and 2) it focuses confounding problem in association rules.