Ergonomia e design de vestimentas ocupacionais no Brasil: foco em equipamentos de proteção individual no setor de petróleo e gás

Pós-graduação em Design - FAAC

Finite element analysis of the influence of geometry and design of zirconia crowns on stress distribution

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of the geometry and design of prosthetic crown preparations on stress distribution in compression tests, using finite element analysis (FEA). Materials and Methods: Six combinations of 3D drawings of all-ceramic crowns (yttria-stabilized zirconia framework and porcelain veneer) were evaluated: F, flat preparation and simplified crown; FC, flat preparation and crown with contact point; FCM, flat preparation and modified crown; A, anatomical preparation and simplified anatomical crown framework; AC, anatomical preparation and crown with contact point; and ACM, anatomical preparation and modified crown. Bonded contact types at all interfaces with the mesh were assigned, and the material properties used were according to the literature. A 200 N vertical load was applied at the center of each model. The maximum principal stresses were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. Results: The highest values of tensile stress were observed at the interface between the ceramics in the region under the load application for the simplified models (F and A). Reductions in stress values were observed for the model with the anatomical preparation and modified infrastructure (ACM). The stress distribution in the flat models was similar to that of their respective anatomical models. Conclusions: The modified design of the zirconia coping reduces the stress concentration at the interface with the veneer ceramic, and the simplified preparation can exert a stress distribution similar to that of the anatomical preparation at and near the load point, when load is applied to the center of the crown.

Design & seleção de materiais: elaboração e execução de um sistema de informações para projeto do produto: madeiras

Wood is a renewable material and has unique characteristics that stem from its orthotropic properties. The objective of this study was to develop and implement an informational Selection of Materials and Manufacturing Processes appropriate to the activity of Product Design - Woods. Composed of a Digital Information System, distributed, and an ordered collection of samples. The design of a product, carries with it the choice of material, and the choice of a manufacturing process. Information on materials and manufacturing processes are available with different content, media and interfaces. However, such information is not systematized so that they can be recovered, as the need for the designer, especially on wood. This set of methods is called the Selection of Materials and Manufacturing Processes. It is hoped through this study that the methodologies for SMPF are employed by product designers, architects and engineers in Brazil.

Características da interface dos sites de notícias: um estudo do design e da usabilidade de jornais impressos e eletrônicos

The paper presents an ergonomic analysis of reading usability of electronic journals and the comparison with newspapers. As a method, it was adopted an evaluation of the user perception, from a printed questionnaire applied to a group of 41 people. Overall, the results indicate that on the analyzed newspapers there is need for greater care concerning the aspects of visual representation, involving more design application, usability, ergonomics, technology and communication.

Diretrizes para análise e desenvolvimento de identidade visual: contribuições para o design ergonômico

Currently, too much visual information present in all media is form vehemently, for example, in print media and interfaces used for publicity in conjunction with informational design. This visual information has great influence in the lives of human beings, since the vision of these individuals is the sense most used. Studies on visual identity have not explored this issue in a satisfactory manner, favoring thus the subject of this little development projects in the area. Note the need for analyzes to enable implementation principles of projective, making them accessible to the understanding of most individuals. This study aimed to propose an evaluation of visual identities, which were analyzed by means of visual concepts of usability, design methodologies and Gestalt. We contacted design firms specializing in visual identity projects, places where interviews were conducted to collect the marks allowed for analysis. The results point to a frequent demand the employment of visual usability principles, design methodologies and design in Gestalt visual identities.

Ergonomics and interfaces of traditional information systems: packaging

The contemporary world is characterized, among other factors, by the influence of the new computer information systems on the behavior of individuals. However, traditional information systems still have interaction problems with users. The aim of this study was to determine whether the interaction aspects between user versus traditional information systems (particularly the graphics) have been fully studied. To do so, the ergonomic aspects and usability of such systems were reviewed, with emphasis on the problems of visibility, legibility and readability. From that criteria, the evolution of ergonomic studies of information systems was reviewed (bibliometrics technique); and examples of ergonomic and usability problems in packaging were demonstrated (case study). The results confirm that traditional information systems still have problems of interaction between human X system, hindering the effective perception of information.

Caos e complexidade: design de superficie e os novos paradigmas da ciencia

The expressive possibilities within the field of surface design come up with increasingly larger with the emergence of technologies that allow the construction of forms and structures of high complexity such as three-dimensional printing. Establishing a relationship between design and complex systems, this work seeks to address the significant interrelationship of new paradigms of science, designed from concepts such as chaos, complexity and self-organization along with the cyber and parametric design, assuming thus the consequent impact of these in the creation and construction of process surfaces. Starting from the investigation of the applicability of the aforementioned conceptual bases, will be exemplified prospects of surface, produced in the first instance through computer interfaces, assigning the emergence of new creative processes and technology. Furthermore, elucidating biomimetics and its importance in the design of the design as a means of inspiration in complex systems of nature.

Artemídia influente: ateliê-laboratório nas interfaces Arte, Ciência e Tecnologia

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Exploração e análise das novas interfaces digitais relacionadas à representação gráfica na arquitetura

Este trabalho integra as pesquisas desenvolvidas pelo Grupo N.elac – IAU.USP, que tem como tema estudos sobre a representação da arquitetura e da cidade. Este artigo faz análise dos novos recursos tecnológicos direcionados para o desenho e projeto arquitetônico que emulam ou fazem uso do movimento gestual humano no ato de desenho e projeto. A pesquisa testa e avalia qualitativamente o uso das novas ferramentas digitais, tais como as tablets gráficas (ex:Apple Ipad), tablets opacas (ex: Wacom Bamboo) e canetas eletrônicas (ex: Wacom Inkling) na execução de desenhos livre e de observação, orientados por uma proposta de desenvolvimento gráfico relacionados ao ato de projeto arquitetônico, de maneira que se possa construir uma análise comparativa e interpretativa por meio dos produtos gerados nesse processo.

Desarrollo de interfaces de usuario para una herramienta de telecontrol y automatización industrial

[ES] Este proyecto de fin de carrera aborda la actualización y refactorización de la aplicación Hecaton. Esta aplicación permite la monitorización y actuación en instalaciones industriales de manera remota a través de un interfaz web. Para ello hace uso de sensores y actuadores que, conectados a través de un equipo de adquisición de datos a un sistema informático servidor, permiten obtener, manipular y almacenar los datos y eventos recibidos. Hecaton ha sido desarrollado enteramente utilizando software libre. Además, el sistema permite ser personalizado, lo que posibilita su uso en todo tipo de escenarios, siendo el usuario quién define las reglas de funcionamiento. Este trabajo se trata del cuarto ciclo de desarrollo, pues la aplicación ha sido crea y ampliada en otros tres proyectos. En este último desarrollo se han actualizado las tecnologías y herramientas que forman parte de la aplicación. Se ha puesto especial énfasis en el rediseño de la interfaz web, adoptando el uso de las últimas tecnologías web que permiten un funcionamiento dinámico de la misma. Por otro lado se han corregido algunos errores de diseño e introducido el uso de nuevas herramientas para la gestión del proyecto software. Se trata por lo tanto de un ejercicio de refactorización software donde se ha puesto especial atención en conseguir un proyecto actualizado y que utilice metodologías de desarrollo actuales y que posibilite que sea actualizado en un futuro.

Uniquitous internet middleware: architecture design and prototype evaluation

Technology advances in recent years have dramatically changed the way users exploit contents and services available on the Internet, by enforcing pervasive and mobile computing scenarios and enabling access to networked resources almost from everywhere, at anytime, and independently of the device in use. In addition, people increasingly require to customize their experience, by exploiting specific device capabilities and limitations, inherent features of the communication channel in use, and interaction paradigms that significantly differ from the traditional request/response one. So-called Ubiquitous Internet scenario calls for solutions that address many different challenges, such as device mobility, session management, content adaptation, context-awareness and the provisioning of multimodal interfaces. Moreover, new service opportunities demand simple and effective ways to integrate existing resources into new and value added applications, that can also undergo run-time modifications, according to ever-changing execution conditions. Despite service-oriented architectural models are gaining momentum to tame the increasing complexity of composing and orchestrating distributed and heterogeneous functionalities, existing solutions generally lack a unified approach and only provide support for specific Ubiquitous Internet aspects. Moreover, they usually target rather static scenarios and scarcely support the dynamic nature of pervasive access to Internet resources, that can make existing compositions soon become obsolete or inadequate, hence in need of reconfiguration. This thesis proposes a novel middleware approach to comprehensively deal with Ubiquitous Internet facets and assist in establishing innovative application scenarios. We claim that a truly viable ubiquity support infrastructure must neatly decouple distributed resources to integrate and push any kind of content-related logic outside its core layers, by keeping only management and coordination responsibilities. Furthermore, we promote an innovative, open, and dynamic resource composition model that allows to easily describe and enforce complex scenario requirements, and to suitably react to changes in the execution conditions.

Advanced CMOS Interfaces for Bio-Nanosensors

The improvement of devices provided by Nanotechnology has put forward new classes of sensors, called bio-nanosensors, which are very promising for the detection of biochemical molecules in a large variety of applications. Their use in lab-on-a-chip could gives rise to new opportunities in many fields, from health-care and bio-warfare to environmental and high-throughput screening for pharmaceutical industry. Bio-nanosensors have great advantages in terms of cost, performance, and parallelization. Indeed, they require very low quantities of reagents and improve the overall signal-to-noise-ratio due to increase of binding signal variations vs. area and reduction of stray capacitances. Additionally, they give rise to new challenges, such as the need to design high-performance low-noise integrated electronic interfaces. This thesis is related to the design of high-performance advanced CMOS interfaces for electrochemical bio-nanosensors. The main focus of the thesis is: 1) critical analysis of noise in sensing interfaces, 2) devising new techniques for noise reduction in discrete-time approaches, 3) developing new architectures for low-noise, low-power sensing interfaces. The manuscript reports a multi-project activity focusing on low-noise design and presents two developed integrated circuits (ICs) as examples of advanced CMOS interfaces for bio-nanosensors. The first project concerns low-noise current-sensing interface for DC and transient measurements of electrophysiological signals. The focus of this research activity is on the noise optimization of the electronic interface. A new noise reduction technique has been developed so as to realize an integrated CMOS interfaces with performance comparable with state-of-the-art instrumentations. The second project intends to realize a stand-alone, high-accuracy electrochemical impedance spectroscopy interface. The system is tailored for conductivity-temperature-depth sensors in environmental applications, as well as for bio-nanosensors. It is based on a band-pass delta-sigma technique and combines low-noise performance with low-power requirements.

Brain-Computer Interfaces for augmented communication: Asynchronous and adaptive algorithms and evaluation with end users

This thesis aimed at addressing some of the issues that, at the state of the art, avoid the P300-based brain computer interface (BCI) systems to move from research laboratories to end users’ home. An innovative asynchronous classifier has been defined and validated. It relies on the introduction of a set of thresholds in the classifier, and such thresholds have been assessed considering the distributions of score values relating to target, non-target stimuli and epochs of voluntary no-control. With the asynchronous classifier, a P300-based BCI system can adapt its speed to the current state of the user and can automatically suspend the control when the user diverts his attention from the stimulation interface. Since EEG signals are non-stationary and show inherent variability, in order to make long-term use of BCI possible, it is important to track changes in ongoing EEG activity and to adapt BCI model parameters accordingly. To this aim, the asynchronous classifier has been subsequently improved by introducing a self-calibration algorithm for the continuous and unsupervised recalibration of the subjective control parameters. Finally an index for the online monitoring of the EEG quality has been defined and validated in order to detect potential problems and system failures. This thesis ends with the description of a translational work involving end users (people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis-ALS). Focusing on the concepts of the user centered design approach, the phases relating to the design, the development and the validation of an innovative assistive device have been described. The proposed assistive technology (AT) has been specifically designed to meet the needs of people with ALS during the different phases of the disease (i.e. the degree of motor abilities impairment). Indeed, the AT can be accessed with several input devices either conventional (mouse, touchscreen) or alterative (switches, headtracker) up to a P300-based BCI.

Adsorption of macromolecules on interfaces studied by isothermal titration calorimetry

The mixing of nanoparticles with polymers to form composite materials has been applied for decades. They combine the advantages of polymers (e.g., elasticity, transparency, or dielectric properties) and inorganic nanoparticles (e.g., specific absorption of light, magneto resistance effects, chemical activity, and catalysis etc.). Nanocomposites exhibit several new characters that single-phase materials do not have. Filling the polymeric matrix with an inorganic material requires its homogeneous distribution in order to achieve the highest possible synergetic effect. To fulfill this requirement, the incompatibility between the filler and the matrix, originating from their opposite polarity, has to be resolved. A very important parameter here is the strength and irreversibility of the adsorption of the surface active compound on the inorganic material. In this work the Isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC) was applied as a method to quantify and investigate the adsorption process and binding efficiencies in organic-inorganic–hybrid-systems by determining the thermodynamic parameters (ΔH, ΔS, ΔG, KB as well as the stoichiometry n). These values provide quantification and detailed understanding of the adsorption process of surface active molecules onto inorganic particles. In this way, a direct correlation between the adsorption strength and structure of the surface active compounds can be achieved. Above all, knowledge of the adsorption mechanism in combination with the structure should facilitate a more rational design into the mainly empirically based production and optimization of nanocomposites.

Innovative Man Machine Interfaces In Aeronautics

The research activity focused on the study, design and evaluation of innovative human-machine interfaces based on virtual three-dimensional environments. It is based on the brain electrical activities recorded in real time through the electrical impulses emitted by the brain waves of the user. The achieved target is to identify and sort in real time the different brain states and adapt the interface and/or stimuli to the corresponding emotional state of the user. The setup of an experimental facility based on an innovative experimental methodology for “man in the loop" simulation was established. It allowed involving during pilot training in virtually simulated flights, both pilot and flight examiner, in order to compare the subjective evaluations of this latter to the objective measurements of the brain activity of the pilot. This was done recording all the relevant information versus a time-line. Different combinations of emotional intensities obtained, led to an evaluation of the current situational awareness of the user. These results have a great implication in the current training methodology of the pilots, and its use could be extended as a tool that can improve the evaluation of a pilot/crew performance in interacting with the aircraft when performing tasks and procedures, especially in critical situations. This research also resulted in the design of an interface that adapts the control of the machine to the situation awareness of the user. The new concept worked on, aimed at improving the efficiency between a user and the interface, and gaining capacity by reducing the user’s workload and hence improving the system overall safety. This innovative research combining emotions measured through electroencephalography resulted in a human-machine interface that would have three aeronautical related applications: • An evaluation tool during the pilot training; • An input for cockpit environment; • An adaptation tool of the cockpit automation.