Human Factors and Ergonomics @ San Jose State

The score so far

by Kirsten Peters

I entered the project class in my fourth semester knowing I was interested in exploring the Nintendo Wii’s new game controller method.  Due to the irregular nature of my project I was given Dr. Freund as an advisor.  Over the course of the first month I talked with him about different aspects of this idea and with his help was able to narrow the project down a bit. 

I then started an in-depth literature review.  Once I knew more about the background research and theories, I started to form the ideas of a rough experimental design.  From there, I continued an iterative process of research and experimental design as the ideas and design grew into something solid and feasible.  Also, since I chose to use motion capture as one of my measurement techniques, I took extra time to work with Dr. Jim Kao of the Kinesiology department to learn the constraints and requirements of the equipment he was allowing me to use.  The last couple of weeks of the semester were focused on polishing up my report and preparing my proposal for Dr. Freund.  In the end I chose to investigate the influences of bowling proficiency on performance and upper extremity movement characteristics during first-time Wii-bowling.

Over the summer I took a full time internship so I wasn’t able to start on the next phase until I was back in school.  Once I was back I got straight to work.  I met with Dr. Kao to review the measurement equipment and met with Dr. Freund to regroup and revise some minor changes to my experimental design.  Once I applied for IRB approval, I drafted up my exact test protocol and script, bought supplies, and investigated recruiting options.  Once I had IRB approval, I started recruiting via the Psych 1 pool, Craig’s list, the SJSU HFES Yahoo! Group, a network of friends, and posters and signs posted on campus and at local game stores.  I chose to use 30 participants (three groups of 10) so I needed to find more people than usual.

While recruiting and scheduling participant appointments, I ran multiple levels of a pilot study.  It was during this period that I made a couple of changes to my protocol based on some unforeseen complications due to the motion capture system.  However, once the bugs were ironed out I started running participants like crazy.  It took about 2 months to finish recruiting and running 24 participants – which was much longer than I expected.  Since, by this time, it was early November, I decided to give up finding the last 6 participants and move on to the next phase of my project.

Because I chose to use motion capture data, I was forced to complete an extra step before moving on to the data analysis phase.  Without boring you with the details, I needed to ‘digitize’ the video data before I could find out the dependant variable I was interested in knowing.  That process has taken me the longest and I have only just completed digitizing the first group of data, which is actually only 1/3 of the simple data. 

My plan is to use this first group of data to complete an initial statistical analysis of my data.  If I find no significant results, I will need to digitize the remaining 2/3 of the simple data before I can use it for additional statistical analysis.  Once I have finished my data analysis, I will be ready to report my findings in my final report.  Right now, the plan is to finish this semester. 

My advice to any student reading this is to pick an interesting topic you are passionate about and find a simple question you want to answer with your project.  You do not need to reinvent the wheel with this project.  This project has taught me the importance of good research with a scientific design.  I have also learned patience, restraint, perseverance, discipline and the importance of a good network.

If you have any questions about my project or experience, I encourage you to attend a Thesis/Project Café meeting which is usually held every other week.  Regardless of your stage in the program or project, we welcome your input and interest.  Or feel free to email me at engineerkirsten@yahoo.com

February 4th, 2008 Posted by rdscleaners | issue_4.1, newsletter | no comments

The Quest for the Perfect Mouse

by Susann Kress

“Which one of these is the best one-I don’t care how much it costs” a patient with wrist tendonitis asks after being sent to me for physical therapy, as he pulls out a stack of papers with pictures of objects that only vaguely resemble what most people would recognize as a computer mouse.

Like a parade of exotic animals I gaze upon what lays before me:  “the J-mouse”, “the joystick mouse”, “the wheel mouse”, even a specimen called the “the foot mouse”…

Although some people can benefit greatly from substituting poorly adjusted computer equipment, this will not be the focus of this article.  A great new mouse is not some kind of magic bullet against repetitive strain injury or RSI.  I have seen too many patients that started out with wrist tendonitis, only to develop a new onset of finger joint and tendon problems after being switched to a new mouse that substitutes the repetitive wrist motion with a track ball that requires continues use of their fingers.  Another common scenario is a patient that was advised to switch sides for their mouse use only to end up with bilateral hand/wrist problems.  

I work at an orthopedic clinic in Cupertino right around the corner from Apple Computer, the same company that creates new and shiny gadgets on a daily basis.  It is often people from this same industry that seek our services for a RSI after years of spending 8-12 hours/day behind the computer and are searching for the perfect tool that will keep their body functioning at the same high level that they have demanded from it.  When suggesting to them regularly scheduled times each day to stretch and exercise, they often look at me as if I had just asked them to give up their first borne child to me.  The words “break” and “exercise” is enough to trigger a fight or flight response in them.

However, the cause of Repetitive Strain Injury boils down to a simple equation and within it also lays the answer for a potential cure:

Repetition + Force + Lack of Rest = RSI (tendonitis, tenosynovitis, nerve compression)

Ergonomics are important at avoiding injury but so is people’s willingness to take frequent breaks to stretch as well as exercise regularly.  From my experience, there are no shortcuts although people will continue to look for them, since taking time out of their busy work day to stretch or limit their computer use requires them to change on a deeper level.  It means putting their health and body first, not their work although in the long run this approach will benefit their working careers.

One of my favorite tools to aid people on the road to avoiding/recovering from RSI is a piece of software such as “Stretch Break Pro” that actually blocks the user from further performing any tasks on the computer until a series of timed stretches are performed.  The frequency and breaks are determined by the user and so is the stretch duration.  It may not be as cool as a brand new and shiny “joystick mouse” but it is defiantly a step in the right direction.

February 4th, 2008 Posted by rdscleaners | issue_4.1, newsletter | no comments