Human centered design: sviluppo di un metodo per la valutazione oggettiva del comfort posturale degli arti inferiori

The aim of the study proposed in this discussion is to provide all specifications on comfort in the human-machine relationship and to ensure all tools for the evaluation of the same. To be able to analyze the comfort it has been necessary to make bibliographical survey on ergonomics, particularly the physical one, and later on comfort, identifying deficiencies and all aspects not considered. Downstream of these studies it has been developed a Perception Comfort model able to synthesize the concept that the comfort and discomfort are the measure of the degree of appreciation and expectations related to the interaction between the person and the environment. Since the comfort and discomfort of sitting are widely studied in the automotive field, the Perception Comfort model was applied in this field, identifying all the elements of the Model that participate to comfort / discomfort experience. It has been studied the expectation factor too to understand the mechanism of the expectation influence on the general comfort; to prove that, it has been made an experimental test that uses the "placebo" effect. In the final phase of treatment is presented the objective measurement comfort model for lower limbs realized, that is applicable to anyone context from the Work Station in the Industrial Sector to the work place in general. This model takes account of Range of Rest Position, this is the maximum comfortable angular interval. The output model are comfort curves that associate to an articular range an objective comfort score. [edited by author]