International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics最新文献

{"title":"Age and sex differences in wrist range of motion: A population-based study of young and elderly Taiwanese adults","authors":"Yi-Lang Chen ,&nbsp;Pei-Yun Chiu","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103773","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103773","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Carpal tunnel syndrome is the most prevalent wrist-related condition, impacting both occupational tasks and daily activities. Awkward wrist postures are a major risk factor, with the likelihood of injury increasing as postures approach the wrist's range of motion (ROM). However, reference data for wrist ROM in the Taiwanese population is currently unavailable. This study examined wrist ROM in 250 participants (100 young adults and 150 elderly individuals, equally distributed by sex) using a dual-axis electro-goniometer. Measurements included ulnar deviation, radial deviation, flexion, and extension for both dominant and non-dominant wrists. Analysis of variance identified significant group differences in ulnar deviation (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.001), flexion (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.001), and extension (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05), with sex and hand dominance significantly influencing ulnar deviation (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.01) and flexion (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05), respectively. An interaction effect between sex and dominance was observed for flexion (<em>p</em> &lt; 0.05). Compared to the young group, the elderly group exhibited reduced ROM, with decreases of approximately 4° in ulnar deviation, 12° in flexion, and 4° in extension. Females exhibited greater ulnar deviation ROM than males, while the effect of hand dominance on flexion was evident only in males (+4°). Among the elderly cohort, no significant differences in ROM were observed between the 60–69 and 70–90 age subgroups.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"108 ","pages":"Article 103773"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-06-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144243398","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ergonomic design of shoe inserts for reducing lower extremity musculoskeletal discomfort in male Participants: An analysis of shape and size","authors":"Waseem Ahmad ,&nbsp;Md Sarfaraz Alam","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103754","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103754","url":null,"abstract":"<div><h3>Background</h3><div>The human foot endures substantial forces during daily activities such as walking and standing, often bearing loads 1.5 to 5 times the individual's body weight. These forces propagate through the lower extremity musculoskeletal structures, placing stress on critical joints, which can lead to discomfort, musculoskeletal issues, and reduced productivity. Shoe inserts (SIs) have emerged as effective ergonomic interventions, provided additional support and redistributed pressure to alleviate discomfort and enhance gait stability.</div></div><div><h3>Objective</h3><div>This study investigates the ergonomic effects of shoe insert placement, shape, and surface area on perceived comfort and plantar pressure distribution during static standing.</div></div><div><h3>Methods</h3><div>Twenty-six healthy male participants were assessed using flat and contoured inserts of varying surface areas (30 × 30 mm², 40 × 40 mm², and 50 × 50 mm²). Comfort ratings were measured using a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), while plantar pressures (peak and mean) were evaluated using F-Scan sensors. Data were analysed using paired t-tests and repeated-measures ANOVA, with Bonferroni corrections applied for multiple comparisons.</div></div><div><h3>Results</h3><div>Inserts placed 2–4 cm anterior to the lateral midfoot region provided the highest comfort ratings. Contoured inserts consistently outperformed flat designs in improving comfort and reducing plantar pressures across all surface areas (p &lt; 0.017). Larger surface area inserts (50 × 50 mm²) were the most effective in enhancing subjective and objective outcomes, demonstrating significant improvements compared to smaller designs (p &lt; 0.001).</div></div><div><h3>Conclusion</h3><div>This study underscores the importance of precise placement, contoured designs, and larger surface areas in optimizing the ergonomic benefits of shoe inserts. These findings have practical implications for the design of ergonomic footwear and orthotics, particularly for individuals in occupations requiring prolonged standing.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 103754"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143906589","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"A data-driven approach to classifying manual material handling tasks using markerless motion capture and recurrent neural networks","authors":"Aanuoluwapo Ojelade ,&nbsp;Mohammad Sadra Rajabi ,&nbsp;Sunwook Kim ,&nbsp;Maury A. Nussbaum","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103755","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103755","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) are prevalent problems that encompass a range of conditions affecting muscles, tendons, and nerves due to repetitive strain, non-neutral postures, and forceful exertions. These disorders lead to pain, reduced productivity and substantial healthcare costs. Effective physical exposure assessment tools are needed in the workplace to quantify WMSD risks and the association between exposure and risks. While several tools are available, they are often limited in scope and lack the ability to assess physical risks continuously. In this study, we evaluated a data-driven approach to continuously classify manual material handling tasks and specific task conditions using different feature sets and machine learning algorithms. Specifically, kinematic data from markerless motion capture (MMC) system was used as input for various recurrent neural networks to classify among eight distinct manual material handling tasks: box lifting, asymmetric box lifting, box carriage, box pushing, box pulling, cart pushing, overhead lifting, and box lowering. The models we tested include bidirectional long-short term memory, gated recurrent units, and bidirectional gated recurrent units. We also classified specific task conditions, such as hand configurations and initial lifting height. Overall, using the MMC's kinematic data led to satisfactory results (e.g., accuracy of 80–94 %) in classifying the tasks and the task conditions. Our results, though, also emphasize that classification performance varied across different feature sets, tasks, and between males and females. Nonetheless, use of MMC demonstrates clear potential for physical exposure assessment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 103755"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143924481","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The Magnetic Cursor pointing technique (MagCursor): A gaze-assisted manual pointing technique based on human eye-hand coordination patterns","authors":"Baihan Cai ,&nbsp;Shaoyao Zhang ,&nbsp;Bo Wang ,&nbsp;Xinlian Lu ,&nbsp;Duming Wang ,&nbsp;Chaoyue Qi ,&nbsp;Xinqi Zhang ,&nbsp;Meng Chen ,&nbsp;Chunhui Wang ,&nbsp;Yu Tian","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103760","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103760","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Gaze-assisted manual pointing techniques have demonstrated significant potential for achieving fast and accurate pointing and selection performance. However, several empirical studies have found negative effects when using these techniques, possibly due to the insufficient consideration of human eye-hand coordination patterns. Therefore, we proposed the Magnetic Cursor pointing technique (MagCursor), which achieves intuitive gaze pointing and incorporates an appropriate temporal threshold to mitigate potential conflicts between gaze control and manual control. Using two manual pointing devices (a trackball mouse and a touchpad), we compared MagCursor with a manual-only condition (Manual-Only), and with a commercial gaze-assisted manual pointing technique called Tobii-MAGIC. We found that MagCursor outperformed Manual-Only in terms of increased input speed or decreased workload, and outperformed Tobii-MAGIC in terms of increased input speed, accuracy and decreased workload. This work contributes to the design of gaze-assisted manual pointing techniques and may extend the application of these techniques to a wider range of contexts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 103760"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144170695","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How does augmented reality head-mounted display impact the ability to detect safety hazards while performing piping assembly?","authors":"Rahul Chaudhari ,&nbsp;Paul Goodrum ,&nbsp;Siddharth Bhandari ,&nbsp;Matthew Hallowell ,&nbsp;Matt Jones ,&nbsp;Nolan Brady ,&nbsp;Tom Yeh","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103751","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103751","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Augmented Reality (AR) Head Mounted Displays Devices (HMDDs) have the potential to revolutionize information delivery during the construction phase. However, concerns remain about whether AR HMDDs impact workers' ability to detect changes in their surroundings, which could pose safety risks. In this controlled experiment, one hundred industry craft workers participated in an assembly task on a full-scale Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) model using three information formats: traditional isometric paper drawings and two AR models at levels of detail (LOD) 300 and 400 that vary based on the density of information provided. A safety hazard scenario was introduced, and the response time to detect the change was recorded. Findings revealed a significant difference in response times, with non-AR HMDD users detecting changes more quickly than AR HMDD users. Further investigation examined the correlation between workers' age, spatial cognition, and response time to detect changes. This study is one of the first in the construction domain to introduce hazards (referred to as change) and examine AR HMDDs’ impact on individuals' ability to detect them.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 103751"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143906587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Automated positioning of breast feature points for parameter extraction based on 3D point cloud","authors":"Zejun Zhong ,&nbsp;Beibei Zhang ,&nbsp;Bingfei Gu ,&nbsp;Yue Sun","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103759","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103759","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To achieve automatic extraction of parameter for female breast shape analysis, this paper proposed a “point-parameter-type” method based on 3D point cloud data. To standardize the measurement method, nine feature points (i.e., BBP, BP, FAP, FNP, LUBP, LBP, MBP, RUBP and UBP) and three lines (i.e., BBL, BL and BC) were firstly defined according to the characteristics of breast shape. Utilizing the 3D point cloud data, four positioning methods, including Max-Distance, Inflection-Points, Slope and Intersection-Point, were proposed to automate the positioning of feature points. Finally, breast morphological parameters for shape classification were calculated or predicted using computational models, and 140 subjects were randomly selected to verify the method accuracy. The results indicated that the recognition accuracy rates were 94.74 % for type FC, 89.06 % for type UO, and 89.47 % for type PO, demonstrating that this method is feasible. This study aims to establish a foundation for the automatic measurement of breast and provide valuable support for bra size recommendation for consumers during online shopping.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 103759"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144170696","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Evaluating a novel maximum desk height equation: Integrating biomechanical safety and anthropometric fit in educational furniture design","authors":"Edgardo C. Silva ,&nbsp;Nicolás Concha-Opazo ,&nbsp;Fabián Morales-Gutiérrez ,&nbsp;Débora Piceros-Henríquez ,&nbsp;Rocío Soza-Gallo ,&nbsp;Héctor Ignacio Castellucci ,&nbsp;Pedro Arezes ,&nbsp;Johan F.M. Molenbroek ,&nbsp;Carlos Viviani ,&nbsp;Imán Dianat","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103756","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103756","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study evaluates a new equation for defining maximum desk height in educational settings, comparing it with the traditional Chaffin and Anderson-based equation through biomechanical analysis. The new equation, based on 30° shoulder abduction and 35° flexion, was tested against established criteria in a quasi-experimental study involving 34 participants. Using motion capture and surface EMG, we analyzed shoulder kinematics and muscle activity during six standardized tasks performed at two desk heights. Results showed no significant differences in shoulder kinematics safety parameters between setups, while EMG data revealed consistent muscle activity patterns below 10 % MVC for both conditions. Performance metrics across tasks showed no significant differences between desk heights. Preference analysis indicated no overall significant difference between conditions, although gender-specific patterns emerged with 66 % of women preferring the proposed height. Discomfort levels were comparable between conditions. Theoretical testing of the new equation on existing databases (n: 2261 students; n: 2946 workers) demonstrated improved anthropometric fit, increasing match rates from 63 % to 94 % in students and reducing high mismatch cases from 46.7 % to 7.1 % in workers. The findings validate that the new equation maintains biomechanical safety while significantly improving anthropometric fit. This alignment between biomechanical and anthropometric criteria represents an advancement in educational furniture design, particularly relevant for contemporary educational tasks requiring forearm support.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 103756"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143932029","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Gyroball exercise can enhance wrist muscle activation","authors":"Xinyao Hu ,&nbsp;Jihan Zheng ,&nbsp;Junshi Liu ,&nbsp;Shiwei Mo ,&nbsp;Ning Jia ,&nbsp;Zhong Zhao ,&nbsp;Xingda Qu","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103758","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103758","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>As a common occupational health concern, wrist injuries not only adversely affect workers’ well-being, but also compromise their productivity. Intermittent short-duration gyroball exercise has the potential to reduce the risk and severity of work-related wrist injuries, however, the underlying biomechanical mechanisms for its effects are still unclear. To address this problem, the present study aimed to examine wrist kinematics and wrist muscle activation with the application of intermittent short-duration gyroball exercise. Eighteen young adults were involved in an experimental study. Comparisons of wrist kinematics and wrist muscle activation were made between the gyroball exercise and two other exercise interventions (i.e., load-holding wrist rotation exercise and free-load wrist rotation exercise). We found that the gyroball exercise intervention was superior to comparative interventions in terms of activating wrist muscles, a critical factor for wrist injury control. This finding implies that intermittent short-duration gyroball exercise could be an effective intervention for preventing and rehabilitating work-related wrist injuries. This quantitative study can provide valuable insights for developing evidence-based guidelines for incorporating gyroball exercise into occupational injury prevention programs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 103758"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144088808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Fatigue discrimination of workers in low oxygen environment: a multi-feature fusion method","authors":"Tianlong Yu ,&nbsp;Xiang Wu ,&nbsp;Zhenlei Tian ,&nbsp;Hao Yang ,&nbsp;Jianwu Chen ,&nbsp;Ruiming Fan","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103752","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103752","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Many plateau areas have abundant fossil energy resources, but the low oxygen environment in the plateau seriously limits the development of exploration work. Monitoring the fatigue status of exploration workers on the plateau is a necessary measure to ensure their safety. In this study, we designed a task-based experiment to explore the behavior of fatigue in exploration operations, with environmental oxygen partial pressure as the variable. Physiological signals including electrocardiogram (ECG), respiration, and oxygen saturation were collected, along with subjective fatigue scale scores. A total of 96 features were extracted from the time domain, frequency domain, and nonlinear domain, and a dataset of fatigue feature for exploration tasks in plateau was constructed. Based on different dimensionality reduction methods and classifiers, a model for discriminating the fatigue state of exploration tasks in plateau was constructed and optimized. The results show that 80 % of the workers had a severe or extreme fatigue state before the end of the task in a 17 % oxygen concentration (Oxygen partial pressure 17.23 kPa) environment. Correlation analysis and XGBoost algorithm show that all signals provide effective contributions to discriminating the fatigue state. Among them, the ECG signal plays a leading role. Finally, through the model building and optimization route of Principal Component Analysis-Support Vector Machines-Differential Evolution Algorithm (PCA-SVM-DE), we constructed a multi-feature information fusion geological exploration operation fatigue state discrimination model. The model achieves an accuracy of 99.01 % in the four-level fatigue classification. The fatigue state discrimination method can be effectively applied in low oxygen working environment to reduce operational risks.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 103752"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143906586","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"An integrated 3D point cloud and 2D image-based approach for generating individualized female prototype pattern","authors":"Shouning Jin ,&nbsp;Bingfei Gu","doi":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103748","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ergon.2025.103748","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>To promote online garment customization and virtual fitting, how to obtain sufficient body shape data easily and quickly to generate personalized tailoring patterns is still a challenge. In this study, an integrated 3D point-cloud and 2D image-based approach for generating individualized female prototype patterns was proposed, and an automatic pattern generation system based on body height, weight, and images was developed. A feature point recognition method was used to measure 14 body parameters, including the width, thickness, and angles at characteristic body landmarks. Multiple linear regressions between these parameters and the coordinates of 20 pattern measurement points were then performed. For the extracted 2D body parameters, the error for more than 80 % of the samples were within 1 cm by comparing with the 3D measurement data. Moreover, the predicted accuracy of the generated individual patterns reaches 91 % overall, demonstrating the reliability of this system. Therefore, this method can improve the efficacy of automatic garment production, and meet the growing requirements of sustainable development and individualized consumption.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":50317,"journal":{"name":"International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics","volume":"107 ","pages":"Article 103748"},"PeriodicalIF":2.5,"publicationDate":"2025-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143898788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}