Etsuko T. Harada

Field study of a waiting-time filler delivery system

As the variety of mobile services increases, the uses of mobile communications become more diverse and the control of service quality from a user experience perspective becomes increasingly important in mobile service design. The quality of the network is one of the critical factors determining mobile service quality. However, quality has mainly been evaluated in objective physical terms, such as delay reduction and increased bandwidth. It is less common to use a human-centered design viewpoint to improve network performance. In this paper, we discuss a waiting-time filler delivery system that actively addresses the human factor to improve the subjective quality of a mobile network. The main contribution of this paper is to quantitatively show the effect of time fillers on waiting. Field experiments show that time fillers can significantly decrease user dissatisfaction with waiting, but that this effect is strongly influenced by user preferences concerning content.

Animacy perception of agents: Their effects on users behavior and variability between age groups

Autonomous agents and/or robot embodiments are frequently introduced to a complex system in expectation of eliciting user behavior similar to human-human interaction with the target system. The current study examines the process and factors involved in this type of interaction. As a first step, we conducted a psychological experiment to examine animacy perception of the agent and its effects on user interaction with the system, here a microwave oven, comparing among three conditions: an embodied condition (with anthropomorphic robot features called agent triggers), a voice agent condition, and a control condition (no-agent condition). Additionally, we investigated differences between responses by age groups. Results showed two types of animacy, lifelikeness and intelligence; older and younger adults responded quite differently to the two agents conditions, which indicated that older adults placed more values on embodied agents. Hypothetical models of animacy perception in younger and older adults and their behaviors in interaction with the system implied the importance of perceived individuality of an agent and background knowledge an agents function and abilities.

2D1-3 What is ease of opening for food packages?:: A method for evaluating easiness-to-open of food packages by healthy elders

2030年には日本の人口の1/3が65歳以上の高齢 者となり、今後さらに高齢者に配慮した製品づく りが活性化すると予測される。そのため、これか らの食品開発においてはパッケージにも高齢者配 慮の設計を盛り込む必要がある。これまでにお客 様相談センターに寄せられた声を検討したところ、 パッケージを使う際に高齢者にとって最も煩わし い行為は「開封」であることが示された。 従来、パッケージの開けやすさは開封強度や把 持しやすさ等、運動や身体サイズなど物理量を中 心に設計されてきた。一方、開け口の見つけやす さや開け方のわかりやすさといった認知的要素 (認知的開封性)については、官能評価による主 観的評価で設計されており、客観的評価手法によ る設計はあまり報告されていない。 そこで我々は認知的要素を含めたパッケージの 開けやすさを設計するため、様々な食品をサンプ ルとして、主観評価に頼らずに認知的開封性を判 定可能とする客観評価指標とその基準を検討した。

On-time Measurement of Subjective Anxiety of a Passenger in an Autonomous Vehicle: Gradually Changing Sounds Decreases Anxiety of Passenger

The current study examined the possibility of measuring the subjective anxiety in real-time by means of a novel handle-shaped device, caused by riding an autonomous car. In our experiment, a participant was shown computer graphics (CG) animation, which gave the person a virtual experience of riding a new autonomous car. The CG animation stimuli were made with three variables: maximum speed (19 km/h, 160 km/h, or 320 km/h), acceleration/deceleration pattern (linear or exponential), and with and without ascending/descending sounds (sound, or no sound). The participants grasped the handle and moved it in the longitudinal direction, i.e., pulling when they experienced anxiety and pushing when they felt relaxed. Results of experiments by 16 participants showed that they moved the handle depending on the stimulus of speed at that instant, which indicated that our handle-shaped device was useful in assessing the participants’ anxiety on time. In addition, results indicated that sounds, especially those which gradually ascending with acceleration, could diminish the subjective anxiety under some conditions.

Social Ageing, Informatization, and Cognitive Tasks Required for Human Memory in Daily Lives: Problems Observed in a Usability Test for Home-Use Medical Equipment

Various phenomena related to older people’s lives are now being widely observed in Japan’s super-aged society. It is important to know that those phenomena are not only related to cognitive ageing, but also to many circumstantial changes accompanying social ageing and social digital–informatization. After introducing some topics, concepts, or models to increase our understanding of these compound situations, we report an experiment using the usability testing method on home use medical equipment, as an example of the complex combining of those three factors.