Citation

Azizan A, Fard M, Azari MF, Benediktsdottir B, Arnardóttir ES, Jazar R, Maeda S. Ind. Health 2016; 54(4): 296-307.

Affiliation

School of Aerospace Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, RMIT University, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, National Institute of Industrial Health, Japan)

DOI

10.2486/indhealth.2015-0095

PMID

26829971

Abstract

Although much is known about human body vibration discomfort, there is little research data on the effects of vibration on vehicle occupant drowsiness. A laboratory experimental setup has been developed. Vibration was applied to the volunteers sitting on the vehicle seat mounted on the vibration platform. Seated volunteers were exposed to a Gaussian random vibration, with 1-15 Hz frequency bandwidth at 0.2 ms(-2) r.m.s., for 20-min. Two drowsiness measurement methods were used, Psychomotor Vigilance Test (PVT) and Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS). Significant changes in PVT (p<0.05) and KSS (p<0.05) were detected in all eighteen volunteers. Furthermore, a moderate correlation (r>0.4) was observed between objective measurement (PVT) and subjective measurement (KSS). The results suggest that exposure to vibration even for 20-min can cause significant drowsiness impairing psychomotor performance. This finding has important implications for road safety.

Keywords: Driver distraction

Language: en