The Perception - Artificial Human Sensors: Science and Applications - page 65

The field of emotions is experienced as an emerging interest in science, that are
concerned with the importance by which emotions have an evident effect on the
human mental processes, that also deeply affects other related technological and
scientific disciplines. One of the areas affected by this emotional interest is the sci-
entific approach to the user-centred design of products and environments. During
the past years, there has been a significant paradigm shift in the role of human fac-
tors in the study of human and product interaction. Increased recognition is now
being given to “emotional-based” human factors looking at expectations, dreams,
values and aspirations, and emphasizing the holistic nature of the target inter-
action, e.g., the individual, the product or the environment. Many techniques
have been developed to increase the performance that can be considered under the
product development phase or educational courses, like emotional engineering or
effective design. Specific programs are being directed to increase the knowledge
about emotional engineering, i.e., capturing and focussing on the subjective and
emotional needs of consumers and incorporating them into the design process.
An essential and may be the most successful methodologies in this field of knowl-
edge is provided in Nagamachi, (1995), that originated in Japan in the early 70's
and aims to translate consumers' perception expressed in words into design ele-
ments. This methodology allows design and evaluation of products before launch-
ing them into the market. Product Semantics, presented in Osgood, (1957), with
the descriptive title “the measurement of meaning” is still after many decades rep-
resenting effective and powerful techniques to measure the emotional aspects of
a product. Application examples is shown in Matsubara (1997), Jindo (1997), and
Alcantara (2005a and 2005b). Other measurement methods based on pictures have
also been shown in Desmet, (2003).
The area of emotional engineering is an important factor in the development
regularity of designs. The area focusses on the evaluation of engineered products
and does actually make a person understand the connections from emotions as a
result of the human perception and of course by mixing values of what a person
has earlier experienced. Many recent products reflect the view of buyers prefer-
ences and an increasingly important factor is also to identify the personality who
has made the decision to make the purchase, e.g., the importance of the interior
design in a car when including the built in coffee-mug holder. The reality seems
to be that people in some countries frequently spend time in the car consuming
coffee and expect, or at least appreciate, a cup holder.

3.2.2.2 HUMAN ATTENTION

In psychology and the cognitive sciences, a vital process of human perception is
the power of attaining awareness, that arise when an individual is actively tak-
ing part in the available sensory information. There is a probable statement, that
the focus on awareness has underestimated the richness of sensory information
available to perceive in the real world. The reason can be related to the huge in-
formation flow that is constantly perceived through our sensory organs and the