Brian Henson | University of Leeds (original) (raw)

Papers by Brian Henson

International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 2007

Piezo actuators can produce high precision mechanical movement. The problem is that they can only... more Piezo actuators can produce high precision mechanical movement. The problem is that they can only produce very limited displacement. This paper firstly reviews the different mechanical amplifier mechanisms that increase the displacement of the piezo actuator. A mechanical analysis for one mechanism, the diamond shaped mechanical amplifier, is presented. The key design parameters of a prototype diamond amplifier for use in pneumatic valves are detailed. The results of testing the amplifier are given and compared with the theory. It is found that the displacement of the prototype amplifier does not deviate more than 7% from the theoretical value.

Wear, 2004

This paper is concerned with the sliding contact of a finger tip over rough glass surfaces. It re... more This paper is concerned with the sliding contact of a finger tip over rough glass surfaces. It reports measurements of how the roughness affects a person's feelings caused by the sliding when the person believes the glass to be intended to be used for cosmetics' packaging. The main purpose has been to gain experience in design of surface touch experiments, self-report data collection and multi-variate statistical analysis of that data, to link subjective outcomes with their physical cause. The paper contains details of these activities. Tests have been carried out with glass surfaces both acid etched and grit blasted, to attain a range of surface roughnesses (R a ) from approximately 1-10 m.

Proceedings of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part H-journal of Engineering in Medicine, 2010

The feel of films, wrapping paper, cardboards, and other packaging materials are important to the... more The feel of films, wrapping paper, cardboards, and other packaging materials are important to the commercial success of foods. It is known from people's self-report studies that different surfaces provoke different subjective responses. There are several mechanical parameters, including friction, roughness, compliance, and thermal properties, which are important to the sensory feel. This paper describes the design, construction, and use of a multisensory measurement system for tactile sensation that can be used to evaluate the feel of different packaging materials. The experiments were conducted by sliding or pressing an artificial fingertip with embedded sensors against the surfaces of different samples which were fixed on a force table. The roughness, friction coefficients, compliance, and rate of change in the temperature were obtained. Forty volunteers were asked to touch and rate the samples by filling in questionnaires about how they felt. Strong correlations were found between people's feelings and the physical measurements.

Tribology International, 2010

This paper presents a mechanics study of the variations with position and time of stresses within... more This paper presents a mechanics study of the variations with position and time of stresses within the dermis and epidermis of a human fingertip when it is loaded and slid over textured surfaces. Its purpose is to examine how fingerprints interact with surface texture to cause ...

Proceedings of The Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part J-journal of Engineering Tribology, 2007

Tribology International, 2009

This paper describes the construction and use of an artificial fingertip with a visco-elastic cor... more This paper describes the construction and use of an artificial fingertip with a visco-elastic core, a skin and finger print surface roughness, and the initial development of a virtual model, to mimic the structure, the shape, the softness and the friction properties of real fingertips to apply to human feeling studies. The mechanical (including friction) properties of different artificial fingertips were tested and analyzed. The results show that the pure silicone artificial fingertip had different friction characteristics than a real fingertip. However, when the softness of the multi-layer artificial fingertip is closer to the real fingertip, the friction properties are similar to a real fingertip. The required properties for a 2D model to mimic a 3D fingertip are being developed.

Affective engineering case studies are reported that demonstrate the selection of shape, colour a... more Affective engineering case studies are reported that demonstrate the selection of shape, colour and surface texture to satisfy people's preference ratings for products. It is proposed that these studies provide a basis for engineering product appeal. Products of a technically mature market sector could be engineered to encourage their long-lasting or cherishing appeal to their owners. Products in a market sector with a rapidly changing technology could be engineered for short-ownership appeal, for example to appeal to leasing rather than purchasing. First, the proposal is placed in the systems engineering business context of new product development processes.

Research is being carried out at the University of Leeds in collaboration with the Faraday Packag... more Research is being carried out at the University of Leeds in collaboration with the Faraday Packaging Partnership that aims to enhance consumers&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#x27; enjoyment of products by carefully designing the surfaces and textures of the packaging. The aim of the research reported in the poster is to develop a service for the members of the Faraday Packaging Partnership that could inform

Computers & Industrial Engineering, 2008

This paper presents a decision support methodology for strategic selection decisions, in which a ... more This paper presents a decision support methodology for strategic selection decisions, in which a single choice has to be made between a number of alternatives in the presence of multiple stakeholders. The methodology uses a combination of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Zero-One Goal Programming (ZOGP) to address not only the selection problem from the point of view of an individual stakeholder but also from that of multiple stakeholders, by aggregating different outcomes obtained by the stakeholders. The methodology then can simultaneously account for: minimisation of undesirable intangible and tangible criteria; resource limitations and goal constraints; the view of more than one stakeholder; and it can suggest a single, aggregated, go or no-go decision.

Affective design aims to create a product that has expected levels of functionality and usability... more Affective design aims to create a product that has expected levels of functionality and usability but, additionally offers the user a positive emotional experience. Some success has been achieved by using the Kansei engineering approach but this has not been explicitly applied to packaging design.This paper reports on the first stages of an Affective Packaging Design research programme and presents

The Tqm Journal, 2008

Engineering appealing products has always been the goal of consumer goods companies where competi... more Engineering appealing products has always been the goal of consumer goods companies where competitive markets and crowded supermarket shelves has lead to greater consumer power. Brands are very powerful in this arena and influence both packaging attributes and consumer perceptions. Packaging must now communicate, attract and intrigue the consumer to positively influence the purchase decision. We have developed a packaging design toolkit based upon Kansei Engineering (Nagamachi, 02) to translate consumer perceptions into design attributes. However the original Kansei Engineering offered little support for the consideration of brand requirements. Thus, we have developed new methods using additional contributions from research in the fields of Psychology and Marketing to extend the scope of the toolkit to include consideration of the brand. We have also supplemented the technique with linguistic expertise to improve the selection process for the adjectives used in the consumer survey which has improved the robustness and repeatability of the results. This paper presents an overview of the toolkit using illustrative case studies to describe the application of the toolkit to "live" projects. The case studies demonstrate how this Kansei Engineering variant has real value within the packaging development process to inform concept selection decisions based upon actual consumer insights.

Concurrent Engineering: Research and Applications, 2006

Tools for eliciting and managing product requirements are now well-established in some fields of ... more Tools for eliciting and managing product requirements are now well-established in some fields of engineering. These tools primarily focus on linking objective, functional customer requirements to the product's properties. Whilst there have been advances in identifying human factors requirements, the elicitation of the customers' subjective requirements of a product remains a challenge. This article reports a comprehensive case study in the use of affective engineering to elicit the subjective requirements for moisturizer packaging. The methodology uses focus groups and surveys to elicit subjective requirements. The results of semantic questionnaires are reduced using principal components analysis to translate the subjective requirements into values for physical properties of the packaging. The resulting requirements for surface textures, shape, and color were validated using questionnaire responses to prototype packaging. The study highlights research issues associated with recombining stimuli that have been tested separately.