The consumption of digital media on mobile phones, tablets and laptops is at an all-time high and technology is rapidly evolving to accommodate touch and motion interfaces as a replacement for the traditional mouse and keyboard.  As technology expands, so does the pursuit of safe and ergonomically sound uses of digital devices in Dr. Justin Young’s lab at Kettering University.

“What did the introduction of laptops do to change how people do work? What about tablets? Ergonomists are constantly playing catch-up to technology and the idea hopefully is that we can be proactive to solve design issues before they arise,” Young said.

Young’s research focuses on touchless gestural controls for devices – the ability to control elements occurring on a screen without making physical contact with an interface.

“These types of interfaces have worked really well in certain types of situations,” Young said. “You aren’t likely going to use gestures to control Microsoft Excel but if I’m working in 3D environments, and I want to, for example, spin a map of the earth around, gestures may be better options than the mouse.”

Another practical application of gestural controls may involve radiologists who spend a lot of time examining body scans or images on a screen, a task which can be a cumbersome procedure when using a mouse.  So what if there’s a new way to rotate, angle and interact with MRI images on a computer?  

While these touchless gestures may seem new and different, gestural controls are already common in our everyday lives.

“Everyone knows about surface gestures now because of common controls on smartphones," Young said. "We’ve engrained in ourselves that “pinching” means “zooming” – it’s thinking about and associating each gesture with what’s happening on the computer.”

The Importance of Supports for Computing

Young co-authored a recent publication titled, "Effects of Forearm and Palm Supports on the Upper Extremity During Computer Mouse Use," in Applied Ergonomics in 2014.

The paper was a result of Young’s research efforts at Harvard University alongside Dr. Jack Dennerlein, a professor in the Bouvé College of Health Sciences at Northeastern University.  Dennerlein and his colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health set out to comprehensively examine the results of supports on arm and shoulder muscles during computer use and the results were clear – supports do help, particularly for the shoulder.  

“In ergonomics, there’s a balance between avoiding awkward postures and getting stuck in just one position for long periods of time. You want to move around when you are working,” Young said.  “Supports do help. It reduces muscle effort and therefore we should be providing these types of surfaces for people when they are using the computer. ”

This study was the most comprehensive examination of the effects of shoulder, forearm, and palm supports as they collected data on user’s movements and postures using a motion tracking system, muscle activities of the arms, as well as forces and torques applied to supports. Using this methodology they were able to use inverse dynamics and calculate the required forces that an individual’s arms need to maintain their working positions.

“People have looked at armrests quite a bit but what makes [this paper] unique is that we did full inverse dynamic analysis,” Young said. “For the shoulder – the supporting surfaces helped a lot.”

Young is using these findings to continue to evolve and develop his current research at Kettering University. The study concludes that supports are good for our postures and muscles in the traditional mouse and keyboard computing environment, but Young is looking ahead to the next generation of technology to determine what sorts of supports are necessary to accommodate new products and interfaces like phones, tablets, touchless gestures and beyond. 

Searching for the Next Wave of Office Furniture  

While at Harvard, Young co-authored two publications in the journal Work: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation titled “Touch-screen tablet user configurations and case-supported tilt affect head and heck flexion angles” in 2012 and “Wrist and shoulder posture and muscle activity during touch-screen tablet use: Effects of usage configuration, tablet type, and interacting hand” in 2013.

These studies examined head, neck, wrist and shoulder postures of individuals using tablets in four different configurations – two in their laps and two on a table. The results of the study informed the product and case designs of recently released tablet products such as at the Microsoft Surface.

In August 2014, Young is embarking on the expansion of this research by examining how new interfaces and current office furniture should be designed to help users integrate newer technologies like mobile phones, tablets and gestures safely. The study is funded by the Office Ergonomics Research Committee, a consortium of companies hoping to improve the design and engineering of the office computing environment. The consortium includes the Grand Rapids-based furniture companies Haworth, Herman Miller, and Steelcase as well as computing industry giants like Apple, Microsoft, and HP.

“What I’ve taken away from our recent Harvard studies is that we know that supports are good and we should allow people to have them,” Young said. “But as technology changes, as you use your phone or tablet at your desk, as we start integrating new devices and interaction techniques, how are we going to support these interactions?”

Young currently has a prototype chair in the lab that allows users to completely adjust the height, angle and direction of their armrests. This will allow Young to measure the position that users prefer their arm rests while using alternative technologies and examine what supports are necessary to ensure comfort and longevity in the future as other gestures, not unlike the “pinch to zoom” motions common for touchscreens, will be ubiquitous for desktop computer workstations.

“The outcome of this research is: where do people want to put their arms? How much does that reduce the load on the shoulder?” Young said. “The designers will like to see and use these results. They are going to want to know where to put their armrests for the next generation of chairs.”

The next generation of technology and the related office furniture is going to differ just as gesture and touch control continue to be the new normal in user interfaces. Young’s goal is to stay ahead of the curve to determine the ergonomic effects of current and future gestures and work habits. Technology is changing and it’s up to him and his colleagues to ensure that the results are safe and healthy for users.  

“We want to get ahead of technology so that 10 years from now people don’t end up with problems in their fingers, thumbs or shoulders because of the way we decide to design and implement new gestures.  Technology often brings unforeseen consequences, like how texting and driving is such a problem, and we need to try and catch these before they happen,” Young said.