Evaluation and Prediction of Driver Comfort Using Body Pressure Sensors

Information of pressure patterns at the driver-seat interface is very useful for the design of seats. However, a clear and consistent relationship between interface pressure and driver physiological state like comfort and discomfort was not identified. This study examined associations between three subjective ratings (overall, comfort, and discomfort) and over 200 measures describing driver-seat interface contact pressure, force and area and ratios of local to whole body. This requires quantitative and dynamic analyses of body pressure distribution. Each of eight subjects performed a simulated driving task for 100 minutes in a driving simulator. The body-seat interface pressures were measured continuously, and the subjective ratings were surveyed at the prescribed interval. In this study, it was clarified that there was a possibility to predict physiological state (mainly comfort/discomfort) from several body pressure variables. And some specific approaches were proposed for the intervention of the drivers physiological state, such as decreasing the force ratio, area ratio and pressure ratio levels in the left buttock and the left thigh, and balancing of the contact area ratio of buttocks and the force ratio of both thighs.