Abstract
This chapter proposes a concept of KANSEI mathematical model and reports our attempts to find out physical attributes that determine Kawaii-ness in motion. A Japanese word “Kawaii” is one of the representative concepts of Japan-original KANSEI (emotions and sensibility) and describes favorable characters such as pretty, adorable, fairy-like, and cute. Although there are many attempts to clarify Kawaii-ness in static quantities such as shapes and colors, there is none in motions. We have been developing Virtual KANSEI for robots that enable robots to communicate with humans not only at a physical level but also at a metaphysical level. So far, we have succeeded in developing virtual emotion but not sensibility. This chapter extends our research on virtual emotion to virtual sensibility. First, we proposed the concept of KANSEI mathematical model. Then, we attempted to find influential factors that determine Kawaii-ness of motion. We chose Roomba to study Kawaii-ness of motion because its neutral shape (round) and color (white) are expected to give little influence on Kawaii-ness of motion. We first investigated impressions of motions of Roomba and classified them into 10 types. Then, we used a questionnaire consisting of 20 pairing adjectives to evaluate those motions. We conducted a factor analysis using the top three motions that were found to be Kawaii by the participants. We found a factor that is common to all three motions that could be named infantile. The result of the factor analysis also suggests several physical quantities that control Kawaii-ness of motion.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
This experiment was approved by the ethics committee of the Chiba Institute of Technology.
References
Miyaji, Y., & Tomiyama, K. (2007). Virtual KANSEI for robots in welfare. In Proceedings of IEEE/ICME International Conference on Complex Medical Engineering (pp. 1323–1326).
Kogami, J., Miyaji, Y., & Tomiyama, K. (2009). KANSEI generator using HMM for virtual KANSEI in caretaker support robot. KANSEI Engineering International Journal, 8(1), 83–90.
Zenkyoh, M., & Tomiyama, K. (2011). Surprise generator for virtual KANSEI based on human surprise characteristics. In Proceedings of HCI2011, The 14th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (S111). Orlando, Florida, USA.
Miyaji, Y., & Tomiyama, K. (2003). Construction of virtual KANSEI by Petri-net with GA and method of constructing personality. In Proceedings of ROMAN2003, The 12th IEEE International Workshop on Robot and Human Interactive Communication 6B4(CD–ROM) (pp. 391–396). Millbrae, California, USA.
Ohkura, M., Konuma, A., Murai, S., & Aoto, T. (2008). Systematic study for “Kawaii” products (the second report) -comparison of “Kawaii” colors and shapes-. In Proceedings of SICE Annual Conference 2008 (pp. 481–484). Chofu, Japan.
Murai, S., Goto, S., Aoto, T., & Ohkura, M. (2008). Systematic study for “Kawaii” products (the third report) -comparison of “Kawaii” between 2D and 3D-. In Proceedings of the 13th Annual Conference of the Virtual Reality Society of Japan (2B5-6) (pp. 544–547). Nara, Japan. (in Japanese).
Ohkura, M., & Komatsu, T. (2013). Basic study on Kawaii feeling of material perception. In Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCII), HCII 2013 (Part I, LNCS 8004) (pp. 585–592). Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Ohkura, M., Goto, S., Higo, A., & Aoto, T. (2011). Relation between Kawaii feeling and biological signals. Transactions of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering, 10(2), 109–114.
Nittono, H. (2011). A behavioral science approach to research and development of Kawaii artifacts. Journal of Japan Society of Kansei Engineering, 10(2), 91–95. (in Japanese).
iRobot official site. Accessed August 15, 2018, https://www.irobot.com/.
Weber, E. H. (1978). The sense of touch. London, New York: Academic Press.
Fancher, R. E. (1996). Pioneers of psychology. W. W. Norton & Co.
Roomba 500 Series. iRobot Japan official site. Accessed August 15, 2018, https://www.irobot-jp.com/storeproduct/500series/index.html (in Japanese).
Sugano, S., Morita, H., & Tomiyama, K. (2012) Study on Kawaii-ness in motion -classifying Kawaii motion using roomba. In Proceedings of AHFE 2012, The International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (pp. 4498–4507). San Francisco, California, USA.
Sugano, S., Miyaji, Y., & Tomiyama, K. (2013). Study on Kawaii-ness in motion -physical properties of Kawaii motion of roomba. In Proceedings of HCII 2013, The 15th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction S140 (Part I, LNCS 8004) (pp. 620–629). Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their appreciation for all the participants of our series of Kawaii studies for their patience and willingness for cooperation. We also would like to thank Ms. Haruna Morita who was our trusted comrade in the early stage of our Kawaii study. Special appreciation is due to Prof. Michiko Ohkura for giving us the opportunity to report our work here.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix
Appendix
The adjective pairs used in our questionnaire are listed below. Three different questionnaires were prepared with a randomized order of the pairs and right and left arrangements of adjectives (Table 4.4).
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Sugano, S., Tomiyama, K. (2019). Kawaii-ness in Motion. In: Ohkura, M. (eds) Kawaii Engineering. Springer Series on Cultural Computing. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7964-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7964-2_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-7963-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-7964-2
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)