Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Salerno , Salerno , Italy.
Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology , Delft , The Netherlands.
Ergonomics. 2019 Nov;62(11):1400-1414. doi: 10.1080/00140139.2019.1651904. Epub 2019 Aug 16.
The percentage of passengers that prefer travelling in groups is increasing. In most vehicles, passengers sit side by side and need to turn their body to be engaged in the conversation with their fellow travellers. However, rotating the body could lead to discomfort which influences conversation quality. The aim of this research is to study the effect of seat configuration on the (dis)comfort experience, conversation quality and posture. Experiments in which participants were asked to talk to each other while sitting at the same distance (1 m) were conducted in four seating arrangements (with seat-belts on), where the angle between the forward directions of two seats were positioned at 0° (side by side), 22.5°, 90° and 120° (almost opposite each other), respectively. Optical tracking has been deployed and the collected data were processed with MatLab to acquire postural angles over time. Questionnaires were also used to evaluate the perceived (dis)comfort and the quality of the conversation. Experiment results indicate that the 120° configuration scored the best in the overall comfort and the quality of conversation, but only slightly better than the 90° configuration. Seating side by side is not optimal to have a comfortable conversation with your seatmate. To improve comfort and quality of conversation in future vehicles, we tested four seating arrangements analysing the effect of seat layout on (dis)comfort experience. Statistical analysis of objective and subjective data shows the optimal configuration for a comfortable conversation. LPD: localized postural discomfort; PDF: probability density function; OCRA: occupational repetitive action.
喜欢结伴出行的乘客比例正在上升。在大多数车辆中，乘客并排而坐，需要转动身体才能与同车乘客交谈。然而，身体的转动可能会导致不适，从而影响交谈质量。本研究旨在研究座椅配置对（不）舒适体验、交谈质量和姿势的影响。实验中，要求参与者在保持相同距离（1 米）的情况下坐在四个座椅配置（系好安全带）中相互交谈，两个座椅的前向夹角分别为 0°（并排）、22.5°、90°和 120°（几乎相对）。实验中使用了光学跟踪，并使用 MatLab 处理收集的数据以获取随时间变化的姿势角度。还使用问卷评估了感知到的（不）舒适和交谈质量。实验结果表明，120°配置在整体舒适度和交谈质量方面得分最高，但仅略优于 90°配置。并排而坐不利于与同座乘客进行舒适的交谈。为了提高未来车辆中的舒适度和交谈质量，我们测试了四种座椅配置，分析了座椅布局对（不）舒适体验的影响。客观和主观数据的统计分析显示了舒适交谈的最佳配置。LPD：局部姿势不适；PDF：概率密度函数；OCRA：职业重复性动作。
