Emotional characterisation of chairs by descriptors, neural network and verbalised analysis

Abstract

In this article, we assess the emotional value of the chairs from the collections design, objects and furniture of the museum of modern and contemporary art in Saint-Etienne. The aim of this research is to study emotional responses to visual perception of chairs from declarative measurements based on: 1) emotional measurements made using the circumplex model which collects valence and arousal; 2) the evaluation of six appearance descriptors which describe aesthetics, safety and comfort. Using a mathematical model based on a neural network, an 'estimated valence' is then derived from the evaluation of these emotional descriptors. This 'estimated valence' is finally compared to the 'verbalised valence'. The results show that there is a significant correlation between verbalised and 'estimated valence'. These results attest that the evaluation of the six proposed descriptors could predict the emotional value of the chairs.