Hideto Ide

Quantitative measurement of cutaneous sensory response to vibration.

This paper presents psychological and physical experiments carried out by using a vibrometer as an acoustical calibration apparatus. This study has shown the relationship between the vibratory sensibility and the electric signal generated in a living body. The threshold curve for square wave vibration is lower by 12.3 dB than that for sine wave vibration near 30 Hz. The stimulus level is taken as the horizontal axis, and potential variation and strengh evaluation are plotted on the vertical axis, the former has a nearly rectiliner relation with the latter.

The evaluation of the emotion by near-infrared spectroscopy

Our purpose is to develop the technology for evaluating emotion objectively from the oxygenated hemoglobin within a brain. Nowadays, Japan is an aging society. The elderly people who need care will increase from now on increasingly. In the case of the person requiring the care who lost the function to convey an intention especially, the objective judgment to a physical and mental pain is required. Persons requiring care will also increase in number with the increase in this population. We gave subject stimulus of a comfortable or an uncomfortable sound and measured concentration of the oxygenated hemoglobin of a frontal lobe part by near-infrared spectroscopy. Based on the experimental result, a comfortable state or an uncomfortable state was distinguished by concentration of the oxygenated hemoglobin using the bayesian network. As a result, we were able to estimate the subject’s psychological condition.

Effect of skin temperature on vibrotactile sensitivity.

The vibration problems relating to living bodies have so far been studied from the perspectives of engineering physiology and psychology. This study shows the relationship between vibratory sensibility and temperature in the living body. Psychological experiments were carried out by using the vibrometer of an acoustic calibration apparatus in sine, triangular and square waves. The sensibility-threshold measurements were made using 30–700 Hz sine waves, 30–300 Hz triangular and sawtooth waves, or 30–250 Hz square waves. Each of ten subjects was kept seated. The average value of the vibratory levels, varied by ascending and descending steps, was taken as that of the threshold. As the vibrometer in the apparatus used makes a noise at frequencies greater than 250 Hz it was masked from the subject by presenting him with a different noise. The threshold curve for square waves is lower by 12·3 dB than that for sine waves at about 30Hz. The threshold curve of the 26°C sine wave was lower by 10 dB than that of the 58°C sine wave vibration near 200 Hz. For example with a sine wave, at 58°C the amplitude threshold was lowest at about 270 Hz, but at −11°C at about 200 Hz. At frequency stimulation higher than 120 Hz, as the temperature of the contact point was lowered, the amplitude threshold increased and the frequency at which the threshold curve was at a minimum shifted to a lower frequency.

An attempt of feeling analysis by the nasal temperature change model

We attempted the estimation of emotions using thermal images when watching video programs. In modern psychology, it was suggested that human emotions are expressed as a vector in the plane, which is with the pleasantness and arousal axis. We studied the pleasant-unpleasant (P-U) estimation model and the arousal-sleepiness (A-S) estimation model using multivariate regression. We examined the effectiveness of the analysis model and we tried emotion analysis.

Group behavior of agents with an emotional model

Recently, there has been much interest in the study of the formation of groups of agents that cause interactions between agents and invent new functions. We gave some agents an action rule based on the interactions of human feelings by using a circumplex model. It had been decided that the parameters of feelings in this model should have only two axes. In this report, eight basic action dimensions and pure feelings on four corresponding axes were given to agents as a model of feelings and actions based on the multiple factor analysis theory of R. Plutchik, and the behavioral characteristics of the group of agents were examined.

Autonomous reconfiguration of robot shape by using Q-learning

A modular robot can be built with a shape and function that matches the working environment. We developed a four-arm modular robot system which can be configured in a planar structure. A learning mechanism is incorporated in each module constituting the robot. We aim to control the overall shape of the robot by an accumulation of the autonomous actions resulting from the individual learning functions. Considering that the overall shape of a modular robot depends on the learning conditions in each module, this control method can be treated as a dispersion control learning method. The learning object is cooperative motion between adjacent modules. The learning process proceeds based on Q-learning by trial and error. We confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed technique by computer simulation.

Development of autonomous mobile robot for obstacles avoidance

This research has addresses the realization of real-time path plan of large area obstacle avoidance based on the potential method. The reports thus far have addresses the method or generating the potential field independent of the complexity of environment and have proposed the Sensory Point Moving (SPM) method as the technique for speeding up the shift to the potential field from the environment based on a parallel algorithm. Additionally, it is possible that the present technique makes the motion plan system simple and small-scale. The present technique was applied to the path plan of a fabricated mobile robot, and its effectiveness was confirmed, which is discussed in this report.<<ETX>>

Feature characterisation of shape from the frequency spectrum of the e.m.g.

Many studies related to human sensation have been made from the viewpoints of engineering, medical science and psychology. The problem of the quantification of sensation is of great importance and cannot be ignored, although only a few papers on this subject have appeared. This paper discusses the relationship between the recognition of shapes and the electromyogram (e.m.g.) generated in the human on the surface of the muscle involved. To observe the e.m.g., the subject was placed inside a shielded room with Ag−AgCl electrodes located at two points on the skin. The two electrodes were spaced 50 mm apart, but variations of the separation in the range 5–7 mm had no effects on the e.m.g. Three spectral peaks (100, 160, 250 Hz) for the response were obtained for each shape (sphere, tetrahedron, cube). The frequencies corresponding with the peak spectral values in the response are the same, and are independent of the forms. Shapes can therefore be characterised by the spectral forms of the forms.

Physiological and psychological evaluations in low- and high-frequency noise using near-infrared spectroscopy

This study aims to evaluate physiological and psychological states using near infrared spectroscopy in noise environments with low or high frequencies. Our system assumes that noise affects brain activity in the frontal lobe. In order to evaluate the subject’s states in a noise environment, we constructed an experimental system that measures the subject’s states. The experimental method adopted here was borrowed from our previous studies. In the present study, we collected experimental data about the subject’s unpleasant or pleasant experiences by producing a noise environment with low and high frequencies. We conclude that noises with low or high frequencies affect our psychological states as well as brain activity in the frontal lobe.

Taste of Preference Evalution by Oxygenated Hemoglobin of a Frontal Lobe

We examined the possibility of the preference evaluation of the taste that used the near-infrared spectroscopy. As a result, the possibility of the objective evaluation by fNIRS was shown.