This research is based on an initiative by Dr. Chie Muraki-Asano of Yasuda Women's University, and collaborated by Professor Fujimoto and her laboratory staff of Hokkaido University of Education in charge of experiment works, Dr. C. Muraki-Asano in charge of statistical analysis, and Dr. Akira Asano, Hiroshima University, in charge of image processing. The following text is written by Dr. C. Muraki-Asano.

Human kansei, which is a widely used Japanese word for sensibility or emotion, for "colors" has been actively investigated in the areas of color psycology, etc. However, it seems to be treated trivial and its factors have not been investigated that the human impressions from different materials are different even if the color is the same. For example, human impressions of metallic materials and of soft materials like cloths are completely different even if their color is commonly black. Metallic materials cause an impression of coldness, and soft ones cause that of warmness. It is suggested that this difference of impressions are caused by the human perceptivity that is the integration of tactual and visual senses.

This is the same even if we restrict ourselves to cloths only. The quality of a high-quality cloth is recognized only by visual sense without touching it, since the visual sense is related to the experience of touching high-quality cloths in the human perceptivity. This suggests that the information of visual sense contains information about tactual feels of materials. We recently showed the relationship between physical properties as well as human impressions of black cloths for formal wears and their image features. Extending this research, we aim to describe feels of materials by image features./p>

We currently extend our researches on kanseito clothes, and investigate kansei to synthesized textures based on our research about the morphological texture modification. Since this method can generate a new texture synthesized by mixing features of different textures, we can investigate what feature is effective to kansei by measuring human kansei to the generated textures.

Selected publications

• C. Muraki Asano, A. Asano, L. Li, and T. Fujimoto, "Morphological texture manipulation for the evaluation of human visual sensibility," Kansei Engineering International, in press.
• L. Li, A. Asano, and C. Muraki Asano, "Statistical Analysis of Human Visual Impressions on Morphological Image Manipulation of Gray Scale Textures," Optical Review, 17, 2, 90-96 (2010. 3).
• L. Li, A. Asano, and C. Muraki Asano, "Analysis of the Effect of the Viewing Distance in Texture Perception Using Morphological and Statistical Model," Proc. 2009 International Workshop on Smart Info-Media Systems in Asia (SISA2009), 125-130 (2009. 10).
• L. Li, A. Asano, and C. Muraki Asano, "Evaluation of Human Visual Impressions in Gray Scale Textures Using Morphological Manipulation," Proc. 8th International Conference on Hybrid Intelligent Systems (HIS2008), 114-119 (2008. 9).
• T. Fujimoto, M. R. Sunderland, S. K. Tandon, C. M. Asano, A. Asano, C. Murata, and H. Fukuyama, "Measurement of surface property using a special sensor developed for pile materials," Indian Journal of Fibre & Textile Research, 33, 3, 253-257 (2008. 9).
• L. Li, A. Asano, and C. Muraki Asano, "Evaluation of Human Visual Impressions in Gray Scale Textures Using Morphological Manipulation," Proc. 8th International Conference on Hybrid Intelligent Systems (HIS2008), 114-119 (2008. 9).
• C. Muraki Asano, A. Asano, T. Fujimoto, "Morphological Texture Manipulation and Human Visual Impressions," Proc. International Conference on Kansei Engineering and Emotion Research 2007 (KEER2007), F-8 (2007. 10). [Excellent Paper Award]
• M. Murakami, C. Muraki Asano, A. Asano, T. Fujimoto, S. K. Tandon, S. McNeil, and C. Piper, "Evaluation of Kansei of Clothing Materials: Part I - Visual Impression and Properties of Black Fabrics -," Proc. International Conference on Kansei Engineering and Emotion Research 2007 (KEER2007), F-5 (2007. 10).
• C. Muraki Asano, T. Fujimoto, A. Asano, M. Murakami, S. K. Tandon, S. McNeil, C. Piper, M. Morita, and M. Mori, "Evaluation of Kansei of Clothing Materials: Part II - Texture and Visual Impressions Using Novel Technique -," Proc. International Conference on Kansei Engineering and Emotion Research 2007 (KEER2007), F-6 (2007. 10).
• T. Fujimoto, M. R. Sunderland, S. K. Tandon, C. Muraki Asano, A. Asano, C. Murata, and H. Fukuyama, "Measurement of Surface Property Using A Special Sensor Developed for Pile Materials," Proc. International Conference on Kansei Engineering and Emotion Research 2007 (KEER2007), F-1 (2007. 10).
• C. Muraki Asano, A. Asano, M. Muneyasu, and T. Fujimoto, "Analysis and evaluation of visual identification of texture using image processing methods," Proc. Joint 3rd International Conference on Soft Computing and Intelligent Systems and 7th International Symposium on advanced Intelligent Systems (SCIS & ISIS 2006), 1789-1793 (2006. 9).
• C. Muraki Asano, M. Morita, T. Fujimoto, A. Asano, S. Tandon, and M. Mori, "Description and identification of texture of clothing materials using image processing method," Extended Abstracts of 35th Textile Research Symposium, 81 (2006. 8).
• C. Muraki Asano, M. Muneyasu, T. Ozeki, A. Asano, and T. Fujimoto, "Application of Fourier sectrum for describing 'formal' of cloths," Proc. 2005 IEEE-EURASIP Workshop on Nonlinear Signal and Image Processing (NSIP 2005), 19AM2D-02 (2005. 5).
• C. Muraki Asano, S. Hirakawa, and A. Asano, "Exploration of Image Features for Describing Visual Impressions of Black Fabrics," Proc. Eighth International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Information & Engineering Systems (KES2004) part III, Springer LNAI 3215, 756-763 (2004. 9).
• S. Hirakawa, C. Muraki Asano, N. Hamahashi, and A. Asano, "Discriminal Exploration of Image Features for Describing Visual Impressions of Black Fabrics," Design and Application of Hybrid Intelligent Systems (Frontiers in Artificial Intelligence and Applications 104, A. Abraham, et. al., Ed.) 509-518 (2003. 12).
• C. Muraki Asano, A. Asano, M. Murakami, M. Mori, and T. Fujimoto, "A Novel Evaluation Method of Visual Impression of Black Fabrics," Journal of the Asian Design International Conference, 1, G-47 (2003. 10).
• M. Kihara, I. Yoshizawa, M. Murakami, C. Muraki Asano, A. Asano, and T. Fujimoto, "The Determination of "pure blackness" of the Fabric in Women's Formal Dresses," Proc. 6th Asian Textile Conference, paper no. 265 (2001. 8).