Elucidation of impression formation process in concept of "expression in mechanics sense": An empirical study utilizing a deep learning approach

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 16K12517
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Kansei informatics
• Research Institution: Nara National College of Technology
• Principal Investigator: HIRA Toshio 奈良工業高等専門学校, 機械工学科, 教授 (60280426)
• Project Period (FY): 2016-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 形状の印象 / 力学的感性 / 力学的表情 / 感性情報学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

It is generally emphasized that the design process at the conceptual stage is highly dependent on the designer's individual sense. There are also, however, objective aspects, such as mechanical reasonability, that affect the subjective impression from an object. In this research, we hypothesized that the human designer intuitively sees the load level, such as mechanical stress, on the object without analysis. Furthermore, we proposed a concept of "expression in mechanics sense" perceived by the human designer. The term "expression" is a metaphor of human facial one and is a bridge connecting the sensory- and objective-aspect in the design process. In the case of pottery cup, we showed methodology utilizing the deep learning-based captioning in order to characterize the shape features and to associate with their mechanical rationalities. As a result, the category score output by the caption generator is available as a measure of the mechanical reasonability of the shape.

Free Research Field

設計工学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

人が物体の形状から受ける印象の説明には，センスや感性といった属人的な側面が強調されることが多い．一方で「機能美」の概念のように，構造形態・形状の力学的な妥当性が美しさとして表出するとの考え方も古くから語られている．しかしながら，このような概念への言及は，評論的なものも多く，誰もがこれらを解釈し得る体系的な知識とはいいがたい．本研究で得られた形状特徴と力学的特徴との関連付けは，これまでの直観的な言及を，力学的感性の観点から客観的に再認識しようとする試みの一部である．このようなデザインの体系化は，人の創造的行為のさらなる理解につながるという意義を持つ．