Takarazuka University of Arts & Crafts

The durable conductive fiber was developed by the concepts of new nano composite technique. The fiber is composed of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and sulfide copper (Cu <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">x</sub> S) nano particles, and shows good internal-electro conductivity. This leads to the unique fabrics with the durability against the bending, friction and washing. In addition, electro conductivity of this is controllable from 1 e-1 to 1 e+8 ohm cm for various purposes. As results, it has possibility as high conductive and durability fiber against conventional carbon contained fiber or surface metalized fiber.

We propose a relative estimation method for subjective age, imaged by ourselves, using peoples' facial images and their chronological (real) age. We experimented with a rating scale for facial images which stimulated subjects. The subject evaluated an image as looking older than themselves with a range of responses. Finding an approximation curve of this range, the zero crossing point in the approximation curve is defined as the subjective age. The experimental result shows that the subjective age tends to be found in negative direction (tendency to estimate oneself as younger than actual). Besides, there are other trends between gender, between age groups, and between the different expressions such as ordinary and smiling.

To know about the correspondence between visual moving objects and auditory signals is useful in the production of image entertainments and multimedia information via communication network systems. In addition, it can contribute to fundamental research into the time perception in different modalities and the phenomenon of synesthesia. Subjective impression of synchrony between visual motion of a disk and auditory signal was examined in this study. The synchronization between the stopping of the motion of a disk on a screen and that of sound seemed to be important for the judgment of synchrony between audio-visual stimuli. The synchronization between the starting points of both stimuli seemed to be less important for the judgment of synchrony. The existence of a visual framework in the screen played little role for the synchrony at the point of stopping.

Since the 1970’s the present authors have conducted a series of experiments on the effect of envelope patterns on a subjective impression of sounds and a model of dynamic hearing characteristics was proposed on the basis of the results of these experiments. The present investigation was designed to examine the effect of envelope pattern on the impression of sound quality. Three kinds of envelope pattern were used; they were sounds with short rise time and long decay, sounds with long rise time and short decay, and steady state sounds. The duration of each sound was 125, 250, and 500 ms. In total, nine kinds of sound were prepared. The sound was repeated with silent intervals and the total duration was 5 sec. The sound quality was judged using a semantic differential and a paired comparison. It was found that the envelope pattern has a significant effect on the impression of pleasantness and the duration of the sound on the impression of sharpness and articulation.

This study examined auditory and visual interaction in the aesthetic evaluation of the environment. Road traffic noise, sounds from leaves, and motion pictures coherent to auditory stimuli were used. There were four conditions: only auditory stimuli were presented in condition A, only visual stimuli in condition V, both auditory and visual stimuli in condition A+V, and after both auditory and visual stimuli were presented together, auditory stimuli were presented alone and judged in condition (V)A. A semantic differential technique indicated that scenery that included green plants contributed to the improvement of the environment even if only shown as an image. A scene with many cars gave a negative impression. However, even if the sound from the cars was audible, visual masking by green plants seemed effective in reducing the negative impression of road traffic noise.

In order to study whether it is possible to express color images instrumentally, a color image scale for the determination of a chromaticity point by colorimetry was considered. The color image scale was divided into several color image regions by assigning the chromaticity point of each color chart to the color image of a color chart, on the color image scale. The chromaticity point and the color image can effectively be determined using the relationship between the chromaticity point and the color image in the color image scale.