Ergonomics For Product Design
Ergonomics For Product Design
PRODUCT
DESIGN RELATED
TO ERGONOMICS
ISSUES
Norashiken Othman
Ergonomic Design Definition
"Ergonomics (or human factors) is the scientific
discipline concerned with the understanding of
interactions among humans and other elements of
a system, and the profession that applies theory,
principles, data and methods to design in order to
optimize human well-being and overall system
performance.
Focus:
Interaction of humans with “devices”
Objective:
Depends on:
…
Example 1. Chair ergonomics..
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(i) Seat pan length: calf clearance (> 5cm) to 95% women
(ii) The chair height: contact lower thigh with both feet on floor
LUMBAR SUPPORT CALF CLEARANCE
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IMPLICATIONS
1. Need for adjustability
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why
compression of the median nerve as it enters the hand.
symptoms
numbness of thumb and fingers,
pain along the median nerve including hand, wrist, elbow,
weakness of thumb.
treatment
rest, surgery
main cause
flexed or extended wrists when keying!
Example 3. How to turn on the shower
Non-intuitive design wasted time/user-discomfort
tub-faucet
Goal:
4x
4x
pixel
PICture ELements
Digital image files: The RGB model
What is a color?
The primary color theory: any color combination of primary colors (R, G, B)
PROBLEMS:
1. Large memory requirement need for COMPRESSION
Example: run-length-encoding
run-length-encoding: 0203,1403…,
203x191 pixels
http://iesu5.ieem.ust.hk/dfaculty/ajay/courses/ieem101/lecs/hf/lionfish.html
JPG: How do we “see”
Trichromacy theory:
different intensities of R- G- B- cones allows brain to “estimate”
frequency of the spectral light striking a zone
JPG: How do we “see” -- the eye...
Hue discrimination:
ability to distinguish between two different wavelength’s of light
Lightness discrimination:
ability to distinguish between two different levels of “lightness”
Reasons:
(a) lightness is estimated by (R+G) response of cones, and also from RODS
(b) many more rods than cones
JPG: How do we “see” -- the eye….
Weber’s law:
Our ability to discriminate “levels of lightness” depends n the ratio of lightness
arithmetic geometric
JPG: How do we “see” -- the eye…..
Hue discrimination vs Lightness discrimination
n cycles
eye
n cycles
Why ?
Converting RGB Y Cb Cr
Luminance Chrominance
(lightness) (chroma) components
JPEG compression:
Example:
10 6 7 7
4 8 7 7
2x2 tile: 4 values average = 7 combine tiles into ‘block’ with value 7.
JPG: Details -- How to Sample, Sub-sample..
4
y1=2
3
y2=cos(x)
2 y3=.5cos(2x)
y4=.25cos(4x)
1 y5=.125cos(8x)
T=y1+..+y5
0
0 2 4 6 8 T2=y1+..+y4
-1
-2
JPG: Details -- The Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT)
columns: 0 1 … 7
rows
0
1 8x8 pixel blocks
…
DCT function:
n 1 n 1
p q
f ( p, q )
i 0 j 0
4 A(i , j ) cos
n
(i 1 / 2)
cos
n
( j 1 / 2)
JPG: Details -- Quantization and encoding
DCT Quantization
(Larger lookup)
run-length-encoding
DCT (lossless compression)
Quantization
(Sub-sampled)
JPEG
DCT
Quantization
(Sub-sampled)
JPG: Conclusions
NOTE:
You don’t need to know details of DCT, and the exact mathematics
of the transformation
Important ideas:
sub-sampling: ignore some data, or replace multiple values by the average
quantization: instead of storing exact value, round up/down to nearest step
Methods and tools in Ergonomics
Product design must consider: ease of use, comfort and safety in use
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