Brain-scanning technology reveals how we process brands and products

Brain-scanning technology reveals how we process brands and products

In a groundbreaking new study, researchers from the University of Michigan and Harvard University use cutting-edge brain-scanning technology to explore how different regions of the brain are activated when we think about certain qualities of brands and products. The study, forthcoming in the Journal of Consumer Research, is the first to use fMRI to assess consumer perceptions and has important implications for the use of metaphorical human-like traits in branding.

"[fMRI] allows one to gauge, for the first time, the degree to which the underlying thought processes are similar," write the researchers.

Subjects were given 450 adjectives such as "reliable," "sophisticated," and "cheerful," and scanned while indicating whether each word was applicable to themselves and someone else. The sample group was also scanned while making similar judgments about brands they know and use. The researchers discovered that even when the consumers were judging products on unmistakably human terms, they still used the part of the brain associated with inanimate objects.

"Although we may use similar vocabularies to describe people and products, we can't say that the same concepts are involved," explain the researchers. "Companies building brand images and icons should be wary of taking the legitimately useful metaphor of brand personality too literally, since it's now apparent that consumers themselves do not." ###

Carolyn Yoon, Angela H. Gutchess, Fred Feinberg, and Thad A. Polk. "A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study of Neural Dissociations between Brand and Person Judgments" Journal of Consumer Research. June 2006.

Not all products are created equal: Study explores how consumers evaluate newly released products
In a forthcoming study from the Journal of Consumer Research, researchers from Indiana University explore the process by which consumers evaluate new products, be it a new razor with an unprecedented number of blades or an even mintier chewing gum. The researchers argue that when a multi-product brand – such as Nike, which recently added electronic gadgets to its core of athletic apparel – releases a new product, the consumer's evaluative process is significantly different than when a brand strongly associated with one product – such as Gillette – releases a new product.
"[The] attitude transfer process may be more complex than suggested by current models," write Huifang Mao and H. Shanker Krishnan. "For a multi-product brand, multiple referent points exist to judge a brand extension, resulting in more complex evaluative processes."

For multi-product brands, the researchers distinguish between the two measures consumers use to decide what they think of a newly released product: brand fit and product fit. "Brand fit" is the degree to which a new product is consistent with the overall brand image, and knee pads would fit well with the athletic Nike persona. However, certain new products that do not mesh with the Nike brand might still garner a positive consumer reaction if they demonstrate "product fit." A Nike car audio system, for example, would have high product fit with Nike's existing line of audio equipment for joggers. Surprisingly, this second type of association is often easier for consumers to make, the researchers found. "Consumers tend to transfer attitudes from varying sources to a brand extension," explain the authors. "[But] consumers may transfer their liking for an existing product to an extension in a spontaneous fashion." ###

Huifang Mao and H. Shanker Krishnan. "Effects of Prototype and Exemplar Fit on Brand Extension Evaluations: A Two-Process Contingency Model" Journal of Consumer Research. June 2006.

Contact: Suzanne Wu swu@press.uchicago.edu 773-834-0386 University of Chicago Press Journals

Technorati Tags: Brain-scanning or biological and biology or Consumer Research and technology or fMRI or brand images and consumers or Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Neural Dissociations or Nike and Gillette or brand

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nanotechnologists demonstrate artificial muscles powered by highly energetic fuels

UT Dallas nanotechnologists demonstrate artificial muscles powered by highly energetic fuels

Muscles for prosthetic limbs, autonomous robots and smart surfaces reported in the March 17 issue of the presitigious journal Science

University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) nanotechnologists have made alcohol- and hydrogen-powered artificial muscles that are 100 times stronger than natural muscles, able to do 100 times greater work per cycle and produce, at reduced strengths, larger contractions than natural muscles. Among other possibilities, these muscles could enable fuel-powered artificial limbs, "smart skins" and morphing structures for air and marine vehicles, autonomous robots having very long mission capabilities and smart sensors that detect and self-actuate to change the environment.
While humans on long, strenuous missions are able to carry the food that powers their bodies, today's most athletically capable robots cannot freely move about, since they are wired to stationary electrical power sources. Though batteries can be used for autonomous robots, they store too little energy and deliver it at too low a rate for prolonged or intense activity. To solve these problems, the team from UTD's NanoTech Institute developed two different types of artificial muscles that, like natural muscles, convert the chemical energy of an energetic fuel to mechanical energy.

The breakthroughs are described in the March 17 issue of the prestigious journal Science.

The development of these revolutionary muscles was motivated by a visit of Dr. John Main from the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) to Dr. Ray H. Baughman, Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry and director of the UTD NanoTech Institute. During the visit, Main described his visions of a future that could include such advancements as artificial muscles for autonomous humanoid robots that protect people from danger, artificial limbs that act like natural limbs and exoskeletons that provide super-human strength to firefighters, astronauts and soldiers -- all of which are able to perform lengthy missions by using shots of alcohol as a highly energetic fuel.

The new muscles simultaneously function as fuel cells and muscles, according to Baughman, corresponding author of the Science article. A catalyst-containing carbon nanotube electrode is used in one described muscle type as a fuel cell electrode to convert chemical energy to electrical energy, as a supercapacitor electrode to store this electrical energy and as a muscle electrode to transform this electrical energy to mechanical energy. Fuel-powered charge injection in a carbon nanotube electrode produces the dimensional changes needed for actuation due to a combination of quantum mechanical and electrostatic effects present on the nanoscale, Baughman said.

In another of the described artificial muscles -- currently the most powerful type -- the chemical energy in the fuel is converted to heat by a catalytic reaction of a mixture of fuel and oxygen in the air. The resulting temperature increase in this "shorted fuel-cell muscle" causes contraction of a shape memory metal muscle wire that supports this catalyst. Subsequent cooling completes the work cycle by causing expansion of the muscle.

"The shorted fuel cell muscles are especially easy to deploy in robotic devices, since they comprise commercially available shape memory wires that are coated with a nanoparticle catalyst. The major challenges have been in attaching the catalyst to the shape memory wire to provide long muscle lifetimes, and in controlling muscle actuation rate and stroke," said Baughman. "Students and scientists of all ages will be working on optimizing and deploying our artificial muscles, from high school students in our NanoExplorer program to retired technologists in our NanoInventor program."

Patent applications for the artificial muscles are pending.

Application opportunities, Baughman said, are diverse, and range from robots and morphing air vehicles to dynamic Braille displays and muscles powered by the fuel/air mixture delivered to an engine that are able to regulate this mixture. The more than 30 times higher energy density obtainable for fuels like methanol, compared to that for the most advanced batteries, can translate into long operational lifetimes without refueling for autonomous robots. This refueling requires negligible time compared with that needed for recharging batteries. Since all muscles will not be used at the same time, temporarily inactive muscles of the first muscle type can be used as ordinary fuel cells and as supercapacitors to provide for the electrical needs of, for example, autonomous robots and prosthetic limbs. The properties of the two types of fuel-powered muscles can be merged to provide the benefits of both, Baughman said.

The fuel-powered muscles can be easily downsized to the micro- and nano-scales, and arrays of such micro-muscles could be used in "smart skins" that improve the performance of marine and aerospace vehicles. By replacing metal catalyst with tethered enzymes, it might eventually be possible to use artificial muscles powered by food-derived fuels for actuation in the human body – perhaps even for artificial hearts.

The UTD breakthroughs resulted from the insights of NanoTech Institute scientists from many different countries: Dr. Alan G. MacDiarmid, Nobel Prize winner and the James Von Ehr Distinguished Chair in Science and Nanotechnology, from New Zealand; research scientist Dr. Von Howard Ebron and recent UTD Ph.D. recipient Dr. Joselito Razal from the Philippines; graduate student Jiyoung Oh from South Korea; research scientist Dr. Mikhail Kozlov from the Ukraine; research associate Dr. Zhiwei Yang and recent UTD Ph.D. recipient Dr. Hui Xie from China; and Interim Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics Dr. John P. Ferraris, recent UTD Ph.D. recipient Dr. Daniel J. Seyer, graduate student Lee J. Hall and Baughman, all from the United States.

The research leading to the discoveries was funded by DARPA, an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense, the Robert A. Welch Foundation and the coordinated support efforts of the Strategic Partnership for Research in Nanotechnology and the U.S. Air Force. ###

Journalists interested in obtaining a copy of the Science article should contact the Science press package team at (202) 326-6440 or scipak@aaas.org. A supplemental information file and figures describing applications that go beyond the scope of the Science article are also available from the press package team.

About UTD - The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls nearly 14,500 students. The school's freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor's, master's and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university's web site at http://www.utdallas.edu/.

Contact: Steve McGregor smcgreg@utdallas.edu 972-883-2293 University of Texas at Dallas Public release date: 16-Mar-2006

Technorati Tags: Nano or Nanotechnology and nanoparticles or Nanotech and Science or Nanotechnology and Nanotech or Science and nanoscale or hydrogen and prosthetic limbs or autonomous robots and smart surfaces or exoskeletons

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