Vibration and passenger comfort

The problems of maintaining the well-being of passengers travelling by public transport are complex. They include psychological, physical and organisational considerations all of which may interact to provide an overall, individual comfort reaction. Since it is a fundamental feature of vehicle design, the paper considers the effects of vehicular vibration on passenger comfort. The results of a series of questionnaire investigations to examine both the qualitative and quantitative effects of vibration are reported.     

Questionnaire surveys of passenger comfort

This paper discusses the quantitative assessment of data obtained from questionnaire surveys. Examples are adduced from surveys carried out from Swansea. After discussing the validity of information derived in this way, general methods of assessment are described. The paper continues with a detailed examination of questionnaire methods of the subjective assessment of environmental stimuli, and concludes with examples of the pitfalls which may be inherent in such assessment.     

Techniques available for the assessment of passenger comfort

This paper considers the many techniques which are available to the ergonomist for the assessment of passenger comfort. It is argued that the initial question to be answered asks whether the system as a whole is to be investigated or whether specific aspects of the journey are under consideration. If the answer is the former, then a questionnaire technique is suggested. If an investigation of a more specific nature is required, then consideration should be given to whether it is to be conducted in the 'field' using passengers, in the 'field' using subjects, or in the laboratory. Techniques such as rating scales, observation, paired comparison, and the semantic differential are described, although many other laboratory based techniques are available.     

Predicting passenger seat comfort and discomfort on the basis of human,context and seat characteristics: a literature review

Abstract

This literature review focused on passenger seat comfort and discomfort in a human–product–context interaction. The relationships between anthropometric variables (human level), activities (context level), seat characteristics (product level) and the perception of comfort and discomfort were studied through mediating variables, such as body posture, movement and interface pressure. It is concluded that there are correlations between anthropometric variables and interface pressure variables, and that this relationship is affected by body posture. The results of studies on the correlation between pressure variables and passenger comfort and discomfort are not in line with each other. Only associations were found between the other variables (e.g. activities and seat characteristics). A conceptual model illustrates the results of the review, but relationships could not be quantified due to a lack of statistical evidence and large differences in research set-ups between the reviewed papers.

Practitioner Summary: This literature review set out to quantify the relationships between human, context and seat characteristics, and comfort and discomfort experience of passenger seats, in order to build a predictive model that can support seat designers and purchasers to make informed decisions. However, statistical evidence is lacking from existing literature.     

A guide to thermal comfort

This guide provides a simple design procedure for dealing with the requirements for a comfortable thermal environment. From the expected activity level and clothing insulation of the people concerned, a subjective temperature is calculated which will provide thermal comfort. This subjective temperature is a combination of physical parameters of the environment, ie, air and mean radiant temperatures, and air speed. A heating system must be designed to that the parameters combine to give the optimum subjective temperature. The guide also considers other possible sources of discomfort, and gives acceptable limits for them.     

Possibilities to improve the aircraft interior comfort experience

Comfort plays an increasingly important role in the interior design of airplanes. Although ample research has been conducted on airplane design technology, only a small amount of public scientific information is available addressing the passenger's opinion. In this study, more than 10,000 internet trip reports and 153 passenger interviews were used to gather opinions about aspects which need to be improved in order to design a more comfortable aircraft interior. The results show clear relationships between comfort and legroom, hygiene, crew attention and seat/personal space. Passengers rate the newer planes significantly better than older ones, indicating that attention to design for comfort has proven effective. The study also shows that rude flight attendants and bad hygiene reduce the comfort experience drastically and that a high comfort rating is related to higher "fly again" values.     

A tool to assess the comfort of wearable computers

Wearable computer comfort can be affected by numerous factors, making its assessment based on one value with one scale inappropriate. This paper presents a tool that measures wearable comfort across six dimensions: emotion, attachment, harm, perceived change, movement, and anxiety. The dimensions for these comfort rating scales were specifically developed for wearable equipment assessment by applying multidimensional scaling to a comfort term association matrix developed using the results of groupings of wearable computer comfort terms. Testing the scales on four different types of wearable computer showed that the scales can be used to highlight differences in comfort between different types of technology for different aspects of comfort. An intraclass correlation of .872 suggested that the scales were used with a high level of reliability. A second study showed that modifications made to a wearable computer resulted in improvements in comfort, although they were not significant (p > .05). A potential application for this research is as an aid to designers and researchers for assessing the wearability, in terms of comfort, of wearable computer devices and to determine the effectiveness of any modifications made to the design of a wearable device.     

Vehicle noise and the passenger

Little effort has been put into studying the noise climate inside passenger vehicles. This paper shows that noise levels in motor cars and heavy goods vehicles are unacceptable to the passenger at typical cruising speeds. It is suggested that one factor responsible for this state of affairs is the lack of criteria for acceptable noise levels. Research into the subjective response to noise in motor vehicles, both on the road and in the laboratory, is described. The importance of very low frequencies is shown in determining levels of comfort, as well as the difficulties in accurately reproducing in-vehicle noise in the laboratory. A tentative criterion is given for acceptable noise levels in passenger vehicles and work is described which, it is hoped, will lead to a more precise measure of subjective rating.     

Using a cool spot to improve the thermal comfort of glassmakers

Glassmakers monitoring a rolled plate process suffered discomfort from the high temperature environment. This was caused by the radiant heat emitted by the furnaces and associated equipment surrounding the glassmakers' working area, combined with a high air temperature. The glassmakers are responsible for monitoring the glass rolling machine to ensure that the product is manufactured to specification, and to prevent the molten glass sticking to the rollers. This study improved their thermal comfort by the construction of a cool area. They were also brought nearer to the rolling machine. This, with the addition of a cooler environment, improved their monitoring performance. The cool spot was constructed using glass and aluminium radiant heat shields, air curtains and low velocity cooling air.     

网上卖什么

在1998-1999年的美国股市上,网络类股票无疑是最耀眼的明星,其中以网络销售为主业的上市公司更是创造了一个又一个神话般的奇迹:如首创网上直销订购模式的Dell电脑公司的股价,进入90年代以来已飙升了29600%!而从未盈利一分钱的Amazon,尽管预测明年的业绩仍是每股亏损1.26美元,却依然股价高起,买声不断.由于美国股市等因素的巨大影响,网络销售一下成了全球热点,媒体的渲染更使大大小小的企业不顾一切地挤上网来.其争先恐后的程度让人觉得似乎只要上了网,只要拥有了"www.xxx.com",金钱就会像自来水一样顺着网络线流进来.但是,在扑天盖地的赞美声中,人们不禁要问:油条、豆浆和飞机、大炮都能到网上去销售吗?     

How the Kano model contributes to Kansei engineering in services

Recent studies show that products and services hold great appeal if they are attractively designed to elicit emotional feelings from customers. Kansei engineering (KE) has good potential to provide a competitive advantage to those able to read and translate customer affect and emotion in actual product and services. This study introduces an integrative framework of the Kano model and KE, applied to services. The Kano model was used and inserted into KE to exhibit the relationship between service attribute performance and customer emotional response. Essentially, the Kano model categorises service attribute quality into three major groups (must-be [M], one-dimensional [O] and attractive [A]). The findings of a case study that involved 100 tourists who stayed in luxury 4- and 5-star hotels are presented. As a practical matter, this research provides insight on which service attributes deserve more attention with regard to their significant impact on customer emotional needs.

Statement of Relevance: Apart from cognitive evaluation, emotions and hedonism play a big role in service encounters. Through a focus on delighting qualities of service attributes, this research enables service providers and managers to establish the extent to which they prioritise their improvement efforts and to always satisfy their customer emotions beyond expectation.     

How the Kano model contributes to Kansei engineering in services

Recent studies show that products and services hold great appeal if they are attractively designed to elicit emotional feelings from customers. Kansei engineering (KE) has good potential to provide a competitive advantage to those able to read and translate customer affect and emotion in actual product and services. This study introduces an integrative framework of the Kano model and KE, applied to services. The Kano model was used and inserted into KE to exhibit the relationship between service attribute performance and customer emotional response. Essentially, the Kano model categorises service attribute quality into three major groups (must-be [M], one-dimensional [O] and attractive [A]). The findings of a case study that involved 100 tourists who stayed in luxury 4- and 5-star hotels are presented. As a practical matter, this research provides insight on which service attributes deserve more attention with regard to their significant impact on customer emotional needs. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Apart from cognitive evaluation, emotions and hedonism play a big role in service encounters. Through a focus on delighting qualities of service attributes, this research enables service providers and managers to establish the extent to which they prioritise their improvement efforts and to always satisfy their customer emotions beyond expectation.     

What to Do When the Worst Happens!

The last few weeks have been full of news that confirms the advice we’ve been presenting to readers of this column. The Love Bug virus was one example, it demonstrated the current pitiful state we find ourselves in when we have global electronic commerce, but only national and local laws dealing with criminal abuse of the systems. In the past few days we have two additional developments that show there is more cause for alarm.     

A conceptual framework proposed to formalize the scientific investigation of automobile seat comfort

Consumer expectations for automobile seat comfort continue to rise. With this said, it is evident that the current automobile seat comfort development process, which is only sporadically successful, needs to change. In this context, there has been growing recognition of the need for automobile seat comfort researchers to establish a theoretical and methodological foundation. Only in this way can automobile seat comfort achieve recognition as a true scientific discipline and enable its further development. The present contribution hopes to stimulate and lead researchers to focus on a framework through which this recognition and development can take place. This paper describes the current automobile seat comfort development process and details the associated limitations. The limitations were the catalysts for the creation of a systematized framework intended to direct the investigative process associated with seat comfort research. The framework is expected to produce theories and methods that can explain, guide, and further legitimize the discipline of automobile seat comfort.     

A new approach to the prediction of passenger flow in a transit system

A non-linear model is proposed for predicting the rate of passenger flow in a transit system, and its chaotic characteristic is observed. Using wavelets analysis, the passenger flow data for a whole day are decomposed in a multi-scale way to obtain decomposition sequences. Subsequently, a neural network approach is used to predict the sequences. Finally the passenger flow value can be predicted when the predicted sequences are reconstructed. Results show that the present approach is a feasible method for passenger flow prediction.     

Australia: raising the E-commerce comfort level

On the basis of our involvement in the technology sector, we believe that Australia views e-commerce as the use of modern technologies to conduct business transactions and make online interactions easier. Transactions involve the Internet, as well as smart cards, automated phone systems, and electronic communications to solicit, service, and maintain business relationships. Overcoming trust issues is a top priority for both business-to-consumer and business-to-business e-commerce in Australia     

A temporal case retrieval model to predict railway passenger arrivals

This paper proposes a three-stage model to predict final sales when advanced booking, which is prevalent in the service industry, is available. The concept behind the proposal is that similar booking patterns during the reservation period indicate the trend of sales. Booking curves which record accumulated reservations were collected from a railway company. The first stage is to evaluate the similarity of booking patterns between the collected samples and the days to be predicted. Then samples with high similarity to the forecasting target are chosen from the collected observations. Integrating the final sales of these selected samples to project future volumes is the main job in the last stage. Regression and Pick Up models, common in practice, are also constructed for comparing purposes. The results show that the proposed model can significantly improve predictive accuracy in the testing cases.