Emotional Engineering, Vol. 8

Our world is changing from the closed world with boundaries to open world and changes occur frequently, extensively, and unpredictably. Thus, our world is rapidly shifting from explicit and verbal to tacit and nonverbal. We have been focusing our attention on products and their functions. But today we need to adapt to such changes. Thus, adaptability becomes most important. Until now, knowledge has been considered important. But knowledge is concept, and concept varies from person to person. Take music for example. It is represented by a musical score, but music is played differently from player to player. The music itself is analog. The real-world is analog. We need more direct interaction with the analog real-world to make adequate decisions. Invertebrate survive on instinct alone. But we forgot to utilize instinct. To interact with the real-world directly and to adapt more adequately, we must make efforts to make the most of our instincts. Then, we can open the door to the world of Wisdom Engineering.

The Industrial Revolution realized a great advance in engineering. But it pursued product value, and efficiency and mass production were evaluated. To achieve this goal, it introduced Division of Labor. Thus, we came to work for others. But if we look back, engineering started to make our dreams come true and we made efforts to realize it by trial and error. This is a challenge. Challenge is the core and mainspring of all human activities. We enjoy challenges. That is why we love games. However, the Industrial Revolution deprived us of such a joy of challenge. We work for others based on instructions. In a way, we are regarded as something like machines. Further, it consumes tremendous amount of resources (energy, etc.). Thus, how we can sustain development becomes crucially important. But if we start to work for ourselves and for pleasure, we can revive self-sufficient society in a new style. This will solve many problems facing us, such as lack of labor force (aging society), limited resources, too much energy consumption, etc. And this is nothing other than Self-Actualization and Self-Determination. It will enable us to enjoy the highest level of happiness and satisfaction.

This chapter describes the trends in the phonemes used in naming by using the attributes of objects. The study used the names of characters in video games and automobiles as the targets of analysis. By categorizing the objects based on their attributes, the study sought to verify if there existed a difference in the used phonemes between the categories. As a result, the study clarified the phonemes used to illustrate smallness, lightness, and weakness in addition to the phonemes used to depict largeness, heaviness, and strength between two objects. In addition, the study also employed evaluation experiments to verify the trends in the phonemes used in naming, which was derived from the analyses of the objects’ attributes, and to verify whether the phonemes used in the naming process matched people’s impressions. Through this process, the study identified the objects’ specific naming trends and the characteristics of the phonemes. By performing the same analysis process for many objects, the study hopes to propose a supporting method for the naming process of specific objects.

The design of original handicrafts requires appropriate construction plans, since the creation of such plans is very difficult for children, they are typically restricted to the use of off-the-shelf projects. To provide alternatives, we created interactive systems that allow nonprofessional users to design their own original handicrafts, such as plush toys, knitted animals, beadwork, and stencils. For plush toys, the “Plushie” interactive design system uses a sketching interface for three-dimensional (3D) modeling and provides various editing operations tailored for plush toy creation. Internally, the system constructs a two-dimensional (2D) cloth pattern that, in turn, is used to produce a simulation that matches the user’s input strokes. For knitted animal toys, we created the “Knitty” interactive design system, which also provides a production-assistant interface for novices, while the “Beady” system interactively assists users in the design and construction of customized 3D beadwork. The latter system provides a mesh modeling user interface specialized for beadwork models by combining gestural operations and physical simulations. It also provides a visual 3D step-by-step guide to facilitate the manual beadwork construction process. Finally, the “Holly” system lets users quickly design stencils from scratch by interactively drawing free-form strokes on a digital canvas, which the system then uses to generate the stencils automatically. The support systems mentioned above were successfully demonstrated in special workshops and user studies, the results of which show that even children can use them effectively to design original handicrafts.

The increasing concern for sustainability-related issues leads to the rise of new fields in design research, dedicated to limit the negative impact of human activities on the environment and society. After addressing issues related to production, efficiency, recyclability and disassembly, designers start to recognize their responsibility in guiding users to behave in a more responsible and sustainable way. For this reason, designing products to support users’ behaviour change is becoming one of the most popular trends in design research at the moment. To achieve the desired results design for behaviour change, and in particular, Design for Sustainable Behaviour exploits a variety of approaches. In this Chapter, we explore the use of Design for Sustainable Behaviour techniques through a literature review of theories and case studies. Then, we defined a framework which describes the use of multisensory stimuli as elements to support different phases of interaction during the user experience with an interactive product. We relate this framework to previous works and then we discuss two case studies.

Cyber-physical systems possess highly integrated functions of data collection, data processing, communication, and control. Given their seamless integration with human society, they are also termed as cyber-physical-social systems (CPSS). The advanced capabilities and functions of CPSS rely on their highly networked working environment and deep interdependency. The effectiveness of their performance critically depends on what and how they share among each other. Designing a trustworthy CPSS network, which can work together collaboratively thus is important. To perform systems design, quantitative measures of trustworthiness are required. In this chapter, quantitative metrics of trustworthiness, including capability, benevolence, and integrity, are proposed based on a generic probabilistic graph model of CPSS networks. The proposed metrics can be calculated from either subjective perception or objective statistics of sensing, computing, and communication functions in CPSS networks. A design optimization framework based on the trustworthiness metrics is also demonstrated.

Taking the upcoming “Society 5.0” and “100 years of lifetime” into account, what should each and every one of us, as a worker, do to confront our work positively and realize a fulfilling career? Moreover, in economic circumstances that are insecure and uncertain for businesses, what should we do to develop human resources capable of creating new values and enhancing labor productivity? In this study, in order to meet personal and organizational demands, the author defines the fundamental problem as “What should we do to get each employee to work with more initiative?” If you are in a comfortable, active state in which you find your work rewarding, and you work with initiative, then you have high work engagement. This study focuses on the mediation effect of work engagement and positive emotion. We also give heed to “Waku-Waku,” an onomatopoeia expressing positive emotion that is unique to the Japanese language. Originally, onomatopoeia has rarely been used in academic papers as it does not have a solid conceptual definition. It, however, is a linguistic expression that is excellent in conveying our intention with complexity and precision. Although “Waku-Waku” is often translated into “excitement” in English, it has been confirmed in a prior study that its nuance is much closer to concepts such as “well-being” and “flow”. These concepts are considered from the standpoint of new intervention to make work more satisfying and fulfilling in light of human resource management. This study focuses on the positive emotion of “Waku-Waku,” and builds up a statistic structure of the main factor that can evoke this motion in working scenes, through qualitative and quantitative analysis. Among others, reported here is a study of analysis on factors of feeling “Waku-Waku” at work that many working individuals in Japan are aware of. As a result, four factors were confirmed: 1. Challenge to creativity and the unknown; 2. Fortune and pleasure; 3. Interest in others at work and; 4. Passion in terms of sensitivity. Since it was shown that working individuals feel “Waku-Waku” when they face these things, the concept of “Waku-Waku” was tentatively defined in conclusion.

Attachment security is a critical resource for individuals to preserve relationship quality. Insecure attachment reduces relationship quality and can seriously influence mental and physical health. Adult attachment style is thought to develop through relationships with a caregiver during childhood and social interactions during adolescence according to epigenetic modification and reinforcement learning mechanisms, and is an important factor for developing and maintaining relationship quality. The neurochemicals such as oxytocin (OXT), dopamine (DA), and serotonin (5-HT) have been shown to be critical for pair-bond formation and maintenance by animal experiments. However, the neural basis underlying the human adult attachment has not yet been clarified. We investigated whether the brain regions involved in these neurochemicals are correlated with adult attachment style in healthy male participants using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Significantly activated brain regions, while they were viewing their partner compared to unknown females included the hypothalamus, substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA), dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) and locus coeruleus (LC), in which each of these regions is involved in OXT, DA, 5-HT and norepinephrine, respectively. Moreover, higher activity in these brainstem regions was associated with less attachment anxiety. These brainstem regions are primarily important for basic survival functions and well-being. Based on these results, in humans, neurochemicals such as OXT, DA, and 5-HT may be also critical for developing and maintaining relationships, and adult attachment style may be developed based on the epigenetic modification and reinforcement learning mechanisms through relationships with a caregiver during childhood.

It will be necessary to understand the mechanisms of aesthetic sensibility and to create a model for predicting and controlling these in order to strategically design visual elements of products which increase user evaluations. This chapter will discuss a cognitive neuroscientific approach attempting to understand subjective experience and behavior from its biological basis, the brain, as one method for understanding and modeling human aesthetic sensibility. First, we will provide a definition of sensibility for this chapter and introduce past studies pertaining to aesthetic sensibility. Then, we will discuss a study which presents a cognitive neural model of aesthetic sensibility toward products.

The primary focus behind the overall design involves shifting from a designer-centric concept to a user-centric one. In essence, cars are utilitarian from an engineering point of view and symbolic-emotional from a social point of view. The modern car retains a strong social position and also generates vivid emotions. The tellability of a car is the priority when communicating with a customer. As a result, this paper proposes a computational approach towards studying the relationship between car morphology and the aforementioned produced emotions. Emotions are considered self-measurable and physiologically distinct. Each car is thus self-evaluated emotionally by a panel of potential users. The results of this study allege that cars can be differentiated in terms of emotions. The computing results show that a dominant trend in car style reflects the production of a group of emotions that we called power. These emotions are classified as (a) dynamism, (b) aggressivity, and (c) powerfulness, and are associated with those of (d) elegance and (e) modernity. Two groups of cars mostly correspond to a single emotion: friendly or stable. Finally, a group of cars is characterized by neutrality. It is also important for the designer to be able to foresee changes in style; and if possible, a designer must be able to explain them while considering the emotions produced in time and within context. A possible explanation is that the relationship between a car’s style and its environment tends to be orchestrated and designed as a team. A car’s style can be influenced by both the physical and social environment, and, in turn, impact these environments.

This chapter aims to figure out the difference of our impressions on curves that are used in form designs, and also to contribute industrial designers by implementing a smart computer aided design (CAD) system that has the same feeling on curves as human designers have. The proposing K-vector is a mathematical form of classifying such curves by designers’ impressions.

This chapter discusses a mathematical model of emotions associated with novelty at variable uncertainty levels. The model predicts dominant emotion dimensions, arousal (intensity of emotion), and valence (positivity or negativity). To represent the arousal level, we used Kullback–Leibler divergence of Bayesian posterior from the prior, which we termed information gain. The information gain corresponds to surprise, a high-arousal emotion, upon experiencing a novel event. Based on Berlyne’s hedonic function (or the inverse U-shaped curve, so-called Wundt curve), we formalized valence as a summation of reward and aversion systems that are modeled as sigmoid functions of information gain. We derived information gain as a function of prediction errors (i.e., differences between the prediction and the reality), uncertainty (i.e., variance of the prior that is proportional to prior entropy), and sensory noise. This functional model predicted an interaction effect of prediction errors and uncertainty on information gain, which we termed the arousal crossover effect. Our model’s predictions of arousal help identify positively accepted novelty.

In recent years, the effects of forests on the psychological and physiological aspects of human beings have been identified, and effects such as relaxation, stress reduction, and health promotion have been clarified. On the other hand, there are still many unclear points about what elements of the forest environment have a relaxing effect and a stress-reducing effect on humans. Therefore, as one of the elements of them, this study focused on the sounds of the forest environment, extracted characteristics from the measurement data of forest sounds, and investigated the psychological impression of forest sounds. As a result of this study, we found that the sound of the forest is quiet; the sound sources contain high-frequency components, and these sources are fluctuating. Moreover, sounds with this tendency were found to be comforting, open/active, and related to a sense of relaxation. This result suggests that the sound of a forest environment is one of the factors that have a relaxing effect on humans.

In modern Japanese society, managing a super-aged society is an urgent task, and high demands exist for ensuring safety and comfort. Hence, the elucidation of human cognition, judgment, and behavior is important. This paper introduces a new trend of approaches, including the engineering approach to kansei and cognition. Various technologies such as noninvasive living body information measurement, artificial intelligence, internet of things, virtual reality, and human–machine interface have been integrated, and the new kansei, emotional, and cognitive science and engineering have become a basic technology for improving quality of life.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are commonly used to backlight text indicators in vehicles, among other uses. It is desirable that such text indicators are both easily legible and have low fatigue-inducing qualities. Suitable spectral distributions for text presentation in vehicles have not yet been clarified. This study examined the legibility and fatigue experienced by participants when reading sentences presented through backlight emission for 10 min in a dark room. The backlight indicators employed both colored and white LEDs. The participants were asked to answer questionnaires to evaluate the LEDs’ legibility and fatigue. Moreover, the participants’ critical fusion frequency and brain activity were measured to objectively evaluate fatigue. The questionnaire results show that all of the colored backlighting displayed an almost equal legibility. The overall results suggest that participants were most (least) fatigued when viewing text illuminated by high color-rending (greenish white backlighting). Thus, fatigue can be reduced by using LEDs with different spectral distributions.