Kansei engineering and application of the rough sets model

Abstract Kansei engineering was founded by M. Nagamachi at Hiroshima University about 30 years ago and has spread throughout the world. The aim of Kansei engineering is to develop a new product by translating a customer's psychological needs and feeling (Kansei) concerning it into design specifications. Kansei data have so far been analysed using a multivariate statistical analysis to create new products, but Kansei data do not always have linear features assumed under normal distribution. The rough sets theory is able to deal with any kind of data, irrespective of linear or non-linear characteristics of the data. The results based on statistical analysis and rough sets theory are compared.