In the present study, characteristics of facial features for a human shape are detected in order to extract a trademark having a human shape. After preprocessing to remove pure graphics that cannot constitute human-shaped trademarks, eyes are detected in an image. A specific eye, which is an aggregate of white pixels and detectable even when a contour line and the eye are joined, is detected. When the eye is connected with a contour line, the contour line is traced and the extreme value of changes in direction is determined, whereby the eye is separated from the contour line. Thereafter, by analyzing corresponding positions and shapes of the eyes, nose and mouth, facial features are detected and it is determined whether or not a face is present.

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As a means of basic research into perception in a virtual world, how weight is perceived in virtual space was quantitatively represented using an information theory. A comparison was made between the psychological sensation humans receive from computer-graphics-based colored balls and the sensation of physical weight they feel when they lift balls in the hands.
The difference in judgments of apparent weight of the CG representations and the sensation of weight of the balls physically held in the hands as they were being viewed was quantitatively represented in terms of the amount of transmitted information to perception. As a result, transmitted information on the sensation of weight for CGL judgment was 0.73 bit, whereas that for CGL&H judgment was 0.20 bit. Comparison of how weight is perceived in real space and virtual space, which was made on the basis of CGL judgment (0.73 bit), L judgment (0.43 bit) and I judgment (0.60 bit), showed that perception tended to be more ambiguous in virtual space than in real space. In other words, in virtual space, subjects didn't feel a clear difference in weight among the different colors. The same trend was observed for CGL&H judgment (0.20 bit), L&H judgment (0.12 bit) and I&H judgment (0.16 bit), under which subjects were also requested to physically hold balls in the hands.
It was thus suggested that it is possible to quantitatively represent judgments of weight in virtual space and that the sensation of weight of an object can be controlled by colors and luster, which can be applied to artificial reality technology.

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When we discriminate the weight of the two balls of the size which can be hand held, if the lightness of two balls is different, we may judge that the weight of two balls differs, even if two balls are equal weight. The weight of the balls is distinguished according to not only muscle perception by the hefting them but also information of the balls got from auditory perception and visual perception. In addition to this, the weight of the ball is discriminated in the brain, comparing information got with a knowledge stored by one's experience. By individuality and scene, the information which decides the weight is different. In the weight discrimination, which information is a decision maker, is different by individual and scene. There are manifold of perceptual processes in the weight sensation. In this paper, we will propose the new categorization method that classify the some perceptual characteristics, and then subjects are categorized into some perceptual characteristics such as Group (α): Information from visual perception is the superiority, Group (β): Information from both visual perception and muscle perception is utilized, Group (γ): Information from muscle perception is the superiority.

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Abstract In many NIRS studies, the change of Hemoglobin is obtained with the sensory stimuli. In this study, acoustical stimuli was presented in random order. The subject was required to listen to the seven kinds of sounds (Speech sound, Machine noise, Stream sound, Commotion noise, Speech sound with machine noise, Speech sound with stream sound, Speech sound with commotion noise) from speaker. While it was listening to the sound, the subject had measured Blood volume (Total Hemoglobin) and Deoxy Hemoglobin in the frontal area. Deoxy Hb evoked by the Stream sound in this task is a largest for auditory stimuli in normal young adults. On the other hand, when there was machine sound, Total Hb took an influence. We also measured EEG. A % α power got a high result by the murmur of a stream sound. The result was assessed from the viewpoint of the foundation research, and it was shown that the measuring of Hemo-dynamics response and EEG might be useful for the sensory evaluation.

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In order to infer the component formal elements of impression from commacial goods and to clarify the process of formation of the impression in brain, experiments have been carried out using black triangles painted on white paper as a model of commercial goods. As the triangle was considered to be a characteristic model at the view point of a vety few elements, it was investigated that a triangle formed the impression in higher level of layer structure such as “beautiful”or “polished”, as a common recognition among many people. One figure of scalene or isosceles triangles was drawn on a sheet of white paper and the impression was sensory evaluated by means of semantic differential method. Experimental results showed that many people commonly recognized the high level impression depending on formal elements of basal length and angle even in a simple figure as the triangles.

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The purpouse of this research is to know effect of combined form attributes on preferenc or non-preference for automobiles. Reduct of rough set theory was used to examine an effect of combined form attributes by this research, and Quatification Theory Type II was used to examine an effect of individual form attribute.
Attribute category of high appearance frequency got from reducts of rough set theory and attribute category of high category score got from Quatification Theory Type II were classified in 12 groups in accordance with the pattern of the contribution to preference or non-preference.
As a result, an effective combined form attributes and individual form attributes effective for preference or non-preference became clear. Effective individual form attributes are few. But, they can be useful for the design project by combining some of theem as reduct.
Then, by choosing the reducts including effective attributes, it was found out that reducts for preference decrease from 156 to 109, and reducts for non-preference decrease from 408 to 135 as for the non-preference.

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Food preference is established by the object (the food) as a substance, and at the same time by the relationship with the subject (the eater). The latter has physiological and sensuous dimensions as well as intellectual and cultural dimensions.As regards the ideas of “in praise of gastronomy”and“in praise of insipidity”, I think that the former shows the Western view of value, and the latter shows the Eastem. Each of them is represented by The manners of Westem and eapecially French Philosophers who enjoy conversation at the table, and by that of Zen priests for whom silence and muteness have important meaning, in short, by tables with activity and sdillness.I think that“in praise of gastronomy”ark“in praise of insipidity”are both ways of pursuing food preference by human beings, and drat the different sensibilities about food preference have been formed based on their cultures.

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It is important to develop techniques to extract useful information from a large-scale document database. Targeting MEDLINE abstracts, we propose an intelligent system that visualizes relations among abstracts being retrieved by keywords. We characterize relations among abstracts based on “similarity of contents described in abstracts”and “relevance of research contents through authors”. Our system executes a clustering for a retrieved set of abstracts and visualizes the relations among the abstracts in each generated clusters. Our system avails users to trace abstracts of interest efficiently and acquire useful information, e. g. dominant groups or trend of research.

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We examined whether the colors proposed by Intercolor actually prevailed in market or not. The main results were as follows.
(1) The ratio of success in proposal was diverse for each color. The success in proposal had two meanings: in the first meaning, the color was proposed and hit, and in the second meaning, the color was not proposed and did not hit. For both cases, the ratios of success in proposal were showed.
(2) The ratios of success in proposal were diverse for each year. These averages were 24.4% in SS and 35.2% in AW. The probability of hitting showed that AW had the excellent ratios but SS did not. This reason was considered.
(3) The prevailing ratio in market was higher in AW (78.8%) than in SS (45.6%).
(4) The probability of hitting showed that AW had the excellent ratios but SS did not.
The ratios of basic colors to the prevailed colors were 54.3% for SS and 49.6% for AW.

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We examined a fuzzy set theoretical model of consumer behavioral intentions concerning buying several beverages such as Japanese regular beer, low-priced beer (Japanese Happoushu) and Pakistani chai. Three psychological experiments were conducted to examine the relative importance between attitudes and social norms in consumer behavior. We found that the relative importance of social norms for buying the low-priced beer was higher than for buying regular beer and Pakistani chai. The result suggested that consumers paid more attention to the expectations of people who were important to them when they bought low-priced beer. A blind test of several beers also suggested that consumers only rely on brand names and their images but not on taste.

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In this paper, we propose a system that automatically creates fonts which reflect a user's kansei and outputs them by inputting some impression words about fonts. The proposed system consists of two major parts, creating fonts part and evaluating fonts part, and it operates based on genetic algorithm (GA). In the evaluating fonts part, the system calculates the fitness value of the font created in the creating fonts part. In the creating fonts part, some font parameters are added to the basic data of characters such as control points. These font parameters are expressed as a gene and it is possible to create various fonts by means of GA operations. The evaluating fonts part estimates the impression of the created font using fuzzy rules. And the system calculates Euclidean distance between the user's inputs and the values that the system infers as the fitness value. By repeating these processes, the system creates the font which the user desires. In addition, the system can adjust to the user's kansei by introducing the learning based on his/her absolute evaluation. The validity of the proposed system is confirmed by experiments in respect of the following points: Euclidean distance between the user's evaluation and the estimation of the system, the adaptability of the system to individual kansei and the variety of fonts that the system creates.

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In this research, agent-based support systems for forming groups based on user's Kansei are proposed. This paper describes a mechanism to grasp user's Kansei elements such as favors or demands. In this mechanism, user's Kansei is evaluated by the semantic differential method, and it is used by the agent to decide a suitable groupmate for its user. In this system, each user has an agent. The agent can understand its user's subjective favors as objective elements by using this mechanism. Moreover, in this paper, two agent-based methods for forming human groups are also described. In first method, groups are formed based on the negotiation among user agents which has the mechanism. In another method, a personnel agent makes arrangement of users' Kansei elements and forms groups based on it. Experiments of forming groups based on two proposed methods for group learning with prototype systems and comparison of them have shown their characteristics.

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We investigated how a transverse radius of cushion influences a sitting comfort of OA chair in the case of working for a long time. Sensory values of sitting comfort were measured by the SD method. Body pressures and contact areas between a human body and chairs were measured. The results of sensory evaluation were examined by the factor analysis and the relation between sensory values and physical properties was also examined. The results were as follows: (1) Sensory value “Comfort”had a positive correlation with “Fit”, “Hold”and “Easy to work”, and had a negative correlation with “Tired”.(2) The sitting comfort of OA chair was evaluated by two adjectives “Painful”and “Easy”after sitting for 15 minutes and by “Comfort”and “Pressure at buttoks and waist”after sitting for 30 minutes.(3) After sitting for 30 minutes, body pressures at the ischiadic tubercle part and the sacrum part were increasing.(4) “Comfort”and “Easy”were judged by the contact areas at the lumber vertebra part and “Pressure at buttoks”was judged by the contact areas at the high pressures parts.

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