Study on Electronic KANSEI in Cyberspace Communication

本研究旨在观察与分析以电子感性为媒介的网络空间沟通。我们将电子感性定义为对情感、感觉、人际关系和/或社会环境背景元素的直观表达和识别。电子感性被认为是通过显示在计算机屏幕上的文本和图像来传递的。在可视化的网络空间中观察到三个虚拟世界。它们分别是“Fujitsu Habitat II”、“J-chat”和“Worlds Away”。这三个系统被称为“虚拟聊天”。虚拟聊天的用户操作图形化的“化身”，代表他们在网上的存在和特征。对虚拟角色之间的距离（虚拟角色距离）、虚拟角色的体型、虚拟角色的性别及其转换、虚拟角色的身体颜色、虚拟角色的头部形状和颜色进行了分析。我们得到的结果是，当虚拟人物的平均密度较低时，虚拟人物之间在显示器上的最频繁距离为75px，而当虚拟人物的平均密度较高时，虚拟人物之间的最频繁距离为55px。此外，我们发现在面对对手的身体部位，角色的距离是不同的。这些结果表明，虚拟人物的距离不是用户的布局行为，而是类人虚拟人物之间的间距。用户对化身身体和头部的形状和颜色的选择也进行了调查。结果发现，某些形状和颜色被选择了。结果表明，当前虚拟世界中用户对“普通”、“一般”、“纤细”、“轻”感和方式的偏好趋势。我们从人类科学的角度讨论了这些结果和建议。

The purpose of this study is to observe and analyze the cyberspace communications mediated by Electronic-KANSEI. We defined the Electronic-KANSEI as intuitive expressions and recognitions of emotion, sensation, inter-personal relationships and/or contextual element of social environments. It is considered that Electronic-KANSEI is transmitted by texts and images displayed on the computer screen. Three virtual worlds in the visualized cyberspace were observed. These were "Fujitsu Habitat II", "J-chat" and "Worlds Away". These three systems are known as the "virtual chat". The users of the virtual chat operate graphical "avatars" that represent their existences and characteristics online. Analysis was carried out with respect to the distances between avatars (avatar distance), the body shapes of avatars, the genders and their conversion of avatars, the body colors of avatars, the head shapes and the colors of avatars. We obtained the results that the most frequent distance between avatars was 75pixels on the display when the average density of avatars was low, while it was 55pixels when the average density of avatars was high. Furthermore, we found that the avatar distances were different in the body part that faced the opponents. These results indicate that the avatar distances were not layout acts of users, but the spacing between human-like avatars. The users' selections of shapes and colors of avatar bodies and heads were also investigated. It was found that some kinds of shapes and colors were selected. The results suggest the current tendency in the virtual world where the users prefer the "ordinary", "general", "slim" and "light" sense and way. We discussed these results and suggestions from the human science point of view.