Subjective Evaluation Experiments Research Articles

Objective Evaluation of Motion Cueing Algorithms for Vehicle Driving Simulator Based on Criteria Importance through Intercriteria Correlation (CRITIC) Weight Method Combined with Gray Correlation Analysis

Perception-based fidelity evaluation metrics are crucial in driving simulators, as they play a key role in the automatic tuning, assessment, and comparison of motion cueing algorithms. Nevertheless, there is presently no unified and effective evaluation framework for these algorithms. To tackle this challenge, our study initially establishes a model rooted in visual–vestibular interaction and head tilt angle perception systems. We then employ metrics like the Normalized Average Absolute Difference (NAAD), Normalized Pearson Correlation (NPC), and Estimated Delay (ED) to devise an evaluation index system. Furthermore, we use a combined approach incorporating CRITIC and gray relational analysis to ascertain the weights of these indicators. This allows us to consolidate them into a comprehensive evaluation metric that reflects the overall fidelity of motion cueing algorithms. Subjective evaluation experiments validate the reasonableness and efficacy of our proposed Perception Fidelity Evaluation (PFE) method.

DiT-Gesture: A Speech-Only Approach to Stylized Gesture Generation

The generation of co-speech gestures for digital humans is an emerging area in the field of virtual human creation. Prior research has progressed by using acoustic and semantic information as input and adopting a classification method to identify the person’s ID and emotion for driving co-speech gesture generation. However, this endeavor still faces significant challenges. These challenges go beyond the intricate interplay among co-speech gestures, speech acoustic, and semantics; they also encompass the complexities associated with personality, emotion, and other obscure but important factors. This paper introduces “DiT-Gestures”, a speech-conditional diffusion-based and non-autoregressive transformer-based generative model with the WavLM pre-trained model and a dynamic mask attention network (DMAN). It can produce individual and stylized full-body co-speech gestures by only using raw speech audio, eliminating the need for complex multimodal processing and manual annotation. Firstly, considering that speech audio contains acoustic and semantic features and conveys personality traits, emotions, and more subtle information related to accompanying gestures, we pioneer the adaptation of WavLM, a large-scale pre-trained model, to extract the style from raw audio information. Secondly, we replace the causal mask by introducing a learnable dynamic mask for better local modeling in the neighborhood of the target frames. Extensive subjective evaluation experiments are conducted on the Trinity, ZEGGS, and BEAT datasets to confirm WavLM’s and the model’s ability to synthesize natural co-speech gestures with various styles.

Exploring an Intelligent Classification Model for the Recognition of Automobile Sounds Based on EEG Physiological Signals

The advancement of an intelligent automobile sound switching system has the potential to elevate the market standing of automotive products, with the pivotal prerequisite being the selection of automobile sounds based on the driver’s subjective perception. The subjective responses of diverse individuals to sounds can be objectively manifested through EEG signals. Therefore, EEG signals are employed herein to attain the recognition of automobile sounds. A subjective evaluation and EEG signal acquisition experiment are designed involving the stimulation of three distinct types of automobile sounds, namely comfort, power, and technology sounds, and a comprehensive database of EEG signals corresponding to these three sound qualities is established. Then, a specific transfer learning model based on a convolutional neural network (STL-CNN) is formulated, where the method of training the upper layer parameters with the fixed bottom weights is proposed to adaptively extract the EEG features related to automobile sounds. These improvements contribute to improving the generalization ability of the model and realizing the recognition of automobile sounds fused with EEG signals. The results of the comparison with traditional support vector machine (SVM) and convolutional neural network (CNN) models demonstrate that the accuracy of the test set of the STL-CNN model reaches 91.5%. Moreover, its comprehensive performance, coupled with the ability to adapt to individual differences, surpasses that of both SVM and CNN models. The demonstrated method in the recognition of automobile sounds based on EEG signals is of significance for the future implementation of switching driving sound modes fused with EEG signals.

Design recommendations for voluntary blink interactions based on pressure sensors

Voluntary blink control is vital in eye-controlled human–computer interaction (ECHCI). Pressure sensors, known for their low power consumption and strong resistance to interference, are suitable for blink detection. Existing research has predominantly focused on sensor materials and signal processing, and studies on the characteristics and optimized design of voluntary blink actions in ECHCI remain relatively limited. Therefore, this study presents a blink detection system based on pressure sensors and investigates the efficiency of voluntary blink actions. We examined the effects of two independent variables, blink count (single, double, and triple) and blink side (bilateral and unilateral), on recognition accuracy and three time-related variables. Subsequently, the subjective workload and evaluation experiments were conducted for each blink action. The results indicate that the blink count has a more pronounced impact on interaction efficiency and comfort, with continuous blink actions exceeding three blinks not being recommended. Bilateral blinks were perceived as more natural and comfortable than unilateral blinks. Moreover, we discovered that the participants exhibited greater attentiveness and focus when performing double bilateral blink actions, making it suitable for important commands. Based on the experimental results, the top three recommended voluntary blink actions are single bilateral blink (SB), double bilateral blink (DB), and single unilateral blink (SU). Finally, a test involving controlling the movement of a toy car using the recommended blink actions validates the usability of the actions and detection system. These findings provide valuable guidance for the design and optimization of voluntary-blink interaction systems, further enhancing this interaction method’s feasibility.

The effect of bra design on wearing appearance

PurposeEsthetic trend changes with the development of society and cultural differences. A minimizer bra designed to make breasts appear smaller is now popular with large-breasted women in China. To conform to the requirements of modern aesthetics in China, this paper aims to investigate vital features of breast appearance that influence people’s subjective evaluation of breast size and analyze how bra design parameters affect breast shape and make breasts appear smaller.Design/methodology/approachThis study used 3D scanning technology and reverse engineering software to obtain objective breast measurements in detail. A subjective evaluation experiment was conducted to evaluate the overall performance of seven minimizer bras compared to a basic comparison bra. Around 20 design parameters of 8 sample bras were identified to make a further study about the correlation between bra design features and breast shaping effect. To gain a deeper understanding of how bras interact with breast tissue, this study presented heat maps of the breast surface to visualize the deformation of breast shape.FindingsNine breasts' characteristics, such as the distance between bust points, breast depth, outer breast curvature and slope, etc. have been determined to be highly correlated with the visual reduction effect of breasts. In addition, for the bras in this experiment, the high-performance bra for women with large breasts tends to have a wider side panel, a wider under band, higher gore and a stronger transverse rigidity of the bra cup. According to the observation of heat maps of the breast surface, soft full-figure bras provide a wider range of compression to the breasts and effectively flatten the breasts.Originality/valueThis paper first aimed at the need to shape the ideal breast appearance for large-breasted women and make a further study of several hot-selling minimizer bras in China. The suggestions given in this paper help lingerie manufacturers better understand how design features of bras can affect their shaping effect and improve the wearing effect of minimizer bras for large-breasted women.

Hallucinated-PQA: No reference point cloud quality assessment via injecting pseudo-reference features

Point clouds (PCs) have been increasingly applied in business and life, but a variety of PC transmission and generation systems inevitably produce various types of distortions. Therefore, it is of great significance to design an objective point cloud quality assessment (PCQA), particularly in a no-reference manner to evaluate the PC systems in the actual situation. However, due to the lack of original PCs, the existing no-reference (NR) PCQA metrics cannot perceive the feature changes caused by distortions, resulting in inaccurate quality prediction. In addition, dependent on the viewing habits of the subjects in the subjective evaluation experiment, a strong contextual correlation among intra- and inter-view local regions at different scales naturally exists, but the existing projection-based no-reference PCQA only using concatenation or average pooling operations cannot reflect this relationship of multi-view features fusion. Considering the above challenges, we propose a novel hallucination-guided NR PCQA framework, namely Hallucinated-PQA. Specifically, we introduce a distortion restoration network to correct multiple projected images in preprocessing to provide pseudo-reference information for NR PCQA. In the feature extraction of distorted PCs, we designed a hallucination injection block (HIB) by utilizing feature differences to assist the feature description of distorted PCs, and a multi-view and multi-scale context fusion (MMCF) module to construct the contextual correlation among intra- and inter-view local regions at different scales. Experimental results show that our Hallucinated-PQA can achieve comparable or better performance than state-of-the-art (SOTA) metrics on four open PCQA databases. The source code will be released at https://github.com/QSBAOYANGMU/Hallucinated-PQA.

Research on a spatial–temporal characterisation of blink-triggered eye control interactions

Eye-controlled human–computer interface (ECHCI) system is gradually becoming the focus of audience attention, owing to its humanistic, natural, and intuitive characteristics, which provide services for a wider range of user groups. We conducted a study on the ECHCI with “gaze locking + blink trigger” as the interaction method in the temporal dimension and the spatial dimension respectively and explored the optimisation of blink trigger actions. First, the optimal lock time of the interactive object (IO) was 650 ms, and a subjective evaluation experiment confirmed that the user’s subjective feeling was consistent with the results of the ergonomic experiment. Second, the direction and distance of the visual drift of the blink action were investigated by increasing the locking range of multiple IOs. The results showed that the main direction of the line-of-sight drift for the blinking action was the upper-right corner. Furthermore, it was experimentally demonstrated that the line-of-sight drifted by a certain distance during blinking and that the system had the highest success rate when the locking range corresponded to a viewing angle of 21.074°. This study provides theoretical support for the application of multi-movement combinations in blink ECHCI, which enhances the user experience of blink triggering.

Study on the effects of sound factors and their association with the psychological evaluation of thermal comforts

Humans have evaluated the living environment as a whole rather than based on individual factors. However, there are numerous ambiguities regarding the interrelationship between sound and thermal environment in actual living. In this research, we aimed to demonstrate the impact of sound and its association with a psychological evaluation of thermal comfort by exposing participants to sounds. We performed subjective evaluation experiments using the semantic differential method. A subjective investigation of the surrounding and sound environment using 30 pairs of evaluation items was conducted using the sound source of the fireplace. Additionally, we asked about the sound association and the clothing amount through free writing. In terms of evaluating the immediate surroundings, we compared the group that associated the sound with the fireplace appropriately with the group that did not: "Warm," "Comfortable," "Open," and three other components, and the subjective evaluation of the sound shifted significantly to the positive side in three items. As a result, it was revealed that sounds positively affected thermal comfort when associated appropriately. Furthermore, we clarified that associating sounds appropriately impacted the feeling of relaxation in the space.

Combining online aural experimentation and physical analysis

The physical phenomenon of sound can be visualized with a high degree of freedom in terms of sound pressure level and loudness with respect to time and frequency. On the other hand, to obtain a sensory evaluation of the sound, it is a labor-intensive and costly task to prepare a certain number of subjects, set up a playback environment and playback equipment, tabulate the results, and perform subsequent analysis. The system introduced here can easily create simple listening experiments using sound source data managed on the cloud, and distribute the experiments on the Web. Subjects can participate in experiments without time and travel constraints, and experiments with an unprecedented number of subjects can be performed in a short period of time. In addition, the correlation between the rating scale and the physical quantity is automatically calculated, reducing the man-hours required for analysis. In this paper, we present the advantages and disadvantages of this system over conventional controlled subjective evaluation experiments, and mention the value of using this system based on actual examples.

Green view factor and satisfaction with window views in urban offices

Greenery is a key element of quality window views. This study aims to clarify the quantitative effect of greenery on view satisfaction in urban offices. Green view factor (GVF) is proposed to measure greenery visible through windows. Subjective evaluation experiments were conducted using a virtual reality system for different GVFs between 0% and 100%. It was found that greenery increases view satisfaction by up to 20 to 30 points on a 100-point scale. But the view satisfaction does not simply depend on the GVF. The layout and spacing of greenery are important. Greenery occupying about 50% of the window width at intervals maximizes the view satisfaction in the case of full-window walls.

Cross-cultural comparison of soundscape evaluation between Japanese and Vietnamese using standardized attributes

The Soundscape Attributes Translation Project (SATP) was initiated to translate English standardized perceptual attributes of the ISO/TS 12913-2:2018 into various languages. This paper outlines the translation and utilization of Vietnamese and Japanese attributes in standardized listening experiments and evaluates their effectiveness in assessing specific sound environments in Vietnam and Japan. The study was conducted in two parts: (1) a listening evaluation experiment, in which Vietnamese and Japanese participants listened to 27 binaural recordings provided by the SATP project to examine the differences in subjective evaluations of the same sound environment between Japanese and Vietnamese; and (2) a survey on Vietnamese and Japanese perceptions of sound environments in public spaces using the standardized attributes and scales proposed by the SATP project. For part 2, twelve study sites were selected in Japan and Vietnam based on their distinct landscape and acoustic characteristics. The research methodology involved analyzing physical indices of each soundscape context from the recording data and subjective evaluation experiments. The results revealed cultural differences in soundscape evaluations between Japanese and Vietnamese, which could potentially impact people's perception of soundscapes. These findings provide a basis for proposing soundscape designs that align with the values and perceptions of residents in specific environments.

Perceptual Translucency in 3D Printing Using Surface Texture

We propose a method of reproducing perceptual translucency in three-dimensional printing. In contrast to most conventional methods, which reproduce the physical properties of translucency, we focus on the perceptual aspects of translucency. Humans are known to rely on simple cues to perceive translucency, and we develop a method of reproducing these cues using the gradation of surface textures. Textures are designed to reproduce the intensity distribution of the shading and thus provide a cue for the perception of translucency. In creating textures, we adopt computer graphics to develop an image-based optimization method. We validate the effectiveness of the method through subjective evaluation experiments using three-dimensionally printed objects. The results of the validation suggest that the proposed method using texture may increase perceptual translucency under specific conditions. As a method for translucent 3D printing, our method has the limitation that it depends on the observation conditions; however, it provides knowledge to the field of perception that the human visual system can be cheated by only surface textures.

Influence of sound and light combined conditions in urban environments on residents' tolerance limits in pre sleep state.

To determine the sound and light combined conditions pollution in urban residential environments at night, this paper comprehensively evaluates cross-visual and auditory sensory channels in the laboratory. Experimental variables include extremum and gradient, and the working state of the participants was determined and verified. A subjective evaluation experiment on 18 combined conditions was carried out by synthesizing real-world data. Results from the sound and light combined conditions experiment show that there are significant differences in the tolerance limits of participants to different content sound variables (p = 0.000 < 0.05, p = 0.033 < 0.05, p = 0.002 < 0.05). Among them, the traffic noise (p = 0.000 < 0.05) has the greatest impact on the tolerance limits of people, followed by birdsong (p = 0.033 < 0.05) and human voice (p = 0.002 < 0.05). There is no difference in the tolerance limits of light pollution (p = 0.288 > 0.05, p = 0.122 > 0.05, p = 0.146 > 0.05) at different color temperatures. The tolerance limits of participants will not be reduced due to the superposition of two interference variables: sound pollution and light pollution. Adding light pollution to sound pollution can increase the tolerance limits of participants, while adding sound pollution to light pollution has no significant effect on the tolerance limits. The study also found that adding light with different color temperatures to the human voice can increase participants' tolerance limit to human voice (1% -2%), indicating that visual elements can change individuals' perception of sound. In addition, the physiological and psychological differences between participants may affect the performance differences of individual participants in sound and light combined conditions.

Metadata-Based Quality-Estimation Model for Tile-Based Omnidirectional Video Streaming

In this paper, a metadata-based quality-estimation model is proposed for tile-based omnidirectional video streaming services, aiming to realize quality monitoring during service provision. In the tile-based omnidirectional video (ODV) streaming services, the ODV is divided into tiles, and the high-quality tiles and the low-quality tiles are distributed in accordance with the user's viewing direction. When the user changes the viewing direction, the user temporarily watches video with the low-quality tiles. In addition, the longer the time (delay time) until the high-quality tile for the new viewing direction is downloaded, the longer the viewing time of video with the low-quality tile, and thus the delay time affects quality. From the above, the video quality of the low-quality tiles and the delay time significantly impact quality, and these factors need to be considered in the quality-estimation model. We develop quality-estimation models by extending the conventional quality-estimation models for 2D adaptive streaming. We also show that the quality-estimation model using the bitrate, resolution, and frame rate of high- and low-quality tiles and that the delay time has sufficient estimation accuracy based on the results of subjective quality evaluation experiments.

Adaptive feedback cancellation based on interaural level difference using lattice filter with correlation control for binaural hearing devices

This paper proposes a correlation control method for linear prediction filters based on howling detection using binaural information in hearing aids. In a closed-loop system, high autocorrelation of the input signal can cause estimation errors owing to biased solutions, resulting in an acoustic artifact known as entrainment. Adaptive feedback cancellation (AFC) based on the linear prediction error method (PEM) has been successfully used as a solution to this bias. However, if the convergence speed of the linear prediction filter is faster than the estimated speed of the feedback path, removal of the feedback signal would be difficult. The proposed method uses a strategy to improve convergence by detecting howling based on the interaural level difference (ILD) and controlling the decorrelation performance of the correlation control algorithm of the adaptive lattice filter. Experimental results indicate that the adaptive filter of the proposed method significantly improves the estimation accuracy and tracking performance. The robustness of the proposed method is also confirmed via objective and subjective evaluation experiments on the generation of artifacts. Experimental results obtained using autocorrelated input signals show that the proposed method significantly improves robustness to entrainment compared to the conventional bilateral AFC method.

An application of virtual twins for fit prediction: case study of women jackets

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to present a fit prediction case study of virtual twins of women jacket. For this reason, several basic principles of clothes fit prediction were developed and verified.Design/methodology/approachTo develop the principles of fit prediction, the women's jacket sleeve was selected as the study object. The study objects were categorized into three types: the patterns and two virtual sleeves generating on full avatar from Clo3D and on dummy (arm partly removed). Through series of subjective and objective evaluation experiments, the relationship between the similar indexes of the patterns and the virtual sleeves was built, including fit criteria range, the categorization of the indexes in terms of its sensitiveness, and the linear regressions to predict several indexes of virtual sleeves after its pattern parameterization. The results obtained were verified in case study by the virtual and real sleeves generating.FindingsThe proposed principles of clothing fit prediction based on parallel research of the flat patterns and its virtual 3D shapes. The principles include the choosing of virtual twins of human body for virtual try-on, the establishing of indexes common schedule for patterns and virtual sleeves, the creation of criteria and its ranges for perfect fit and poor fit evaluation, and the application of existing relations between the patterns and the sleeves for predicting indexes responsible for fit.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors propose and verify the validity of the principles to predict several parameters of virtual 3D sleeve of women's jacket which are forming the level of fit. The result of this study can be used to convenient fit prediction and to find the misfit reasons.Practical implicationsThis study developed basic principles for predicting the fit of the clothing through the virtual simulation and the statistical analysis. Through studying the jacket sleeve, the several related ranges, the row of more sensitive indexes, and the equations were presented and verified, which certified the validity of proposed principles.Social implicationsThe results can effectively predict the sleeve fit before sewing, which reduce the time and materials cost and the operator's skill requirements.Originality/valueThe authors propose and verify the validity of the principles to predict several parameters of virtual 3D sleeve of women's jacket which form the level of fit. The result of this study can be used for convenient fit prediction and to find the misfit reasons.

Tone Mapping Operator for High Dynamic Range Images Based on Modified iCAM06.

This study attempted to solve the problem of conventional standard display devices encountering difficulties in displaying high dynamic range (HDR) images by proposing a modified tone-mapping operator (TMO) based on the image color appearance model (iCAM06). The proposed model, called iCAM06-m, combined iCAM06 and a multi-scale enhancement algorithm to correct the chroma of images by compensating for saturation and hue drift. Subsequently, a subjective evaluation experiment was conducted to assess iCAM06-m considering other three TMOs by rating the tone mapped images. Finally, the objective and subjective evaluation results were compared and analyzed. The results confirmed the better performance of the proposed iCAM06-m. Furthermore, the chroma compensation effectively alleviated the problem of saturation reduction and hue drift in iCAM06 for HDR image tone-mapping. In addition, the introduction of multi-scale decomposition enhanced the image details and sharpness. Thus, the proposed algorithm can overcome the shortcomings of other algorithms and is a good candidate for a general purpose TMO.

Subjective evaluation for sharp sound image construction based on reverberation control with surround sound system using parametric and electro-dynamic loudspeakers

3-D sound field reproduction systems can provide a high presence. These systems commonly use electro-dynamic loudspeakers. Electro-dynamic loudspeakers tend to construct diffuse sound images due to its wide directivity and high reverberation. In contrast, parametric array loudspeakers can construct sharp sound images due to its sharp directivity and low reverberation. On the other hand, it is difficult to provide reverberation presence by parametric array loudspeakers because of the sharp directivity. We have previously proposed a sharp sound image construction based on reverberation control with surround sound system using parametric and electro-dynamic loudspeakers. In this method, the sharp sound image is rendered using parametric array loudspeakers, and the reverberation presence is provided by electro-dynamic loudspeakers, emitting reverberation signals synthesized with reverberation control filters. Through the objective experiments, we have confirmed that this method can construct the sharp sound image with reverberation presence. In this paper, we conduct subjective experiments to confirm if the listeners can perceive the reverberation presence provided by the proposed method. In particular, we evaluated the sharpness and direction of the sound image, and the reverberation presence with objective and subjective evaluation experiments. From the subjective evaluation, we confirmed that the reverberation presence can be perceived.

Speaker performance on sports performance -Behavior analysis using OpenPose

Most of the sound quality evaluation methods for loudspeaker are based on physical evaluation and subjective evaluation. In the physical evaluation, we focus on the peak sound pressure and the rise speed. In the subjective evaluation, the sound quality is evaluated by the subjective evaluation experiment using the sound quality evaluation word. However, it's difficult for people who don't have professional knowledge in the field of acoustics to judge the performance of a loudspeaker from these evaluation methods. In addition, according to the engineers of a speaker manufacturer, the difference of the sound quality of the loudspeaker may affect the movement and motivation of the game. In this study, aims to evaluate the sound quality of loudspeaker objectively from a new point of view. In order to clarify whether the difference of the sound quality of the loudspeaker affects the movement, the movement analysis using OpenPose was carried out. As a result, it was found that the complicated motion was not likely to be affected by the difference of the sound quality of the loudspeaker. However, the results suggested that simple and familiar actions may be affected by the difference in loudspeaker sound quality.

Subjective evaluation of wind turbine noise using 3-dimensional audio- visual reproduction system

In recent years, the installation of new wind turbines has been promoted in Japan. Since wind turbines are often installed in quiet countryside, it is necessary to properly evaluate the noise impact of wind turbine installation. Since wind turbines are thought to have visual as well as auditory effects, we conducted a subjective evaluation experiment on the loudness and annoyance of wind turbine noise (WTN) and road traffic noise (RTN) by magnitude estimation method, using a three-dimensional audio-visual reproduction system consisting of 6 channels of loudspeakers installed around the sound receiving point and a dome screen. As a result, the loudness and annoyance of WTN tended to be evaluated higher than that of RTN. These results were considered to be influenced by the amplitude modulation called "swish sound" and the low-frequency dominant frequency characteristics, which are characteristics of WTN. In addition, when comparing the differences in loudness and annoyance with and without visual information, the two attributes tended to be lower when visual information was present.