Jitter Ring is the popular

which has another name called as “Chatter Ring” or “Gyro Ring”. This is composed of a circular ring and the washer inserted into the ring. Just after supplying the washer with an initial angular velocity, the player of this has only need to wheel the ring in the vertical state by handling each hand alternately. Then, the washer will continue to rotate with fluctuation by this operation. Further the player will feel the oscillating response through the driving hands. This rotatory motion of the washer is somewhat complicated and the analyses tried up to now concerning this motion don’t almost appear in public. Consequently the author thought that there were the significant meanings in the dynamic analysis for this motion of the washer. Considering the friction between the ring and the washer, he performed the three-dimensional analysis by regarding the washer as the rigid body without a fixed point and adopting Eulerian angles in this research. As a result, the actual behavior with fluctuating rotation of the washer was confirmed by the numerical analysis. Furthermore, he investigated the influence on the motion of the washer by varying each value of parameters in this system.

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“ The passive dynamic biped walker robot ” can walk on a slope due to only the function of gravity. Many researches concerning this walker are executed nowadays. The conventional dynamic model of this walker has two legs connected with its body like a rigid pendulum. The lateral rolling motion of the body causes to swing each floated leg forward alternately. From this, the walker can naturally walk down a slope. But this walker has a possibility of falling down due to the instability by the instant standing with one leg alone. On the other hand, the descending model of this report also has the same particularity that can walk down a slope without active control. But it has the appearance that two fan-shaped disks are connected at the arc centers with free rotation. Consequently, the possibility of falling down almost vanishes. The principle of descending a slope of this model is based on the yawing motion induced by the lateral deviation of the gravity center which the rolling motion of the body generates. These rolling and yawing motions are consequently coupled each other and generate the self-excited swaying motion like a switchback. The purpose of this research is to clarify the conditions of the occurrence of this switchback motion. The author analyzed this interesting dynamic motion of each fan-shaped disk as three dimensional descending movement of the rigid body without a fixed point. From this analysis, he could confirm the occurrence of the switchback motion which also was observed in the experiments.

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There are the conveying machines utilizing vibration which can transport the various parts of engineering products in succession. When the body to be carried has the axisymmetric shape like an ellipsoid, it does not need to vibrate the conveying machine, and the ellipsoidal body itself can roll down the stationary tilted track automatically. But it will continue to accelerate in speed and we cannot avoid the bump due to the over-speed at the goal. The author designed to prevent the over-speed rolling motion of this ellipsoidal body by setting the vertical walls on the both sides of the slope through the slight collision there. This way leads to simplify the complicated vibrating mechanism and further to decrease the consumption of power and the emission of noise & vibration. The most important subject for realizing this simple conveying system is whether rolling and colliding motions of the body are sustained spontaneously or not. The purpose of this research is to clarify the behavior of the self-excited motion which this ellipsoidal body continues to roll down the tilted slope through the repetitious collision with the walls. The author analyzed this motion of the body as three dimensional descending movement of the rigid body without a fixed point. From this analysis, he could confirm the continuous rolling and colliding motions which were also observed in the experiments.

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The convex disk rotating along a V-shaped valley causes the excited vibration in a rolling motion. This report represents the mechanism of generating this rolling vibration through an analytical model and the observed results using a simple apparatus. The author makes clear through investigation that these phenomena are derived from the friction induced between the disk and the tilted surface of the valley and that the rolling motion is generated because the rolling moment due to this friction varies synchronously with the rolling angular velocity. Further it is revealed that the greater the frictional coefficient is, the more this vibration is excited, and that the case of the tilted slope with a meeting angle beyond a certain limit of both sides of the valley does not generate these excited behaviors. A sphere instead of a disk behaves simple rotation along a slope without vibration. When this excited vibration in a rolling motion grows severer, the perpendicular resistant force on either surface of the slope of a valley becomes zero alternately. These analytical results tend to coincide with the ones observed on the apparatus. This mechanism inducing the excited vibration is expected to be applicable for polishing the stones of “go” or the convex lenses efficiently and for selecting the medical tablets with poor quality.

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Epistemic curiosity (EC) is the desire to acquire new knowledge. This study investigated the association between EC and cognitive ability by conducting two different measurements of EC: a report-based measurement using a parent report questionnaire, and a behaviour-based measurement using an exploratory task. In the exploratory task, we used an ambiguous

that was not novel, but might stimulate EC, and a clear that was novel to determine which was preferred. The results showed that preschoolers preferred the ambiguous to the clear novel . There was a positive correlation between preference for the ambiguous and IQ (information subscale). There was a weak relationship between questionnaire scores and exploratory task performance. Cognitive ability (information scores) may support detection of the information gap which triggers curiosity-driven exploration. Each measurement (report-based and behavioural-based) can assess different aspects of EC. Report-based EC may be more indicative of children’s observed EC in daily life, whereas behavioural measurement in a structured setting may better reflect children’s cognitive abilities to detect curiosity-driven stimuli.

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Two experiments were conducted to examine the hypothesis that 4-year-olds' failure to resist to temptation was caused by their attention to motivational qualities of tempting objects. The forbidden situation forbidden to play with the attractive was used, In Experiment I that manipulated attention style of tempting objects, four conditions were set. Two conditions of these were conditions that prevented from attending to the motivational qualities of tempting objects and consisted of distraction condition that distracted from and -negative condition that evaluated the negatively. The other two conditions were control condition and -positive condition that attended to the motivational qualities of . The main results indicated that the transgression latencies of distraction and -negative conditions were longer than the other two conditions. In Experiment II, subjects were instructed to choose the strategy that they would use between stimulus pairs obtained by combining three strategy used in Experiment I. The results indicated that the number of subjects choosing -positive strategy were more than the other strategies in pairing -positive strategy with other two strategies. The hypothesis was supported from the present study.

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After experiencing natural disasters, accidents, and shocking incidents, some children experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A respiration control method that relaxes the body and mind may efficiently improve PTSD symptoms. Therefore, we developed a stuffed

using two airbags to measure the respiration wave and guide a child's respiration using the up-and-down movements of the abdomen to help them relax. The respiration wave was measured by the sensing device, and the child's respiration could be led by the moving device. We then performed an evaluation experiment. Participants in the experiment consisted of nine healthy girls aged 8–10 years. The results showed that the respiration guidance resulted in fewer variations in the children's mean heart rate than that with just hugging (p < 0.05). This result suggests that the respiration-guiding trial relaxes children compared with just hugging the stuffed without motion. The effectiveness of this stuffed in improving PTSD symptoms in children should be further evaluated.

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PINOKY is a wireless ring-like device that is externally attached to any plush as an accessory that animates the by moving its limbs. A user is thus able to instantly convert any plush into a soft robot. The user can control the remotely or input the movement desired by moving the plush and having the data recorded and played back. Unlike other methods for animating plush toys, PINOKY is non-intrusive, so alterations to the are not required.

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The capability trained by studying information design is considered as follows. A) Evaluating the relation between object and man, B) Arranging and analyzing information, C) Constructing the process, D) Cooperate in a group, appealing to society, E) Representing by applying technology. The process of the education through a theme "" is as follows. 1) Choose a , 2) Find 100 ways of playing, 3) Compare of the original and other toys, 4) Analyze the elements of the , 5) Sublimate the elements to create a new , 6) Announce to the public, 7) Reflect. Choosing the theme "" was effective for educating information design, since the message from the is simple, users are limited, it's suitable for groups work and our experience in the childhood would be helpful.

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A constuction like Lego has been considered as a good creative because of its flexibility. Though, competition in the market has led to more new components and realistic models. This change seems to have made a radical contradiction to the original requirement of a construction : "children can build what they want by themselves". In this article, I studied the requirements of a flexible construction with realism. Thus, I would not propose to go back to the "ideal, genuine construction ". What we need indeed is not only new well-designed parts but, motivating children to be autonomus to design, study, and build by themselves.

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ヤジロベエは日本の伝統的な玩具である。伝統的な構造は三つのパーツで構成されていて、中央のパーツは人の形をしており、人の腕に見立てた細い棒で左右に錘を連結することでバランスをとり、揺らしても倒れない性質が特徴の玩具である。揺らしても倒れない原理はヤジロベエの重心位置が支点の鉛直下にあることであるが、実際にデザインする際、重心位置を把握するのが難しい。更に、左右で異なるパーツを用いると重量の差が生じるため、よりデザインが困難になる。 本研究ではヤジロベエをより簡単にデザインできるようにするため、自動的にヤジロベエのバランスを調節できるデザイン支援システムの実現を目指した。

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To investigate how smell would affect the product experience, the present study chose the aromas of sweet orange and peppermint as the starting point of the product experience of the orange-shaped lego-like

blocks. It was found that the aroma of sweet orange would lead to the highest degree of liking for the aroma, evoke images or expectations closer to the reality of the blocks, and relieve the fatigue of the participants after they directly smelled it. And the aroma of peppermint was found to moderate the tension caused by the blocks-building task and contribute to maintaining participants’ vigor. Notwithstanding, the aromas did not have noticeable effects on people’s degrees of liking for the blocks and their evaluations of the product due to the sensory dominance in the multisensory product experience. The potential roles of aromas in product experience remain to be investigated.

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A new mechanism design using a magnetic force with high efficiency to assist discharging dregs out of the electrode gap during the electrochemical finishing on the surface finish process that follows end-turning is investigated in the current study. Through simple equipment attachment, magnetic-assistance during electrochemical finishing can follow the cutting process on the same machine. This process can be used for various end-turning operations. Among the factors affecting electrochemical finishing, the magnetic-assistance is primarily discussed. The experimental parameters are chemical composition and concentration of the electrolyte, flow rate of the electrolyte, initial gap width, current rating, on/off period of pulsed current, feed rate of workpiece, rotational speed of workpiece and electrode, magnetic strength, and distance between the two magnets. A higher current rating with magnetic-assistance reduces the finishing time and avoids the difficulty of dreg discharge. Providing a large magnetic field intensity or using a small distance between the two magnets produces a larger magnetic force and discharge ability and better finishing. A large rotational speed of the workpiece and electrode produces better finishing. Pulsed direct current can slightly promote the effect of electrochemical finishing, but the current rating needs to be increased. The magnetic-assistance during the electrochemical finishing process makes a great contribution in a short time by making the surface of the workpiece smooth and bright.

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Background: Plastic additives have adverse effects on human health. Children frequently use toys that contain various substances found in paints, plasticizers, and other materials, which heighten the risk of specific chemical exposure. Infants are particularly prone to chemical exposure through the “mouthing” behavior because of the possibility of placing toys in their mouths. Thus, this vulnerability should be considered during risk assessments of chemical exposure.

Methods: This study performed a comprehensive analysis of the chemical components in various 84 plastic toys including “designated toys” (toys that may be harmful to infant health if in contact with their mouths: Article 78 of the Enforcement Regulations of the Food Sanitation Law by the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare) such as dolls, balls, blocks, bathing toys,

vehicles, pacifiers, and household items, purchased in the Japanese market by nontargeted and targeted analysis.

Results: Plasticizers, flame retardants, and fragrances were the main compounds in almost all the

products. The results showed that plastic products made in China tended to contain high levels of phthalate esters. In particular, hazardous plasticizers, such as diisodecyl, di-n-octyl, and diisononyl phthalates were detected above the regulatory limit (0.1%) in used products manufactured before regulations were passed in Japan. Furthermore, we detected alternative plasticizers, such as acetyl tributyl citrate (ATBC; 52%), diisononyl adipate (DINA; 50%), and di(2-ethylhexyl) terephthalate (DEHT; 40%). ATBC was detected at high concentrations in numerous products. Thus, infants with free access to indoor plastic toys might be exposed to these chemicals.

Conclusions: This study observed that the chemical profiles of

products were dependent on the year of manufacture. Furthermore, the detection of currently regulated plasticizers in secondhand products manufactured before regulations were enforced, along with the increasing trend of using alternative substances to regulated phthalate esters in products, suggests the potential exposure of infants to these plasticizers through the use of toys. Therefore, regular fact-finding surveys should continue to be conducted for the risk assessment and safety management of domestic products.

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