Children's Postures While Playing at Computer Workstations

There has been a significant increase in the incidence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) and the costs associated with these are predicted to increase as the popularity of computer use increases at home, school and work. Risk factors have been identified in the adult population but little is known about the risk factors for children and youth. Research has demonstrated that they are not immune to this risk and that they are self reporting the same pain as adults. The purpose of the study was to examine children’s postures while working at computer workstations under two conditions. One was at an ergonomically adjusted children’s workstation while the second was at an average adult workstation. A Polhemus Fastrak™ system was used to record the children’s postures and joint and segment angles were quantified. Results of the study showed that children reported more discomfort and effort at the adult workstation. Segment and joint angles showed significant differences through the upper limb at the adult workstation. Of significance was the strategy of shoulder abduction and flexion that the children used in order to place their hand on the mouse. Ulnar deviation was also greater at the adult workstation as was neck extension. All of these factors have been identified in the literature as increasing the risk for injury. A comparison of the children’s posture while playing at the children’s workstation verses the adult workstation, showed that the postural angles assumed by the children at an adult workstation exceeded the Occupational Safety and Health Association (OSHA) recommendations. Further investigation is needed to increase our knowledge of MSD in children as their potential for long term damage has yet to be determined.

Sustainability Enhancement of a Turbine Vane Manufacturing Cell through Digital Simulation based Design

Modern manufacturing systems should satisfy emerging needs related to sustainable development. The design of sustainable manufacturing systems can be valuably supported by simulation, traditionally employed mainly for time and cost reduction. In this paper, a multi-purpose digital simulation approach is proposed to deal with sustainable manufacturing systems design through Discrete Event Simulation (DES) and 3D digital human modelling. DES models integrated with data on power consumption of the manufacturing equipment are utilized to simulate different scenarios with the aim to improve productivity as well as energy efficiency, avoiding resource and energy waste. 3D simulation based on digital human modelling is employed to assess human factors issues related to ergonomics and safety of manufacturing systems. The approach is implemented for the sustainability enhancement of a real manufacturing cell of the aerospace industry, automated by robotic deburring. Alternative scenarios are proposed and simulated, obtaining a significant improvement in terms of energy efficiency (−87%) for the new deburring cell, and a reduction of energy consumption around −69% for the coordinate measuring machine, with high potential annual energy cost savings and increased energy efficiency. Moreover, the simulation-based ergonomic assessment of human operator postures allows 25% improvement of the workcell ergonomic index.

Arbetsmiljö : Med fokus ur ett könsperspektiv

För att åstadkomma en god arbetsmiljö ska arbetsgivaren och arbetstagaren gemensamt sam-verka enligt Arbetsmiljölagen. Därav ligger ansvaret både på arbetsgivaren och arbetstagaren (Arbetsmiljölagen). Denna studie har utförts på ett industriföretag med syfte att undersöka ar-betsmiljön och arbetsskador ur ett kön- och genusperspektiv. För att kunna uppnå ett trovärdigt och tillförlitligt resultat har tre olika metoder använts såsom intervjuer, deltagande observation och information från företagets IA-system. Resultatet visar att det inte finns lika stora skillnader mellan kvinnor och män idag som det gjorde för 15 år sedan. Någonting annat som upptäcktes var att det finns ett stort mörkertal när det gäller att rapportera in säkerhetssamtal, tillbud och olycksfall i företagets IA-system. Efter att ha analyserat det insamlade empiriska materialet blev slutsatsen att kvinnor inte får arbetsskador lättare än män, utan att det beror på de kulturer, normer och värderingar som finns inom industrin. Företaget arbetar på rätt sätt när det gäller säkerhet, utrustning, ergonomi med mera, men når ändå inte ända fram till medarbetarna. Stu-dien visar att en stor del till att arbetsmiljön har blivit skapad på detta sätt genom att det finns en konflikt mellan medarbetare och ledning. Kultur, norm och värderingar påverkar både ar-betssituationen och arbetsmiljön. För att lyckas med sitt arbetsmiljöarbete måste företaget ar-beta med sin kultur och lösa konflikten mellan medarbetare och ledning, vilket kommer att bidrar till nöjdare medarbetare och ett trivsammare klimat.

Exploring problem-framing through behavioural heuristics

Design for behaviour change aims to influence user behaviour, through design, for social or environmental benefit. Understanding and modelling human behaviour has thus come within the scope of designers’work, as in interaction design, service design and user experience design more generally. Diverse approaches to how to model users when seeking to influence behaviour can result in many possible strategies, but a major challenge for the field is matching appropriate design strategies to particular behaviours (Zachrisson & Boks, 2012). In this paper, we introduce and explore behavioural heuristics as a way of framing problem-solution pairs (Dorst & Cross, 2001) in terms of simple rules. These act as a ‘common language’ between insights from user research and design principles and techniques, and draw on ideas from human factors, behavioural economics, and decision research. We introduce the process via a case study on interaction with office heating systems, based on interviews with 16 people. This is followed by worked examples in the ‘other direction’, based on a workshop held at the Interaction ’12 conference, extracting heuristics from existing systems designed to influence user behaviour, to illustrate both ends of a possible design process using heuristics.

Models of the user: designers’ perspectives on influencing sustainable behaviour

Influencing more environmentally friendly and sustainable behaviour is a current focus of many projects, ranging from government social marketing campaigns, education and tax structures to designers’ work on interactive products, services and environments. There is a wide variety of techniques and methods used, intended to work via different sets of cognitive and environmental principles. These approaches make different assumptions about ‘what people are like’: how users will respond to behavioural interventions, and why, and in the process reveal some of the assumptions that designers and other stakeholders, such as clients commissioning a project, make about human nature. This paper discusses three simple models of user behaviour – the pinball, the shortcut and the thoughtful – which emerge from user experience designers’ statements about users while focused on designing for behaviour change. The models are characterised using systems terminology and the application of each model to design for sustainable behaviour is examined via a series of examples.

The Design with Intent Method: a design tool for influencing user behaviour

Using product and system design to influence user behaviour offers potential for improving performance and reducing user error, yet little guidance is available at the concept generation stage for design teams briefed with influencing user behaviour. This article presents the Design with Intent Method, an innovation tool for designers working in this area, illustrated via application to an everyday human–technology interaction problem: reducing the likelihood of a customer leaving his or her card in an automatic teller machine. The example application results in a range of feasible design concepts which are comparable to existing developments in ATM design, demonstrating that the method has potential for development and application as part of a user-centred design process.

Making the user more efficient: Design for sustainable behaviour

User behaviour is a significant determinant of a product’s environmental impact; while engineering advances permit increased efficiency of product operation, the user’s decisions and habits ultimately have a major effect on the energy or other resources used by the product. There is thus a need to change users’ behaviour. A range of design techniques developed in diverse contexts suggest opportunities for engineers, designers and other stakeholders working in the field of sustainable innovation to affect users’ behaviour at the point of interaction with the product or system, in effect ‘making the user more efficient’. Approaches to changing users’ behaviour from a number of fields are reviewed and discussed, including: strategic design of affordances and behaviour-shaping constraints to control or affect energyor other resource-using interactions; the use of different kinds of feedback and persuasive technology techniques to encourage or guide users to reduce their environmental impact; and context-based systems which use feedback to adjust their behaviour to run at optimum efficiency and reduce the opportunity for user-affected inefficiency. Example implementations in the sustainable engineering and ecodesign field are suggested and discussed.

Exploring design patterns for sustainable behaviour

Products and services explicitly intended to influence users’ behaviour are increasingly being proposed to reduce environmental impact and for other areas of social benefit. Designing such interventions often involves adopting and adapting principles from other contexts where behaviour change has been studied. The ‘design pattern’ form, used in software engineering and HCI, and originally developed in architecture, offers benefits for this transposition process. This article introduces the Design with Intent toolkit, an idea generation method using a design pattern form to help designers address sustainable behaviour problems. The article also reports on exploratory workshops in which participants used the toolkit to generate concepts for redesigning everyday products—kettles, curtains, printers and bathroom sinks/taps—to reduce the environmental impact of use. The concepts are discussed, along with observations of how the toolkit was used by participants, suggesting usability improvements to incorporate in future versions.

Making instructions for others: exploring mental models through a simple exercise

This article introduces the idea of asking people to create instructions for others, as a way of exploring their mental models of designed systems. An example exercise run at the 2012 Brighton Maker Faire provides context. Article part of the 'On Modelling' forum edited by Hugh Dubberly.

Desordens músculo-esqueléticas relacionadas com o exercício da Medicina Dentária

Os profissionais de Saúde Oral, nomeadamente os Médicos Dentistas, têm vindo a enfrentar variados riscos decorrentes da sua atividade profissional. Apesar de haver um esforço constante no sentido de melhorar os equipamentos e materiais dentários, através dos avanços tecnológicos, estes não conseguiram, ainda, colmatar significativamente os problemas Músculo-Esqueléticos dos Médicos Dentistas. Este tipo de problemas surge enquanto estudantes, durante a prática clínica, muitas vezes devido às condições de trabalho, à inexperiência inerente, mas, principalmente, devido às postura e aos hábitos de trabalho errados que adquirem e que, consequentemente, persistem ao longo da sua vida profissional. A presente dissertação, aliada a uma vasta literatura relacionada, pretende alertar os profissionais de Saúde Oral, com foco nos Médicos Dentistas, para as patologias decorrentes das posturas erradas no exercício da Medicina Dentária, denominadas de Desordens Músculo-Esqueléticas relacionadas com o Trabalho, identificando-as, assim como aos fatores de risco que influenciam o seu aparecimento. A elaboração desta dissertação, pretende, ainda, propor exercícios de Ginástica Laboral a realizar entre consultas, como estratégia de prevenção para o surgimento de Lesões MúsculoEsqueléticas Relacionadas com o Trabalho nos Médicos Dentistas e alertar para a importância da Ergonomia na conceção de um Consultório Dentário. Para a presente revisão bibliográfica, foi realizada uma pesquisa bibliográfica com recurso a livros e artigos publicados em revistas, e que foram consultados nas Bibliotecas da Faculdade de Medicina Dentária da Universidade do Porto e da Universidade Fernando Pessoa. Procedeu-se à pesquisa por recurso aos motores de busca na internet, tais como, PubMed, Scielo, B-On e Medline, utilizando as seguintes palavras-chave, em conjunto ou individualmente: “Lesões por esforços repetitivos”; “Lesões Músculo-Esqueléticas”; “Ergonomia”; “Prevenção”; “Fatores de Risco”; “Ginástica Laboral”; “Work related musculoskeletal disorders”; “Dentistry”; “Ergonomics”; “Pain”; “Prevention”; “Risk factors”. Foram selecionados artigos entre 1987 e 2015, com relevância para o presente trabalho de dissertação de Mestrado, escritos em Português e Inglês. Desta forma, a pesquisa bibliográfica permitiu verificar a prevalência de Lesões Músculo-Esqueléticas Relacionadas com o Trabalho, no âmbito da Medicina Dentária, assim como os fatores de risco associados ao seu aparecimento. Foram ainda tecidas algumas recomendações de forma a contribuir para o bem-estar dos Médicos Dentistas, elucidando-os para a necessidade de adotar posturas corretas e usando a Ergonomia como base para a organização e conceção de um Consultório Dentário. Recorreu-se, ainda, à ilustração de um programa de Ginástica Laboral, através de dois cartazes elucidativos, com o objetivo de prevenir, corrigir e compensar este tipo de patologias do Médico Dentista, desde a sua prática clínica. Após a elaboração desta dissertação, acredita-se ser de extrema importância a aplicação de diretrizes ergonómicas na conceção de um Consultório Dentário, na organização de tarefas, no procedimento clínico, na adoção de posturas, no posto de trabalho, na localização do equipamento e na escolha dos instrumentos. Este método, para além de minimizar o risco do aparecimento de doenças profissionais, também simplifica tarefas, proporciona a correta comunicação entre o Médico Dentista e o assistente e melhora a qualidade e produtividade laboral, através da redução da fadiga física e mental e do aumento da confiança e bem-estar dos Médicos Dentistas.

Quantitative and Qualitative Trade-Off Analysis of Drowsy Driver Detection Methods: Single Electrode Wearable EEG Device, Multi-Electrode Wearable EEG Device, and Head-Mounted Gyroscope

Drowsy driving impairs motorists’ ability to operate vehicles safely, endangering both the drivers and other people on the road. The purpose of the project is to find the most effective wearable device to detect drowsiness. Existing research has demonstrated several options for drowsiness detection, such as electroencephalogram (EEG) brain wave measurement, eye tracking, head motions, and lane deviations. However, there are no detailed trade-off analyses for the cost, accuracy, detection time, and ergonomics of these methods. We chose to use two different EEG headsets: NeuroSky Mindwave Mobile (single-electrode) and Emotiv EPOC (14- electrode). We also tested a camera and gyroscope-accelerometer device. We can successfully determine drowsiness after five minutes of training using both single and multi-electrode EEGs. Devices were evaluated using the following criteria: time needed to achieve accurate reading, accuracy of prediction, rate of false positives vs. false negatives, and ergonomics and portability. This research will help improve detection devices, and reduce the number of future accidents due to drowsy driving.