Review of Measuring Microenvironmental Changes at the Body-Seat Interface and the Relationship between Object Measurement and Subjective Evaluation

Zhuofu Liu, Vincenzo Cascioli, Peter W McCarthy

    Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

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    Abstract

    Being seated has increasingly pervaded both working and leisure lifestyles, with development of more comfortable seating surfaces dependent on feedback from subjective questionnaires and design aesthetics. As a consequence, research has become focused on how to objectively resolve factors that might underpin comfort and discomfort. This review summarizes objective methods of measuring the microenvironmental changes at the body-seat interface and examines the relationship between objective measurement and subjective sensation. From the perspective of physical parameters, pressure detection accounted for nearly two thirds (37/54) of the publications, followed by microclimatic information (temperature and relative humidity: 18/54): it is to be noted that one article included both microclimate and pressure measurements and was placed into both categories. In fact, accumulated temperature and relative humidity at the body-seat interface have similarly negative effects on prolonged sitting to that of unrelieved pressure. Another interesting finding was the correlation between objective measurement and subjective evaluation; however, the validity of this may be called into question because of the differences in experiment design between studies.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number6715
    Pages (from-to)1-30
    Number of pages30
    JournalSensors
    Volume20
    Issue number23
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 24 Nov 2020

    Keywords

    • Comfort
    • Discomfort
    • Pressure
    • Relative humidity
    • Sedentary behaviour
    • Temperature

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