Postural angle measurement: manual vs. picture recognition software

Abstract

At present, there are vast selections of ergonomics measurement tools that have been developed for tasks, equipments and environments analysis. The measurement method for ergonomic assessment is done either by traditional or modern methods. This paper presents a comparative study of two different methods for measuring postural angles of driver’s posture. The first method is manual measurement and the second method is using picture recognition software. The main objective of this study is to validate a new measurement method using the picture recognition software. A simple experiment was conducted in order to gather the required data. During the experiment each subject is required to sit on the driver’s seat in their preferred comfortable driving postures. Angles measurement is then taken after five minutes the subject has been in the sitting position to allow him/her adapt with the seat environment and fabrics. Later, postural angle of the subject’s is measured using angle measurement kits and at the same time picture of subjects on the set is also taken. Results from both methods shows that the new measurement method using the picture recognition software was reliable and could avoid the hassle by reducing time and effort in the measurement process.