Monday, 1/29/2018
Pedro Arezes, Full Professor from the School of
Engineering of the University of Minho (EEUM), participated in a pioneering
worldwide study on tactile ergonomics.
The EEUM,
through its researcher Pedro Arezes, from the ALGORITMI Research Centre of the School
[of Engineering], participated in a pioneering worldwide study on the use of
tablets and their impact on the users’ health. The study – carried out in partnership
with Harvard University, in USA, and Microsoft – has just been published in the
most reputable journal “Applied Ergonomics” and will contribute to the design
and development of software and devices that affect less the posture and reduce
the muscular effort of the users.
The study was
developed at the School of Public Health of Harvard University, in Boston,
where Pedro Arezes is temporarily working. The project aimed at evaluating
several software design solutions for tablets in an attempt to perceive how
this can influence the muscle activity and user posture.
It is expected
that the results obtained will allow an optimisation – by the companies – of
the interfaces used in mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, taking
into account ergonomic issues that can compromise people’s health and
well-being. “The study we now publish, and its recommendations, are the result
of an analysis not of the equipment but of the way the interaction takes place
when considering different interfaces, as several types of buttons with different
configurations and locations”, Pedro Arezes explains.
“The future of
success that I foresee for EEUM will also be associated with small
contributions such as these. I believe that these collaborative networks are
gradually being established throughout the world, progressively giving more and
more visibility and recognition to the EEUM, so that it can be affirmed as one
of the major engineering schools both national and internationally”, the
researcher highlighted.
The research used
the analysis of muscular electric activity technique and also the
three-dimensional movement analysis. The project originating this publication
was carried out under the coordination of Jack Dennerlein, from Harvard
University, and resulted in a strategic connection between that institution and
the US multinational Microsoft.
+ info: The
article is available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003687017302818