PERCEPTION AND VISUALIZATION OF HUMAN POSTURE INFORMATION FOR COMPUTER-AIDED ERGONOMIC ANALYSIS

This article reports three experiments that examined the effects of ph otographic method, computerized visualization scheme, and posture comp lexity on posture perception and specification for computer-aided ergo nomic analysis. The subjects were presented with photographs of workin g postures, and were required to manipulate human forms generated by a n ergonomics software program to match the postures in the photographs . The first experiment showed a clear advantage of using a three-dimen sional (3-D) human form graphic with two photographs when complex, asy mmetric postures were analysed. However, the use of a 3-D human graphi c display and two photographs jeopardized the subjects' posture specif ication performance when simple, symmetric pastures were analysed. The results of the second and the third experiment demonstrated the impor tance of achieving congruency between photographic and computer displa y perspectives in improving posture specification performance. Implica tions for ergonomic jab analysis and ergonomics software design are di scussed.