Taboga P, Marcolin F, Bordignon M, Antonutto G
Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Biologiche, Università di Udine, Udine.
Med Lav. 2012 Jan-Feb;103(1):58-67.
Among its other required features, a highly comfortable chair should adapt its contact surfaces, namely the seat and the back rest, to the shape of the body of the person sitting on it. However, "comfort" is not usually perceived as an absolute value, but is derived from a subjective comparison between two or more chairs.
The purpose of this research was the definition of an objective comfort index (IC), i.e., derived from instrumental measurements, and which would also represent an absolute comfort value.
Analytical evaluation of the distribution of body weight, by means of a barometric matrix, shows that a comfortable chair tends to minimize peak and average values of pressure at the level of the contact areas located between the body and the seat and the back of the chair. To define a comparison parameter for determining an absolute comfort value, a reference chair (SDR) was developed. The seat and the back of this chair are rigid, with poor compliance. A comfort value of zero was, by definition, assigned to this chair. Therefore, the Comfort index (IC) was obtained by the mathematical calculation of the ratios of averages, peaks and gradients of pressure, appropriately weighted, and the corresponding values measured on the tested chair and on the SDR.
It is shown that the anthropometric characteristics of each subject are irrelevant to the assessment of the IC, which depends only on the compliance characteristics of the seat and back surfaces of the tested chair
IC can be improved through analysis of a larger number of seats, which would thus constitute the basis for the use of an objective evaluation of seating comfort.
一把高度舒适的椅子除了具备其他所需特性外，还应使其接触表面，即座椅和靠背，适应坐在上面的人的身体形状。然而，“舒适”通常并非被视为一个绝对的值，而是源于两把或更多椅子之间的主观比较。
本研究的目的是定义一个客观舒适指数（IC），即从仪器测量中得出的指数，并且该指数也能代表绝对舒适值。
通过气压矩阵对体重分布进行分析评估表明，一把舒适的椅子倾向于使身体与座椅及椅背之间接触区域的压力峰值和平均值最小化。为了定义一个用于确定绝对舒适值的比较参数，开发了一把参考椅（SDR）。这把椅子的座椅和靠背是刚性的，顺应性较差。根据定义，给这把椅子赋予零舒适值。因此，舒适指数（IC）是通过对压力平均值、峰值和梯度的比率进行数学计算得到的，这些比率经过适当加权，并结合在测试椅和SDR上测量的相应值。
结果表明，每个受试者的人体测量特征与IC的评估无关，IC仅取决于测试椅的座椅和靠背表面的顺应性特征。
通过分析更多的座椅可以改进IC，这将构成使用座椅舒适度客观评估的基础。
