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Haptic sensing by sliding fingers over a fabric is a common behavior in consumers when wearing garments. Prior studies have found important characteristics that shape the evaluation criteria and influence the preference of consumers regarding fabrics. This study analyzed the tactile perception of selected woven fabrics, with an emphasis on the participants’ individual differences. Individual differences generally are discarded in sensory experiments by averaging them. Small differences among consumers can be important for understanding the factors driving consumer preferences. For this study, 28 participants assessed fabrics with very distinct surface, compression, and heat transferring properties by sliding their index fingers along the surface of the fabric. The participants also engaged in a descriptive sensory analysis. The physical properties of the fabric were measured using the Kawabata Evaluation System for Fabrics (KES-F) system. Moreover, parameters at the finger–fabric interface, such as the contact force, finger speed, and skin vibration, were measured during the assessment. This study used analysis of variance to eliminate nonsignificant attributes. Consonance analysis was performed using principal component analysis (PCA) on the unfolded sensory and interface data matrices. Finally, the physical and interface data were regressed onto sensory data. The results showed that the contact force and finger speed were nonsignificant, while skin vibration was a possible replacement for surface physical properties measured by the Kawabata Evaluation System for Fabrics (KES-F) system with an equal or slightly improved explainability.

“Iyashi” in the Japanese language, is used for goods, which people use to recover from the physical and psychological stress. If the healing emotion is observed when the consumer touches the fabric by hand, it is worthwhile to investigate the contribution of fabric property. This study approached both fundamental physical properties of fabrics and subjective evaluation to explore the contribution of fabric to emotional healing. Two sensory experiments were carried out. Participants (n=22) considered the fluffy fur as most likely to generate the healing emotion. “Healing feeling” was described as the combination in terms of “soft”, “fluffy” and “smooth” perception for fabric samples. In the sensory evaluation of healing toys by hand, results of factor analysis, the first factor of “healing emotion” was the “surface factor”, including “slippery”, “smooth”, “want to keep touching”, “comfortable”, “feel healing”, and “soft”. In terms of the physical properties of the fabric, the fabric with lower MMD (mean deviation of MIU) was preferable. The findings from this study can contribute to the evaluation and design of soft toys and clothing in satisfying the “healing emotion” of humans., Japonca'da "Iyashi", insanların fiziksel ve psikolojik stresten kurtulmak için kullandıkları ürünler için kullanılmaktadır. Eğer tüketici kumaşa elle dokunduğunda iyileştirici duygu gözlemleniyorsa bu konu hakkında kumaş özelliklerinin katkısı araştırılmalıdır. Bu çalışmada kumaşın duygusal iyileşmeye katkısını keşfetmek için hem kumaşların temel fiziksel özellikleri incelenmiş, hem de öznel değerlendirme yapılmıştır. İki duyusal deney gerçekleştirilmiştir. Katılımcılar (n=22), tüylü kürklerin iyileştirici duyguyu oluşturma olasılığının yüksek olduğunu düşünmüşlerdir. Kumaş örneklerinde “iyileşme hissi”; “yumuşak”, “kabarık” ve “pürüzsüz” algısının birleşimi olarak tanımlanmıştır. Elde tutulan oyuncakların duyusal değerlendirmesinde, faktör analizi sonucunda, “iyileştirici duygu”nun birinci faktörü “yüzey faktörü” olmak üzere “kaygan”, “pürüzsüz”, “dokunmaya devam etmek istiyorum”, “rahat” "iyileşme hissediyorum" ve "yumuşak" ifadelerini içermektedir. Kumaşın fiziksel özellikleri açısından MMD'si (MIU'nun ortalama sapması) daha düşük olan kumaş tercih edilmiştir. Bu çalışmadan elde edilen bulgular, insanların “iyileştirme duygusunu” tatmin etmede yumuşak oyuncakların ve giysilerin değerlendirilmesine ve tasarlanmasına katkıda bulunmaktadır.