Artificial Intelligence Applied to Multisensory Studies of Textile Products

Abstract

Multisensory evaluation is an interesting realm in sensory study. It deals with relations between not only different human sensory modalities but also different levels of perceptions. As for textile products, multisensory research investigates textile or apparel properties perceived through different senses as well as the relations between sensory factors and perceptions of higher levels such as preference and emotion. In order to investigate complex relations between different sensory datasets, many analytic and computing methods are available. Compared with statistics, or classical computing methods, as perhaps the most often used data mining methods, artificial intelligent tools, due to their higher capacity in handling data uncertainty and imprecision, have been showing more advantage in dealing with human-related knowledge which is representative in sensory studies. In this chapter, we are going to discuss the recent application of artificial intelligence to the study of fabric tactile properties from a multisensory point of view. To be specific, the whole work is divided into two major parts. In the first part, the intelligent tools of fuzzy comprehensive evaluation and genetic algorithm have worked together to study the relations between fabric tactile properties and the product’s total preference as perceived by consumers. The second part is about the visual interpretation of fabric tactile properties in a virtual environment through a systematic method based on rough inclusion degree and fuzzy inference systems.