The study of some biological factors of wakefulness and their influence upon sleep

The thesis discusses the significance of some aspects of wakefulness, namely exercise and diet, upon human sleep using the electroencephalogram (EEG). Part One of this thesis examines the relationship between exercise and sleep. An initial literature review produced equivocal findings, although it appeared that several factors might be involved in this relationship such as the time of day of exercising, the fitness of the subject and the amount of stress associated with the exercise prescribed. [Continues.

What makes you tick - an investigation of the pleasure needs of different population segments

The RealPeople project at Loughborough University is an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded research programme. The main aim of the project was to address the growing need for resources/tools that support designers in understanding the emotional needs of different population demographics. The designer needs for a resource/ tool of this nature were identified through a series of interviews with practising designers; the main findings were that designers are aware of the necessity to satisfy the emotional needs of the user, but there has to be a compromise with other factors e.g. production costs. They tend to rely upon ‘quick and dirty’ research methods, with few aware of techniques and data that relate specifically to user pleasure. Additionally, they expressed great interest in a ‘pleasure resource’ that would give them access to information about specific market groups’ emotional needs. Several of them suggested a greater focus on user ‘lifestyle’ information to promote empathy with users. The information collected resulted in the development of an interactive database that allows designers to browse intimate subjective data about specific individuals, their lifestyles and the products that they love and statistically analysed data concerning general population trends. This allows them to gain a better understanding of the emotional and aspirational needs of different market groups, giving them a greater sense of empathy with consumers for whom they are designing. The resource has received very positive reviews from the practising designers that have evaluated its content and interaction style

Interface pressure and the prediction of car seat discomfort

The technique of interface pressure measurement has generated considerable interest in the automotive industry as a method, which could be used to predict driver discomfort during the development of prototype seat designs. Two repeated measures experiments were carried out to evaluate the practical application of the technique. The variables of foam density and posture were used to create discomfort, the whole emphasis of the work being to generate results with real world applicability. A clear, simple and consistent relationship between interface pressure and driving discomfort was not identified. Future studies using this technique should provide information regarding such factors as gender, body mass, anthropometric data, posture and foam hardness due to the confounding nature of these variables

The prevalence of musculoskeletal troubles among car drivers

In order to explore the relationship between car driving and musculoskeletal troubles, a cross-sectional structured-interview survey of low to high mileage drivers (including individuals who drove as part of their job) was conducted based on the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. The results clearly showed that exposure to car driving was associated with reported sickness absence due to low back trouble and that those who drive as part of their job appear to be more at risk from low back trouble than those whose jobs primarily involve sitting (not driving) and standing activities. The frequency of reported discomfort also increased with higher annual mileage. In addition, drivers of cars with more adjustable driving packages had fewer reported musculoskeletal troubles. This identifies an urgent need for the training of managers of fleet vehicles in the importance of developing measures to reduce this problem. For example, the selection of an individual's car with respect to comfort and postural criteria

Recent applications of the SAMMIE system

Human modelling systems such as SAMMIE can be powerful tools for the design team as they enable predictions to be made concerning problems with clearances, reaching, seeing or the combination of all these requirements that may force unnatural and damaging postures. The potential benefits arising from the use of such systems are discussed below, with reference to some recent projects completed by SAMMIE CAD Ltd

Design practice and 'designing for all'

It is essential that all designers with responsibility for the human-machine interface have access to information on the anthropometry and capabilities of the whole population of people who may wish to interact with the design in question. Current databases used by designers typically present only very limited information concerning people who are older and/or disabled. Furthermore, tables of data are known to be largely ineffective and designers prefer to see visualisations of design data. In order to establish the current situation regarding design in relation to the needs of older and disabled people, existing products, procedures and systems were investigated. The objective was to identify current practice and the needs of designers whilst attempting to ‘design for all’. This paper will report on the findings from these interviews to date, which will ultimately lead to a requirements specification to aid design for the needs of older and disabled people

Car seat and occupant modelling using CAD

A current Brite-Euram project is concerned with life-cycle aspects of car seating with Loughborough being responsible for driver comfort assessment. This is being carried out through road and laboratory trials, with the results to be incorporated within the SAMMIE design system. Driver comfort is in part determined by seat pressure distributions which lead to deformation of the human flesh and the seat and movement of important design locations such as the driver's eyepoint. Accommodation of these effects requires a more realistic representation of the human body using surface rather than solid representations. Hence a shadow scanning technique is used to capture human body shape which is processed into the DUCT surface modelling system and via IGES files into SAMMIE. Finite element techniques are then used to predict deformations at the seat/driver interface

SAMMIE computer aided ergonomics

Human modelling systems can be powerful tools for the design team as they enable predictions to be made of the percentage of future users of the product who may have problems with clearances, reaching, seeing or the combination of all these requirements may force unnatural and damaging postures. When problems are identified, it is possible for all of the design team to scrutinise the data and the assumptions used. The ergonomics problems with a proposed design can be presented visually thereby supporting efficient communication within the design team and solution-orientated action. SAMMIE (System for Aiding Man Machine Interaction Evaluation) is a human modelling computer aided ergonomics design system that was conceived in the late 1960s and by 1978 the system was being used on a daily basis as a consultancy tool. This paper will describe and discuss some of the more important issues that we have had to deal with during the development and application of SAMMIE

Computer workspace modelling

Computer aided design (CAD) methods are becoming very popular with engineers as they provide considerably more flexibility than conventional techniques. Although they are now commonplace in manufacturing industries the great majority of CAD systems completely ignore the most important component of the human-machine system being designed-humans themselves. The importance of an ergonomics input to a design is now recognized by many industries as being essential. The increasing complexity of modern systems and the social, economic and legislative pressures for good design have led to the demand for the ergonomics input to be made available as early as possible in the design programme, starting preferably at the concept stage. Traditionally, ergonomists have had to wait until the mock-up stage before being able to perform a detailed evaluation of a prototype design. This delay has several consequences, which will be discussed later in this chapter, all of which are detrimental to the design process

SAMMIE: an ergonomics CAD system for vehicle design and evaluation

SAMMIE (System for Aiding Man-Machine Interaction Evaluation) is a CAD system which enables the ergonomics/human factors evaluation of vehicle designs to commence at the earliest stages of the design process. Evaluations of postural comfort and the occupants' clearances, reach and vision should be undertaken from the concept stage when design modifications are easier and cheaper to implement than at the pre-production stage. In order to achieve this, the package offers 3D modelling of vehicles and their occupants. Details of the package and its application to vehicle design are presented