| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,000,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥2,200,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Heat Rate Variability (HRV) which is a physiological index has been investigated to evaluate the riding comfort of baby and parents who use strollers and wheelchairs, The HRV of the subjects who rode a wheelchair was measured through their electrocardiograms as well as the riding comfort. The subjects were six men whose ages were from 22 to 24 years old. The subjects and the wheelchair were traveled on the three kind roads to measure the HRV, the vibration of the subjects and the riding comfort. The items for evaluating the riding comfort consisted of the feeling of the vibration of each body part (head, chest, abdomen, upper-legs and lower-legs), the feeling, of stability, the feeling of getting tense, the feeling of stability, the feeling of tiredness and the synthetic riding comfort. As a result, it was confirmed that the vibration would increase the LF/HF if the wheelchair was moved on the interlocking road rather than on the general paved road with a significant difference. The relationships between the LF/HF and the riding comfort also suggested that the feeling of vibration at chest, the feelings of tiredness and stability would affect the LF/HF. Furthermore, at 3.2Hz, the correlation between the transmissibility from the wheelchair to around the subjects' chest and the LF/HF showed that there was a significant correlation. The result has showed that the riding comfort could be affected with the increment of the LF/HF which would be caused by the vibration of the subjects' body seating in the wheelchair from around 3 to 4Hz, and it has suggested that the LF/HF could be a physiological index which quantitatively describes the riding comfort. Finally, a stroller has been proposed according to the knowledge obtained through the above-mentioned experiments and the investigations into the existing strollers and wheelchairs.
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