Classification or typology systems used to categorize different human body parts have existed for many years. Nevertheless, there are very few taxonomies of facial features. Ergonomics, forensic ...anthropology, crime prevention or new human-machine interaction systems and online activities, like e-commerce, e-learning, games, dating or social networks, are fields in which classifications of facial features are useful, for example, to create digital interlocutors that optimize the interactions between human and machines. However, classifying isolated facial features is difficult for human observers. Previous works reported low inter-observer and intra-observer agreement in the evaluation of facial features. This work presents a computer-based procedure to automatically classify facial features based on their global appearance. This procedure deals with the difficulties associated with classifying features using judgements from human observers, and facilitates the development of taxonomies of facial features. Taxonomies obtained through this procedure are presented for eyes, mouths and noses.
Facial information is processed by our brain in such a way that we immediately make judgments about, for example, attractiveness or masculinity or interpret personality traits or moods of other ...people. The appearance of each facial feature has an effect on our perception of facial traits. This research addresses the problem of measuring the size of these effects for five facial features (eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, and jaw). Our proposal is a mixed feature-based and image-based approach that allows judgments to be made on complete real faces in the categorization tasks, more than on synthetic, noisy, or partial faces that can influence the assessment. Each facial feature of the faces is automatically classified considering their global appearance using principal component analysis. Using this procedure, we establish a reduced set of relevant specific attributes (each one describing a complete facial feature) to characterize faces. In this way, a more direct link can be established between perceived facial traits and what people intuitively consider an eye, an eyebrow, a nose, a mouth, or a jaw. A set of 92 male faces were classified using this procedure, and the results were related to their scores in 15 perceived facial traits. We show that the relevant features greatly depend on what we are trying to judge. Globally, the eyes have the greatest effect. However, other facial features are more relevant for some judgments like the mouth for happiness and femininity or the nose for dominance.
This paper presents a neural network based approach to modeling consumers' affective responses for product form design. A theoretical framework for a single user's perception is developed. On the ...basis of this theoretical framework, a mathematical model which enables single users' responses to different products to be predicted was developed. The results obtained show that the mathematical models developed achieved highly accurate predictions.
For the purpose of obtaining a global model various individual mathematical models were created, which were based on the opinions of users representing different groups of opinion. The results suggest that, under some conditions, the combined use of various models of individual users can perform as well as a single model generated on the basis of mean market responses.
•An approach to modeling consumers' affective responses for product form design is presented.•Several individual models are created for individual representative users.•Individual models are able to achieve great accuracy for individual users.•Several single models are used to generate a global model.•The approach presented seems to outperform a model created using mean responses.
Human faces play a central role in our lives. Thanks to our behavioural capacity to perceive faces, how a face looks in a painting, a movie, or an advertisement can dramatically influence what we ...feel about them and what emotions are elicited. Facial information is processed by our brain in such a way that we immediately make judgements like attractiveness or masculinity or interpret personality traits or moods of other people. Due to the importance of appearance-driven judgements of faces, this has become a major focus not only for psychological research, but for neuroscientists, artists, engineers, and software developers. New technologies are now able to create realistic looking synthetic faces that are used in arts, online activities, advertisement, or movies. However, there is not a method to generate virtual faces that convey the desired sensations to the observers. In this work, we present a genetic algorithm based procedure to create realistic faces combining facial features in the adequate relative positions. A model of how observers will perceive a face based on its features’ appearances and relative positions was developed and used as the fitness function of the algorithm. The model is able to predict 15 facial social traits related to aesthetic, moods, and personality. The proposed procedure was validated comparing its results with the opinion of human observers. This procedure is useful not only for creating characters with artistic purposes, but also for online activities, advertising, surgery, or criminology.
ABSTRACT
Knowledge of how older users perceive products and how this perception affects acceptance is important since they are a consumer sector with real growth potential. Within this context, the ...aim of the present study was to analyze how two age cohorts of users perceive products of different familiarity grade (mobile phones and watches), using check‐all‐that‐apply (CATA) questions and preference mapping, techniques not commonly used in the industrial design field. Two studies were carried out in which young and older users assessed a series of product images by answering a CATA question and rating their overall liking using a 9‐point hedonic scale. Results demonstrated how certain terms apply only to a specific age group, how these correlated to particular design features and how these data constructed different preference patterns. Furthermore, the maps also revealed perception and preference differences not only among age groups, but also within age groups.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
Results highlighted the importance of analyzing different groups of users at an individual level and gave insights into the underlying reasons behind their judgments when assigning liking scores to products. The differences found in liking and perception among the two age groups, overall in the mobile phone study, manifest the need to focus further research on older users. This is important to designers and market researchers because often consumer and market researchers consider mainly the younger cohort of users when dealing with aesthetics, and older users when dealing with usability.
This paper examines the potential use of Kinect™ range sensor in observational methods for assessing postural loads. Range sensors can detect the position of the joints at high sampling rates without ...attaching sensors or markers directly to the subject under study. First, a computerized OWAS ergonomic assessment system was implemented to permit the data acquisition from Kinect™ and data processing in order to identify the risk level of each recorded postures. Output data were compared with the results provided by human observers, and were used to determine the influence of the sensor view angle relative to the worker. The tests show high inter-method agreement in the classification of risk categories (Proportion agreement index = 0.89 κ = 0.83) when the tracked subject is facing the sensor. The camera's point of view relative to the position of the tracked subject significantly affects the correct classification of the postures. Although the results are promising, some aspects involved in the use of low-cost range sensors should be further studied for their use in real environments.
•This paper examines the potential use of Kinect™ range sensors in observational methods for assessing postural loads.•The results obtained by human observers are compared with those obtained by the sensor.•The influence of the position of the sensor with respect to the tracked user is analyzed.•High agreement exists between human observers and the sensor when the tracked subject stands facing the sensor.•The orientation of the sensor with respect to the worker affects the sensor's ability to identify the body positions.
This work describes a generative method for the exploration of product shapes in the conceptual design stage. The method is based on three concepts: the notion of grammars to capture product ...appearance, the implementation of sketching transformation rules to produce design variations and the use of a parametric modeller to build shapes. We represent product solutions as 3D sketches using combinations of basic shapes arranged in simple and schematic product structures. This procedure allows creating many varied configurations with a minimal number of shapes, and facilitates the adaptation of the generative model to different products. The performance of the method is demonstrated through several examples from the literature.
•A generative method for aesthetic shape exploration in product design is proposed.•The model generates a high number of variations and may adapt to different products.•The method focuses on the visual appearance of products.•It includes several sketch-related creative strategies (reformulation, analogy …).
Job rotation is an administrative solution to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders that has become widespread. However, job rotation schedules development is a complex problem. This is due ...to the multi-factorial character of the disorders and to the productive and organizational constraints of the real working environments. To avoid these problems, this work presents an evolutionary algorithm to generate rotation schedules in which a set of workers rotate cyclically over a small number of jobs while reducing the potential for injury. The algorithm is able to generate rotation schedules that optimize multiple ergonomics criteria by clustering the tasks into rotation groups, selecting the workers for each group, and determining the sequence of rotation of the workers to minimize the effects of fatigue. The algorithm reduces prolonged exposure to risks related to musculoskeletal injuries and simplifies the assignment of workers to different tasks in each rotation. The presented procedure can be an effective tool for the design of job-rotation schedules that prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders while simplifying scheduled changeovers at each rotation and facilitating job monitoring.
Organic paramagnetic and electroactive molecules are attracting interest as core components of molecular electronic and spintronic devices. Currently, further progress is hindered by the modest ...stability and reproducibility of the molecule/electrode contact. We report the synthesis of a persistent organic radical bearing one and two terminal alkyne groups to form Au–C σ bonds. The formation and stability of self-assembled monolayers and the electron transport through single-molecule junctions at room temperature have been studied. The combined analysis of both systems demonstrates that this linker forms a robust covalent bond with gold and a better-defined contact when compared to traditional sulfur-based linkers. Density functional theory and quantum transport calculations support the experimental observation highlighting a reduced variability of conductance values for the C–Au based junction. Our findings advance the quest for robustness and reproducibility of devices based on electroactive molecules.
Complex projects require specific project management (PM) competences development. However, while no complex projects have standards that are recognized to guide their management, complex projects do ...not have guides to deal with their complexity. To lead complex projects to success, this complexity must be measured quantitatively and, in our opinion, project management complexity assessment should be based on existing PM standards. In this work, the main project complexity assessment approaches based on PM standards are analyzed, observing that International Project Management Association (IPMA) approach is the closest to a tool that can be used as a complexity quantitative measurement system. On the other hand, several authors have shown that the inherent complexity of specific kind of projects must be measured in a particular way. The main objective of this research is to propose a project management complexity assessment tool for IT projects, providing a Complexity Index that measures the impact that complexity factors inherent to IT projects have under a specific complexity scenario. The tool combines the use of complexity factors defined by IPMA approach and the use of complexity factors found in the literature to manage inherent complexity of IT projects. All these factors were validated by expert survey and the tool was applied to a study case.
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