Steven L. Johnson’s research while affiliated with University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and other places

Haptic technology has the potential to enhance education, especially for those with severe visual impairments (those that are blind or who have low vision), by presenting abstract concepts through the sense of touch. Despite the advances in haptic research, little research has been conducted in the area of haptic user behavior toward the establishment of haptic interface development and design conventions. To advance haptic research closer to this goal, this study examines haptic user behavior data collected from 9 participants utilizing a haptic learning system, the Heat Temperature Module. ANOVA results showed that differences in the amount of haptic feedback result in significant differences in user behavior, indicating that higher levels of haptic friction feedback result in higher user interaction proportions of data. Results also suggested that minimal thresholds of friction haptic feedback can be established for a desired level of minimum user interaction data proportions, however; more research is needed to establish such thresholds.

The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the overall quality of haptic user interfaces designed to support various science learning activities in order to obtain usability and performance data. The result showed that haptic interface could significantly affect impaired students’ user performance. Audio & Tactile interface can produce significantly better user performance than the Tactile interface. Meanwhile, the learning effect could be greatly enhanced and students enjoyed the hands-on experience very much. This study should provide invaluable empirical data and some insight for the future research. Keywordshaptic–tactile–visual impairment–interface

As a nonmuscular communication and control system for people with severe motor disabilities, brain–computer interface (BCI) has found several applications. Although a few empirical studies of BCI user performance do exist, little to no research has specifically evaluated the impact of contributing factors on user performance in the BCI applications. To that end, our within-subjects design compared the impact of two different types of interface (ABC interface vs. frequency-based interface) and three levels of screen size (computer monitor, global positioning system, and cell phone screen) of a P300-based BCI application, P300 Speller, on user performance (accuracy, information transfer rate, amplitude, and latency) and usage preference. Ten participants with neuromuscular disabilities such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cerebral palsy and 10 nondisabled participants were asked to type six, 10-character phrases in the P300 Speller. The overall accuracy was 79.7% for the nondisabled participants and 28.7% for participants with motor disabilities. The results showed that interface type and screen size have significant effects on user performance and usage preference, with varying degree of impact to participants with and without motor disabilities. Specifically, participants typed significantly more accurately in frequency-based interface and computer monitor screen. The results of this study should provide invaluable insights to the future research of P300-based BCI applications.

Despite recent advances in brain-computer interface (BCI) development, system usability still remains a large oversight. The goal of this study was to investigate the usability of a P300-based BCI system, P300 Speller, by assessing how background noise and interface color contrast affect user performance and BCI usage preference. Fifteen able-bodied participants underwent a 2 (low and high interface color contrast) × 3 (low, medium, and high background noise level) within-subjects design experiment, in which participants were asked to type six 10-character phrases in the P300 Speller paradigm. The overall accuracy in the study was 80.2%. Participants showed higher accuracy, higher information transfer rate, bigger amplitude, and smaller latency in the high interface color contrast condition than in the low contrast condition. Participants had better performance in the noisy condition than in the quiet condition, but the background noise effects were not statistically significant in the present study. These results should give some insight to the real-world applicability of the current P300 Speller as a nonmuscular communication system, especially for individuals with severe neuromuscular disabilities.

This paper presents methods of managing ergonomics course projects at operational facilities at the senior-level of an industrial engineering curriculum. Incorporating external projects into the course provides the students with an opportunity to apply the material that they have learned in class, as well as experience the issues related to applying the concepts in the “real world.” This paper discusses the benefits and challenges of conducting external projects. In particular, the methods of selecting projects, assigning groups, documenting progress, presenting results and assigning grades are discussed. Effectively managed projects can be a very beneficial learning experience for the student, as well as provide visibility for the university, department and discipline. In addition, experience has shown that the implementation of the recommendations made by the students can provide significant improvements for the participating companies.

Many people of different background and skill sets are becoming involved with the application of occupational ergonomics. These individuals range from health care professionals with little or no interest or understanding of the operational environments to manufacturing engineers that have had no training or experience in considering the relationship between human operators and the equipment that they design. The person who has both a first-hand understanding of the task requirements and the individual operator's capabilities and limitations is the first line supervisor. The objective of the computer-based system described in this paper is to provide operational personnel with a tool that will allow them to evaluate the workplace layout, work methods, tools and equipment to improve efficiency and product quality, as well as reduce the risk of work-related disorders.

Cumulative trauma disorders in general, and carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS), in particular, have been an increasingly costly problem for both the afflicted individual and the company that employs that individual. This research involved a longitudinal study of cumulative trauma in six poultry processing plants. The primary objective of this research was to evaluate the potential of a procedure that tracks changes in motor median nerve latencies as a method of early detection of carpal tunnel syndrome. Although there was a statistically significant difference between the average latencies of the non-symptomatic group and the symptomatic group, the use of motor median nerve latencies for predictive diagnostic purposes is definitely questionable. There was no systematic shift in latencies observed as a function of the time that the person had been performing processing tasks which are generally considered to be associated with CTS. A second important result was that the incidence rate of objectively evaluated CTS appears to be far lower than that generally reported in both the popular media and the research literature. Probably the most important conclusion of the study, however, was that the variation within people, over time, independent of exposure, can lead to serious misdiagnosis of CTS. These results and conclusions are very important for both assessing the magnitude of the problem of CTS, as well as questioning the efficacy of one of the most widely used criteria to justify CTS surgery.

The history, successes, failures and future needs that relate to the allocation of functions to humans and/ or machines in manufacturing environments are presented. The various methodologies that have been proposed for performing function allocation are discussed. The basic process involves matching the capabilities and limitations of the particular human or automated system with the requirements imposed by the manufacturing operation. This process can range from a global, systems approach down to the delineation of specific capabilities of humans and automated systems. Both recent advances and obstacles to the effective allocation of tasks to humans or machines based on the capabilities of each are presented. The current status and the areas where future research and development are needed are discussed.

Selecting production equipment for flexible manufacturing cells (FMC) has become more challenging due to the flexibility provided by production systems such as robots, automatic guided vehicles, and machining centers with multiple tool. This technical note considers a method of selection based on a taxonomic system that represents robots and various prospective operational tasks. Although the technique proposed here was initially designed for robotic applications, preliminary investigations have shown that a taxonomic approach is applicable to other production equipment as well. This method, in fact, simplifies the selection of equipment for flexible manufacturing cells.

Over the past ten years, there has been extensive work performed on the development of guidelines for manual material handling tasks both within individual companies and within governmental agencies. However, these guidelines address only individual, one-person lifting tasks. In both manufacturing and service industries, there are many team lifting tasks, such as furniture moving and at loading docks. This paper presents the results of a study that used psychophysical methods to investigate lifting tasks that require two workers. In addition to simple lifting tasks, the study also compared one and two-person carrying tasks. The results of the study indicate that subjects' judgments of their lifting capability are significantly greater for the two-person lifts than for the individual lifts. The same relationship was observed for the carrying tasks. These results and conclusions are important to consider when it is necessary to extrapolate from the conditions used in the development of manual material handling guidelines to other situations such as team lift carrying tasks.