Improper manipulation of real-world objects increases the risk of developing work- related back injuries. In an effort to reduce such a risk and encourage appropriate lifting and moving methods, a Virtual Environment (VE) was employed. Virtual simulations can be used for ergonomic analysis. In this work, the VEs made use of multiple feedback techniques to allow a person to estimate the forces acting on their lower back. A person's head and hand movements were tracked in real-time whilst manipulating an object. A NIOSH lifting equation was used to calculate and determine the Lifting Index whereby the results were conveyed in real time. Visual display feedback techniques were designed and the effect of cues to enhance user performance was experimentally evaluated. The feedback cues provide the user with information about the forces acting on their lower back as they perform manual lifting tasks in VEs. Four different methods were compared and contrasted: No Feedback, Text, Colour and Combined Colour and Text. This work also investigated various types of auditory feedback technique to support object manipulation in VEs. Auditory feedback has been demonstrated to convey information in computer applications effectively, but little work has been reported on the efficacy of such techniques, particularly for ergonomic design. Four different methods were compared and contrasted: No Feedback, White-noise, Pitch and Tempo. A combined Audio-Visual (AV) technique was also examined by mixing both senses. The effect of Tactile Augmentation was also examined. Three different weights (real) were used and the results obtained by experiment were compared with the experiment using virtual weights in order to evaluate whether or not the presence of a real weighted object enhanced people's sense of realism. The goals of this study were to explore various senses of feedback technique (visual, auditory and tactile), compare the performance characteristics of each technique and understand their relative advantages and drawbacks.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:583946 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Aziz, Faieza Abdul |
| Publisher | Cardiff University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://orca.cf.ac.uk/56108/ |
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