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Bounding box for the minimum dimensions of a seated desk according to BIFMA standards (see Table 4 on page 30). Adapted from BIFMA Document G1-2002. (Allsteel #19 ® task chair referenced)
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Here at Allsteel, we believe the interaction between the user and the
product is one of the primary concerns of the product design process.
Our goal is to continue to develop products that respond to not only the
issues that confront offi ce workers every day, but the size and shape of
the person working, the work that is being done, the positions...
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Citations
... Ergonomics is a science which focuses on designing equipment, devices and processes that fit the human body and its cognitive abilities. It is widely considered in many areas to optimize the interaction between users and products and systems 1 . Among these areas, in distance education as a booming industry 2 , ergonomics has been identified as one of the critical success factors 3 . ...
The function of proctors is to detect academic improprieties during examinations, tests, and laboratory experiments. With the breakout of the pandemic, many institutions went to online operation, which rendered a difficulty to the exams and tests. Then, various remote proctoring methods are employed. Virtual proctor (VP) systems that replace continuous human supervision with video surveillance are starting to become popular in distance education, despite their most common shortcomings, which include their vulnerability to pose translations of the learners and their de-pendency on the illumination conditions of the environment. As a result, virtual proctor systems impose extra constraints on the movements of the learners being monitored, and thus they may feel uncomfortable when being subjected to virtual proctoring. At present, in the design of VP systems, sufficient consideration of human factors and ergonomics is typically not given.
To overcome these shortcomings, a video-based VP system with a reliable two-stage face recognition and tracking method is proposed here. First, the face region is detected and cropped out from the video frames by a combination of eye, mouth, and face detection. After that, to render the usage of the VP system more comfortable for the learners being monitored, a modified face recognition method based on a proposed improved real-time stereo-matching algorithm is employed to track the learners’ movements. The VP system is capable of identifying a limited set of pre-defined suspicious behaviors that may represent cheating. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the proposed methods, two benchmark analyses with respect to the effect of pose translations and varying illumination conditions on the effectiveness of the VP system are presented. It is asserted that the proposed VP system is simpler to use than prior solutions and realizes an ergonomic design that makes the learners monitored more comfortable.
... It appears that most previous studies in Nigeria on sitting time and musculoskeletal pain focused primarily on low back pain. The ergonomic parameters were also limited to seat height, monitor height, keyboard height, seat back angle, and arm angle, with little emphasis on seat width, seat length, back rest length, and back rest width, as recommended by the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) and Allsteel guidelines as reported by (Openshaw and Erin , 2006). Therefore, the primary aims of this study were to evaluate workstation ergonomic parameters and work related musculoskeletal dysfunction (pain) at the neck and low back of computer users among non-academic workers at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, Nigeria ...
... The findings of this study suggest that the current ergonomic parameters of office furniture may not be adequate to prevent Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) among office workers. The results also indicated that the ergonomic parameters of furniture in the office setting need improvement to meet the BIFMA and Allsteel guidelines, as reported by (Openshaw and Erin, 2006). The mean keyboard height was slightly higher than the BIFMA guidelines. ...
The correct adoption of proper ergonomic position reduces the risk of injury by adapting workstations to fit individuals. However, there is dearth of adequate data on work settings of most Nigerian workers despite the increasing usage of computers and reports of high prevalence of work related musculoskeletal disorders. This study aimed at evaluating and investigating opinion on workstation ergonomics. It also determined the prevalence of pain at neck and low back of computer users among non-academic workers in a Nigeria university community. Furthermore, it determined the relationship among ergonomic parameters and spinal pain intensity. Two hundred non-academic staff of a Nigeria university institution were recruited for the cross-sectional survey study using purposive sampling technique. Data on chair ergonomic parameters, sitting time, and pain intensity were obtained using the modified versions of the Boston University Computer Health Survey and Office ergonomics questionnaires and a 10-point pain rating scale respectively. The data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics, percentage, Pearson's and Spearman rho correlation co-efficiencies. The prevalence of low back pain was 66.0% while that of neck pain was 54.5%. Neck and low back pain were found to be more prevalent in females (57% and 70% respectively) than in males (52% and 63% respectively). The mean pain intensity experienced at the neck and low back were 2.88 (SD = 3.01) and 4.73 (SD = 3.44) on a 10-point pain rating scale. Most of the non-academic staff (71.5%) used to sit for between 30 minutes and 3 hours without getting out of the chair for a break. Over a typical week, 114 respondents (57%) were found to spend 1-4 hour per day using the computer for work. Majority of respondents (112) usually stand or walk to take a break from their seat for 30 minutes. The result showed that 133 (66.5%) opined that the seat and table heights were appropriate for use in the workstations, 130 (65%) reported that the height, seat and back of their chair could not be adjusted. The mean seat height (33.09 ± 5.90cm), seat back and arm angles (95.38 ± 8.74 and 106.05 ± 9.16 degrees respectively) were outside the considered normal ranges. There was significant relationship between keyboard height and intensity of pain experienced at the low back (r = 0.15, p = 0.04). There was also significant JOURNAL OF ORTHOPAEDIC AND MANUAL THERAPY (JOMT) Volume 1, Number 1 October, 2023 33 relationship between duration of sitting without getting out of chair for a break and intensity of pain experienced at the neck (r = 0.15, p = 0.04) and number of hours of using the computer for work or recreation (r = 0.39, p = 0.001). It was concluded that most of the workers in the university community have positive opinions about the workstations and surfaces despite the high prevalence of musculoskeletal pains observed among non-academic computer users. It was also concluded that pain intensity had significant relationship with durations of sitting and usage of computers. Furthermore, the seat height, seat back and arm angles were not within normal ranges.
... Precisely for this reason, children need an environment as suitable as possible for them, adapting the furniture and spaces of their gardens based on ergonomic standard dimensions in accordance with the size and age of the children. (Openshaw & Taylor, 2006). Although, based on research, it has been found that children face various challenges in their kindergartens, such as: a) Improper height of the chair; b) Improper height of tables; c) Inadequate space for free movement of children, etc. ...
... The ambition to create office desks that could be part of restorative environments is further complicated by the numerous possibilities of designing a desk but few evidencebased design guidelines that could positively impact human wellbeing. Existing deskdesign guidelines focus on ergonomic aspects, which suggest creating desks with adjustable height, sufficient width, adequate knee space, and rounded edges [29]. However, desks that follow these recommendations can still vary in many aspects, such as the type of desk legs and the presence or absence of drawers and shelves. ...
Visually pleasing materials and furnishings may be an important component of pleasant, restorative indoor spaces, where people can rest, relax, and recover from stress. We conducted two studies to examine human preferences for different wooden desk materials and designs. In Study 1, 77 participants evaluated the visual appearance of 20 wooden materials and 18 desk designs, in which desk elements and their arrangements were systematically varied. The three highest rated wooden materials and desk designs from Study 1 were combined in 18 new desks evaluated by 80 participants in terms of visual appearance in Study 2, where we systematically varied the type of material, amount of material, and desk design. The results show that preference for different materials and desks varies greatly from person to person, but several evaluated items are on average preferred to others. Study 1 shows that certain materials, desk elements, and the arrangements of those elements received higher preference ratings than others. Study 2 indicates that the type of material, amount of material, and desk design all play a significant role in human preference for the visual appearance of desks. Researchers and designers can build on these findings to create aesthetically appealing indoor environments that have the potential to positively impact human wellbeing.
... The study of ergonomics and human-product interaction is a crucial part of successful product design (Openshaw and Taylor, 2006). Haptic technology allows us to better understand this interaction and can in turn help us to design better products (Tekscan, 2020). ...
Advancements in prototyping technologies – haptics and extended reality – are creating exciting new environments to enhance stakeholder and user interaction with design concepts. These interactions can now occur earlier in the design process, transforming feedback mechanisms resulting in greater and faster iterations. This is essential for bringing right-first-time products to market as quickly as possible.
While existing feedback tools, such as speak-aloud, surveys and/or questionnaires, are a useful means for capturing user feedback and reflections on interactions, there is a desire to explicitly map user feedback to their physical prototype interaction. Over the past decade, several hand-tracking tools have been developed that can, in principle, capture product user interaction.
In this paper, we explore the capability of the LeapMotion Controller, MediaPipe and Manus Prime X Haptic gloves to capture user interaction with prototypes. A broad perspective of capability is adopted, including accuracy as well as the practical aspects of knowledge, skills, and ease of use. In this study, challenges in accuracy, occlusion and data processing were elicited in the capture and translation of user interaction into design insights.
... Armrest Length H None None Distance Between Armrests I Hip breadth, sitting + Clothing allowance 18"(fixed) 18" included adjustable Source: Openshaw et al. (2006) Data 1 in Figure 1 and Table 5 follows the guidelines suggested by Openshaw et al. (2006). The tabulated number of standards in accordance with BIFMA to satisfy the ergonomic demands. ...
... Armrest Length H None None Distance Between Armrests I Hip breadth, sitting + Clothing allowance 18"(fixed) 18" included adjustable Source: Openshaw et al. (2006) Data 1 in Figure 1 and Table 5 follows the guidelines suggested by Openshaw et al. (2006). The tabulated number of standards in accordance with BIFMA to satisfy the ergonomic demands. ...
... Size and dimension guidelines from BIFMA and Allsteel Sum chair(Openshaw et al.,2006) ...
This research focuses on furniture ergonomics, specifically the occasional chair for elderly Malaysian. An ergonomics study in furniture design is essential to ensure its full functionality meets user satisfaction. The design must comfort the end user and reduce the risk of injury. Additionally, different ergonomic requirements must be considered depending on the age and environment of the user. As a result, to avoid injury and provide comfort to users, this study prioritises ergonomics chair design for a group of users in Malaysia, the elderly aged 60 and above. This study proposes a new design to meet the ergonomics requirements of elderly users. The vital need to meet comfort and reduce injuries for the elderly can be met through the study of ergonomics for the elderly, which can be applied to products in the future. The researcher has set the design parameter according to the anthropometric data from the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) standards. The assessment outcomes determine the ergonomic dimension requirements to provide comfort and safety. The suggested dimensions when through the simulation ergonomics analysis. The result shows that the new recommended dimensions comply with the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA). In conclusion, ergonomic design needs for the elderly due to lacking physical and mental strength.
... Load cell mounted on the slider to adjust the position of the sensor and accurately measure the pressure distribution for any foot size. The sliders' distances are determined based on the average anthropometric data of human foot length [56][57][58] and presented in Table 2. Evaluation of such variation is used to calculate the reaction time of the patients during the rehabilitation. The elapsed time until the patient keeps his/her balance against the perturbation, namely reaction time, is detected and considered as a performance metric for the patient's follow-ups. ...
... where I c i1 and I c i2 represent the moment of inertia (MoI) of the stationary and moving part, respectively. Rearranging the Eq (56) yields the kinetic energy of the actuation unit expressed in Eq (57). ...
... Anthropometric values[56][57][58]. ...
The central nervous system (CNS) exploits anticipatory (APAs) and compensatory (CPAs) postural adjustments to maintain the balance. The postural adjustments comprising stability of the center of mass (CoM) and the pressure distribution of the body influence each other if there is a lack of performance in either of them. Any predictable or sudden perturbation may pave the way for the divergence of CoM from equilibrium and inhomogeneous pressure distribution of the body. Such a situation is often observed in the daily lives of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) patients due to their poor APAs and CPAs and induces their falls. The way of minimizing the risk of falls in neurological patients is by utilizing perturbation-based rehabilitation, as it is efficient in the recovery of the balance disorder. In light of the findings, we present the design, implementation, and experimental evaluation of a novel 3 DoF parallel manipulator to treat the balance disorder of MS. The robotic platform allows angular motion of the ankle based on its anthropomorphic freedom. Moreover, the end-effector endowed with upper and lower platforms is designed to evaluate both the pressure distribution of each foot and the CoM of the body, respectively. Data gathered from the platforms are utilized to both evaluate the performance of the patients and used in high-level control of the robotic platform to regulate the difficulty level of tasks. In this study, kinematic and dynamic analyses of the robot are derived and validated in the simulation environment. Low-level control of the first prototype is also successfully implemented through the PID controller. The capacity of each platform is evaluated with a set of experiments considering the assessment of pressure distribution and CoM of the foot-like objects on the end-effector. The experimental results indicate that such a system well-address the need for balance skill training and assessment through the APAs and CPAs.
... • Moving [1] Improper working postures constitute one of the primary risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal disorders, from minor back pain to severe disability. It is important to take proactive steps to assess and mitigate the problem. ...
The human-centered design approach can be defined as the sum of the methods and procedures that make it possible to carry out each evaluation and design intervention, starting with an awareness. It is a philosophy of intervention that places not only people’s needs and expectations, but above all people at the center of the design and production process for products, environments, and systems. Human-centered design is an interactive system development approach that aims to make systems usable and useful by focusing on users, their needs and requirements, and by applying human factors/ergonomics and usability knowledge and techniques. This approach increases efficiency and productivity, improves human well-being, user satisfaction, accessibility and sustainability, and eliminates the potential negative effects of use on human health, safety, and performance. Proper design and improvements in working conditions and work organization can result in increased productivity and competitiveness. In this context, work design is an extremely important issue in the apparel industry, which is one of the largest industries in the world.
... Secondly, the referenced anthropometric database may not represent the planned users. For example, ANSUR data may not be applicable to designing chairs for seniors [3]. Third, the relevant information is missing from the database. ...
General principles derived from anatomical studies of human body sizes should be applied to chair designs. Chairs can be designed for a specific user or a particular group of users. Universal chairs for public spaces should be comfortable for the largest possible group of users and should not be adjustable, such as office chairs. However, the fundamental problem is that the anthropometric data available in the literature either come from many years ago and are out of date or do not provide a complete set of all the dimensional parameters of a sitting human body position. This article proposes a way to design chair dimensions solely based on the height range of the intended chair users. For this purpose, based on literature data, the main structural dimensions of the chair were assigned to the appropriate anthropometric body measurements. Furthermore, calculated average body proportions for the adult population overcome the incompleteness, outdated and burdensome access to anthropometric data and link the main chair design dimensions to one easily accessible anthropometric parameter: human height. This is achieved by seven equations describing the dimensional relations between the chair’s essential design dimensions and human height or even a height range. The result of the study is a method of determining the optimal functional dimensions of a chair for a chosen range of sizes of its future users based only on users’ height range. Limitations of the presented method: the calculated body proportions are correct only for people with a standard body proportion characteristic of adults, i.e., they exclude children and adolescents up to 20 years of age, seniors, and people with a body mass index exceeding 30.
... All dimensions are measured by standard anthropometric dimension measuring kit. Dimension definition is according to the ergonomics standard [30], [31]. ...
Ergonomic design of any product requires anthropometric study of prospective users of the product. Commonly more or less 20 anthropometric dimensions of representative population of users are to be collected for designing or manufacturing most of the products ergonomically. This work attempts to find out if there exists any relationship or group of relationships in anthropometric dimensions which will help to ensure that the anthropometry-based applications like design of fashion mannequins, humanoids, and human dummies are not having disproportionate dimensions. Moreover, this establishment of inter-relationship also helps in reducing the number of anthropometric dimensions to be measured. Anthropometric data measured for 18 dimensions of workers working in the various industries is utilized for this purpose. Exhaustive set of Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) models are developed for all combinations of 1 through 9 anthropometric dimensions as independent variables to relate with each anthropometric dimension not present in the set of independent variables. The set of MLR and ANN models having minimum Normalized Root Mean Square Error (NRMSE) between computed and actual anthropometric dimensions are drawn out from all the models obtained.
