Sensory analysis of automotive interior materials: touch/vision

While the satisfaction of functional expectations appears to be increasingly under control, the same cannot be said of emotional expectations. Differentiating brands through the senses, by creating ambience, means identifying customer expectations and then translating them into objective measurements that can be incorporated into specifications. Touch, the second most important sense after vision, plays an integral part in a vehicle's identity.

Different approaches are possible to ensure that the customer's wishes are followed and maintained at the heart of product design, from definition to validation:

• standardization of sensory practices. This approach appears to be the quickest to implement, but requires minimal human investment (a panel of experts);

• the introduction of instrumental procedures that can fully or partially replace a panel of experts.

After a review of the physiological bases inherent in touch, an inventory of sensory methodologies applied to tactile perception is drawn up, together with a state-of-the-art review of the associated instrumental technologies.

This study consists of two articles:

– Sensory analysis of automotive interior materials: olfaction ;

[AM 3 292] – Sensory analysis of automotive interior materials: touch/vision.

For more details on sensory analysis, please consult the article by the same authors:

Methods for sensory analysis of plastic materials, and the reference published in Techniques de l'Ingénieur.