We developed the artificial tactile feeling display using ICPF actuator. In this article, the artificial tactile feeling stimulus generated by the actuator were evaluated by the experiments. Moreover, cerebral somatosensory area activated by the tactile feeling stimulus were analyzed by f-MRI. We are under consideration about tactile feeling cognition and comfortableness based on our experimental results.

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The clothing pressure and pressure feeling developed by koshihimo (a cord tied to a waist to hold one's kimono in place) were measured, by using a waistband, in different phases of seasonal and menstrual cycles. The subjects were seven women ranging in age from 20 to 47 years old. The clothing pressure developed by a koshihimo (koshihimo-pressure for convenience' sake) under an obi was significantly higher than the clothing pressure developed by a waistband (waistband-pressure for convenience' sake), while wearing neither koshihimo nor waistband had the difference in pressure feeling. Both the waistband-pressure and pressure feeling changed with a seasonal and a menstrual cycle significantly, but neither koshihimo-pressure nor pressure feeling under an obi changed with a seasonal and a menstrual cycle. The linear relationships existed both between waistband-pressure and pressure feeling, and between koshihimo-pressure and pressure feeling under an obi. Because the latter had a gradual slope in comparison with the former, the quantity of demand for the pressure of a yukata increased compared with a waist band. In other words, it is clear that the pressure feeling for a yukata is duller than that for a waistband. From the above results, even if the physical constitution of subjects changed with the different phase of a seasonal and a menstrual cycle, it is advantageous that kimono can regulate them.

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In order to determine the effect of air temperature on the touch sensation for underwear fabrics, ten different types of underwear fabrics (five for summer-use and another five for winter-use) were evaluated based on the touch sensation in wearing condition by the semantic differential evaluation method at the air temperature of 22°C, 28°C and 34°C. The subjects involved in this experiment consisted of sixteen young women. The results obtained were as follow: 1) Fabrics for summer-use were dry, light and loose in touch sensation, while fabrics for winter-use were fairly supple, smooth and comfortable; 2) The investigation on the effect of air temperature on touch sensations has shown that, for both summer- and winter-use fabrics, significant differences were recognized in all touch sensations, especially cool and cold sensation among air temperature levels. The fabrics for summer-use were fairly preferred at 34°C than at 22°C while the fabrics for winter-use were fairly preferred at 22°C than 34°C. These facts may be drawn from the body temperature regulation and the change in skin temperature, in particular the sweat rate on the breast and back in trunk with air temperature change; 3) The results of factor analysis have shown that the touch sensation of the wear consisted of factors expressing comfort, suppleness and smoothness as the first factor, and cold and cool feeling as well as light and dry feeling as the second and subsequent factors. On the basis of the scatter diagram of the first and second factor loadings and the difference of mean values of the first, second and fourth factors, it was confirmed that the touch sensation of the wear was evidently affected by the air temperature.

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We measured the heat and water transport properties and wearing comfort of tennis shirts during vigorous outdoor exercise in hot environments. Under the hot environment where perspiration occurred constantly but sweat was difficult to evaporate from the skin surface, it was confirmed that thermoregulation was efficient when the shirt materials quickly transferred sweat to the clothing surface through wicking. It was found that under such a climate, a higher polyester content, as opposed to cellulose content, was more comfortable because the shirt of higher polyester content stuck to the body less and did not impede a body movement. There was a high correlation between comfort and tensile properties WT, and a more elastic fabric to accommodate body movement was judged more comfortable. There was also a high correlation between favorable feeling and shearing hysteresis 2HG, and it was observed that a favorable feeling was higher if the fabric did not easily return back to shape in the case of slipping out of position.

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In this study, to develop a comfortable brassiere during nurse season, subject test in the chamber to know the variation of the breast during jumping, the motion was captured and clothing pressure around brassiere, softness of breast and three dimensional measurements of the breasts inside before and after putting on brassiere were measured with 17 women during nurse season. Two types of commercial full-cup brassieres (Types 1 and 2) were used. The Type 1 was a brassiere with under-cup wires, and the Type2 was one without wires in bone areas. The variation of the breast during jumping of the Type2 was larger than that of Type 1. Though there was a declination between a breast point of subject and one of brassiere for Type2 during jumping, there was not for Type 1. The amplitude of vibration correlated with softness of breast. The clothing pressure of Type 1 was larger than Type2 for almost all of measured points. The results of questionnaire replied by subjects after putting on each brassiere have shown that subjects felt more squeezed and hard to move for Type1 than Type2.

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Various chemicals are used for processing of clothes to give comfort and fashionableness. However, those chemical materials can give negative influence to skin. An atopic dermatitis patient is easy to have in particular a handicap for chemicals contained in clothes. In recent years, clothes processed to prevent contact dermatitis are recognized in a market. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether finishes on the market is positive influence to dermatitis.
The survey was conducted by written questionnaire. The subjects were 858 female university students living in the Tokai region of Japan, ranging in age from 18 to 22 years old. The survey included questions on experience of contact dermatitis due to clothing. Subjects were given additional questions regarding recognition of skin care clothes, experience of wearing skin care clothes, and improvement of a symptom by wearing skin care clothes.
The most frequent cause of skin problems was clothing, experienced by 37.7% of subjects. The percentage of subjects who had recognized skin care clothes was 45.9% of subjects experienced contact dermatitis due to clothing and 40.6% of subjects non-experienced. In the group who experienced contact dermatitis due to clothes, 22 of 296 subjects (7.4%) have worn skin care clothes. In the non-experienced group, 15 of 490 subjects (3.2%) have worn skin care clothes. Thus, the number of subjects who had worn skin care clothes was significantly higher (p<0.01) in experienced group than in non-experienced group. The number of the person whose symptom was improved by wearing skin care clothes is 11 out of 22. The necessity was recognized that activities to wear skin care clothes were promoted.

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The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between the four subjective arousal factors (sleepiness, relaxation, general activation and tension) by using the Roken Arousal Scale (RAS) and physiological measurement value of EEG and ECG. In conclusion, the factor score for the tension-relaxation was related to heart rate, and sleepiness-general activation was related to a ratio of the closed eye to the opened eye for a-wave power.
Furthermore, studies have been made to investigate the influence of a difference of the tactile feel of clothes on psychological physiology reactions. As a result, the knitted clothes, where MIU was high, MMD was low, and LC was low, showed soft feeling. And the author understood that these clothes gave relaxation and general activation on psychological physiology reaction.

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[in Japanese]

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