Effect of the Psychophysical Approach in Slipping Incident Among Workers at The Commercial Kitchen Activity

@#Introduction: The occurrence of slips can be disruptive in workers’ life, causing various types of injuries. Working with prolonged standing and walking postures in a commercial kitchen contributes to worker fatigue. A psychophysical approach can be used in identifying the extent to which workers’ fatigue contributes to the occurrence of slipping. Method: Electromyography (EMG) was used to record and analyze the data of three values of muscle activity obtained from the study. Twelve participants aged 23 to 60 years old with a Body Mass Index (BMI) mean of 27.82 ± 4.01 kg/m2. The participants were selected based on the experience of at least three years and above in commercial kitchen activity. The testing procedures were explained in detail upon agreement. They had to walk with four different types of walking speeds with water and oil as the contaminants on the floors. Results: The slip occurred high frequency for obese participants compared to overweight participants when increasing their speeds of walking on oily floor surfaces. Female participants experience slips more than male participants. The muscle Soleus and Tibialis frequently produce higher muscle activity during slip occurrence compared to muscle Peroneus. Conclusion: The results of the study show that the psychophysical approach is significant in the occurrence of slipping during work activities in commercial kitchens when the muscle of Soleus and Tibialis produces higher muscle activity during slip occurrence. There was no significant factor of age during the slip occurrence.

Ankle Angle Contribute to Slip During Commercial Kitchen Activity

@#Introduction: Working in a Commercial kitchen environment poses a potential hazard for a slip accident. Prolonged standing working posture reflects human balance issues. Therefore, this study investigated the ankle angle during Commercial kitchen activity to justify the potential of slip during the activity and correlate between the walking step and slip incident. Method: Vicon motion capture was used to record movements and Vicon Nexus software was used to analyze data. Six male and six female healthy adults with a minimum of three years of Commercial kitchen activity experience participated in this study. Participants have to walk at four different speeds and carry the load at the upper limb and flooring with water and oil as a contaminant. Results: The slip occurred frequently on the oily surfaces compared to water surfaces especially among overweight and obese participants. Ankle angle during slip occurrence was from 97.2 ± 6.7° for male participants and 112.5 ± 12.7° for female participants. Conclusion: The results presented that overweight and obese participants' significant slip occurred when walking on oily surfaces. There was no correlation between carrying load and Body Mass Index (BMI). The walking speed also significant with slip occurrence.

Validity And Reliability Of Vicon Motion Capture Camera Over The Traditional Anthropometric Method

@#Anthropometric study is one of the oldest branches of study in ergonomics where it serves a purpose in study of proportion and size for human body. One of the common methods used in anthropometric measurement is traditional measurement or direct measurement. However, Malaysia is still left behind other countries in development of national anthropometric database. Researchers in Malaysia are still relying on the traditional anthropometric (TA) measurement. There are several important factors that contribute to problems in TA such as accuracy, time, posture, identification of landmarks, instrument positions and orientations, and pressure exerted due to measuring equipment. In view of the fact that the difficulties of obtaining human anthropometry, it becomes necessary to propose a method which has less contact executed to respondent. This study aims to propose a new anthropometric measurement method using motion capture camera (MCC) method, later to develop the database for youth male population. A pilot test was done in order to confirm the measuring procedure as well as the flow of the study. Next, the Minitab statistical software used to check the validity and reliability of data using the tests of a) Accuracy-Pearson/Spearman Correlation b) BiasPaired T-Test c) Test-Retest Reliability-Pearson/Spearman Correlation d) Precision-Mean Absolute Difference and Relative Error Measurement. Results showed that the validity and reliability of this motion camera has successfully obtained and the anthropometric data for youth male respondents has successfully constructed. These findings can be used and expended to the national anthropometric database to be utilised in ergonomics design.

Level Of Indoor Air Quality Among Malaysian Commuter Users: A Case Study

@#Research on environmental ergonomics of train/commuter is very limited. Thus, this study was conducted with aims to determine the environmental ergonomic of public transport, whether it is in accordance to indoor air quality standard inside women coach cabin train during operations. Although the number of passengers is increasing, some claimed that the indoor air quality for the Malaysian commuter train is uncertain, especially at peak times. Unsatisfactory feedback from some respondents—especially female passengers—will affect other passengers to remain loyal to use this facility as one of the main transportation to reduce the traffic congestion that will be faced if using private vehicles. The study conducted during peak hours on the weekends and the trip took exactly two hours and covered 18 main stations. The measurement devices placed at the centre of the cabin Komuter using Air Quality Meter (AIRFLOW Instrument Model TA465). The main parameters measured were temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide (CO2). This study also counts the number of passengers riding the train. The results showed that the indoor air quality (AIQ) level of the morning hour will affect passengers’ health more compared to the evening hour (this is due to the CO2 level that has exceeded the safety standard). Morning hour gave higher reading of CO2 (43.8%) and relative humidity (17%) compared to evening hour. Evening hours also showed greater temperature at 3%. The findings can give awareness to the train company to improve the IAQ by installing a suitable ventilation system and can give comfort to the passengers when travelling using Malaysian commuter train The results showed that the indoor air quality (AIQ) level of the morning hour will affect passengers’ health more compared to the evening hour (this is due to the CO2 level that has exceeded the safety standard). Morning hour gave higher reading of CO2 (43.8%) and relative humidity (17%) compared to evening hour. Evening hours also showed greater temperature at 3%. The findings can give awareness to the train company to improve the IAQ by installing a suitable ventilation system and can give comfort to the passengers when travelling using Malaysian commuter train.

Analysis On The Effect Of Personalised Insole For Prolonged Standing Industrial Workers

@#Working in prolonged standing position among industrial workers has been shown to be associated with different potentially serious health outcomes, namely lower back pain, leg pain, fatigue, discomfort, and other health issues. Personalisation of insole offers a solution that will provide a perfect fit and comfort to the shoes wearer based on the ergonomic considerations. It works in a way that it alters the pressure away from painful areas by increasing the surface area that supports the weight of the body and evenly distributes it to the whole plantar area. Survey was conducted among workers at a manufacturing industry company to study on the level of pain experienced by them together with their foot anthropometry. Then, the foot pressure of each of the workers was collected by using pressure measurement device (F-scan). Combination of these data was used to design the customized insole that is fit for the worker. The personalised insoles were fabricated by using Additive Manufacturing technology. After that, the insoles were validated by using the F-scan and Electromyogram (EMG) to ensure their effectiveness in reducing pressures on the foot and muscle activity hence improving the comfort of the shoe wearer. At the end of the experiment, it was found that the insole is able to reduce the peak pressure of four out of five areas of the worker’s foot with the reduction of pressure percentage ranging from 6% to 28%.

A Study Of Psychophysical Factor (Heart Rate) For Driver Fatigue Using Regression Model

@#Driving activity has become more important as this medium being practical, it is also cheaper and faster in connecting human from one to another place. However, in some occurrence, it can cause accidents as they become fatigued while driving. Driver fatigue is one of the top contributors to the road accidents and can be dangerous as other road safety issues such as drink driving. Worst is, there are no laws regulating driver fatigue. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to develop the regression model of apsychophysical factor for drivers’ fatigue which can predict the relationship between the process input parameters and output responses. The study was participated by ten subjects. The heart rate was taken and recorded using heart rate monitor. Design Expert 8.0.6 software was used for the regression analysis. The modeling validation runs werewithin the 90% prediction intervals of the developed model and the residual errors were less than 10%. The R 2 value is 0.9400 whichmeans that the linear regression line passed exactly through all points. The significant parameters that influenced the heart rate were also identified.The parameters are time exposure, type of road, and gender.

Preliminary Study on Visual Technology in Human Anthropometry Measurement for Automotive Design

This paper reviews various papers since the year 2000 until 2016 regarding visual technology in human anthropometrystudy, and discusses three major points; (1) the methods and objectives of the research, (2) the subjects of theexperiments and (3) body parts involved in the anthropometrical measurements. Measurement using visualtechnology is claimed to be more accurate in obtaining anthropometrical data compared to the conventional methodusing manual tools. However, commercial visual technology system can be very costly. Based on the reviewedstudies, a significant amount of research has adopted various visual processing methods to predict the human’s bodymeasurement. All of the studies utilized the applications of enhanced technologies that are able to reduce time andhuman errors that normally occur during traditional hand-operated measurement. Usually, in order to prove thattheir result is promising, the studies compared their results with the results gained from manual measurement. Thefinding from this review is a preliminary step towards developing a camera-based system in anthropometrymeasurement for the use in automotive ergonomics design.

A Comparison Study For The Road Condition With Hand Grip Force And Muscle Fatigue

The purpose of this study is to compare the road conditions (straight road, winding road and hill road) with the hand grip pressure force and muscle fatigue for male and female drivers. Ten subjects were participated in this study. The force measurement and electromyography (EMG) responses were taken and evaluated by using the tactile grip and pressure measurement (Grip System) and Electromyography (EMG) device. The result indicated that the winding road produced more muscle fatigue and high hand grip pressure force compared than downhill road, hill up road, and straight road for both male and female subjects. The result compared the muscle fatigue and hand grip pressure force between the first 15 minutes and last 15 minutes of driving activity. The muscle fatigue increasingly high for the last 15 minutes compared to first 15 minutes. However, the hand grip pressure forces become high during the winding road for first 15 minutes of driving session. The muscle fatigue become high as the hand grip pressure force value is high. Furthermore, the male drivers exert higher hand grip pressure force and higher muscle fatigue compared to female drivers. This study can be used as a guideline for the future studies, primarily in solving the driving fatigue problem among the Malaysian’s drivers. The method of this study could also be used for early detection of driver fatigue issues. Indirectly, the findings could reduce the number of car accidents in Malaysia.

Development of a Decision Support System for Analysis and Solutions of Prolonged Standing in the Workplace

BACKGROUND: Prolonged standing has been hypothesized as a vital contributor to discomfort and muscle fatigue in the workplace. The objective of this study was to develop a decision support system that could provide systematic analysis and solutions to minimize the discomfort and muscle fatigue associated with prolonged standing. METHODS: The integration of object-oriented programming and a Model Oriented Simultaneous Engineering System were used to design the architecture of the decision support system. RESULTS: Validation of the decision support system was carried out in two manufacturing companies. The validation process showed that the decision support system produced reliable results. CONCLUSION: The decision support system is a reliable advisory tool for providing analysis and solutions to problems related to the discomfort and muscle fatigue associated with prolonged standing. Further testing of the decision support system is suggested before it is used commercially.