Kawaii-ness in Motion

Abstract

This chapter proposes a concept of KANSEI mathematical model and reports our attempts to find out physical attributes that determine Kawaii-ness in motion. A Japanese word “Kawaii” is one of the representative concepts of Japan-original KANSEI (emotions and sensibility) and describes favorable characters such as pretty, adorable, fairy-like, and cute. Although there are many attempts to clarify Kawaii-ness in static quantities such as shapes and colors, there is none in motions. We have been developing Virtual KANSEI for robots that enable robots to communicate with humans not only at a physical level but also at a metaphysical level. So far, we have succeeded in developing virtual emotion but not sensibility. This chapter extends our research on virtual emotion to virtual sensibility. First, we proposed the concept of KANSEI mathematical model. Then, we attempted to find influential factors that determine Kawaii-ness of motion. We chose Roomba to study Kawaii-ness of motion because its neutral shape (round) and color (white) are expected to give little influence on Kawaii-ness of motion. We first investigated impressions of motions of Roomba and classified them into 10 types. Then, we used a questionnaire consisting of 20 pairing adjectives to evaluate those motions. We conducted a factor analysis using the top three motions that were found to be Kawaii by the participants. We found a factor that is common to all three motions that could be named infantile. The result of the factor analysis also suggests several physical quantities that control Kawaii-ness of motion.