A discomfort-sensitive chair for pointing out mental fatigue

Abstract

In our busy daily life, we often have the feeling of being exhausted, accompanied with a sense of performance degradation and increase of discomfort in the execution of even simple tasks. This often takes place in the workplace and in a silent way, influencing our productivity, our performance the number of errors or the quality of our production. This paper details a chair to be used in workplace environments that is sensitive to the onset of fatigue. Based on built-in accelerometers it recognizes signs of discomfort, which may be related to mental fatigue, to point out moments when an individual should consider taking a pause or a rest. This chair complements a previously developed software for the assessment of mental fatigue from the analysis of the individual's interaction with the computer.