Comfort assessment of school chairs toward body-pressure detections based on a mechanical sensing device

To investigate subjective comfort, we examine the comfort scores of seats toward obtaining a means of body-pressure detections based on a mechanical sensing device. With respect to the body pressures of a human-chair contact interface, the relationship between comfort and seat surface pressure is demonstrated. Primary and secondary school students are selected with statures in the range of 1.20–1.74m. Considering human-machine interaction, they are asked to be participants with “ordinary,” “comfortable,” and “very comfortable” using as survey criteria for pressure of &lt;1.25Ncm^-2. Accordingly, “less comfortable” and “uncomfortable” were equal criteria for measuring pressure in the range of 1.36 to 1.41Ncm^-2. Under a static sitting posture, the pressure coefficient (<i>D_c</i>) of buttock support is calculated. Through on-site records of the configuration of ordinary school chairs, sitting postures have a significant effect on the comfort score, where the upright position exhibits the largest <i>D_c</i>. The average acceptable subjective well-being was supposed to have a score of &ge;3 (ordinary), and we expect that chairs that are designed to satisfy students’ comfort requirements.