Emojis and avatars are widely used in online communications, but their emotional conveyance lacks research. This study aims to contribute to the field of emotional expression in computer-mediated communication (CMC) by exploring the effectiveness of emotion recognition, the intensity of perceived emotions, and the perceived preferences for emojis and avatars as emotional expression tools. The following were used as stimuli: 12 photographs from the Yonsei-Face database, 12 Memojis that reflected the photographs, and 6 iOS emojis. The results of this study indicate that emojis outperformed other forms of emotional expression in terms of conveying emotions, intensity, and preference. Indeed, the study findings confirm that emojis remain the dominant form of emotional signals in CMC. In contrast, the study revealed that Memojis were inadequate as an expressive emotional cue. Participants did not perceive Memojis to effectively convey emotions compared with other forms of expression, such as emojis or real human faces. This suggests room for improvement in the design and implementation of Memojis to enhance their effectiveness in accurately conveying intended emotions. Addressing the limitations of Memojis and exploring ways to optimize their emotional expressiveness necessitate further research and development in avatar design.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of oxides (caryophyllene oxide, eucalyptol and linalool oxide), one of the major ingredients of essential oils, on odor intensity, electroencephalography (EEG) response and emotional response. The subjects were women in their twenties. Inhalation concentrations of oxides were varied from 0.01 to 10%, and EEGs were collected by Quantitative EEG. The odor intensity and average preference index (API) of the oxides were ranked in the order of eucalyptol > linalool oxide > caryophyllene oxide. Eucalyptol is a refreshing and pleasant substance that activates the brain (activation of β and γ waves and spectral edge frequencies (SEF50 and SEF90)). Linalool oxide has a calm and soft substance (activation of θ, inactivation of α, β, and γ waves) at a low concentration (<0.1%), and a fresh smell at high concentration (inactivation β and activation of θ and γ). Caryophyllene oxides were evaluated as a substance that is comfortable, soft, calm and sedating, which deactivates the brain (activation of α, inactivation of β and γ). Oxide materials showed a positive correlation between the odor intensity and the SEFs. Each of the oxides showed unique characteristics in the areas of odor intensity, emotional response, API, and EEG. These results give us a better understanding of the properties of the pure materials that make up a fragrance, and provide useful information for the manufacture of fragrance products or aroma oil blends with enhanced specific functions.