| Engineer’s natural curiosity
Dobson’s background in healthcare, working for Glaxo Smith Klein and Phillips Electronics, developed an interest in mental health where this technology offers significant possibilities. ‘I really wanted to do something in the area of emotion recognition and mental health,’ says Dobson. Then a friend of his in Cambridge showed him an article, they looked at some technical papers and thought they could build something. ‘If you look at the mental health market it is one of the biggest needs, bigger than cancer and heart disease, yet has about a tenth of the funding.’ Dobson cites examples such as media coverage of cricketer Jonathan Trott coming home from the Ashes tour and the CEO of Lloyds taking time off due to stress, as examples of greater public awareness of psychological issues.
Before Dobson did an MBA at Cambridge, his primary degree was in Mechanical Engineering at Bath – this grounding in science gave him a subtle head start. ‘Engineering is all about natural curiosity, not being afraid to tinker and play with stuff,’ says Dobson, ‘I am not an expert in this area but I know enough to ask the right, smart questions and can review a research paper and get a good idea what the limits of the possible are.’
Speech recognition
Starting up the venture, they needed expertise in the area of speech and language, and machine learning. So they called on Stephen Cox, a specialist in speech recognition and Professor of Computing Science at the University of East Anglia, who is now an adviser.
The ‘empathetic algorithm’ is based around the idea that we can differentiate between emotions, without necessarily knowing what words mean – think of watching TV or Films in a different language. ‘It’s about understanding what parts of the voice communicate emotions, acoustically what features betray emotion – we use probably 200 to 300 features in each section of speech we analyse.’ They gathered data to train the system, which then uses statistics to pick out the most probable emotion being expressed amongst all the other background and mechanical noise on the phone.
Emotional life-tracking
Soon, says Dobson, they will have a free app where the conversation we have just had can be emotionally analysed and the users can tweet to a Twitter page. ‘It will say “Matt had this conversation”, I can include your twitter handle in there and it creates the dialogue between us and say “I had a happy conversation with John from Cubed”.’
But the next step, involving a kind of emotional life-tracking is more complicated. ‘That is quite a sophisticated piece of software,’ says Dobson. The idea
being that we will be able to cross-reference our emotional states with other bits of our data from other parts of our day. ‘How we can use this data to basically monitor and understand human behaviour?’ says Dobson. In monitoring, ‘people’s mental health if they are depressed, can we understand when and why they are depressed?’
The Art of Sitting: How to sit in your ergonomic chair correctly Correct sitting is not all about sitting up straight
Correct working posture
Always sit back and move your chair close to the desk to maintain contact between your back and the seat back to help support and maintain the inward curve of the lumbar spine.
This can easily be achieved by choosing a seat which has a forward tilt of 5°-15° thereby ensuring your hips are slightly higher than your knees.
Poor working posture
Do not perch on the front of your seat. Do not place your keyboard too far away. Instead move it closer to the front of the desk
Avoid incorrect slouching where the angle of the pelvis rotates backwards. This results in the loss of the inward curve in the lumbar spine, causing excessive strain on the lumbar discs.
You can slouch if you need to in an ergonomic chair
337
Correct slouch
Balanced rocking pelvic tilt and adjustable floating chairs allow the user to release the whole seat and back into free float thereby allowing the user to lean back and 'slouch correctly' whilst the chair supports the user.
You must ensure that you remain in the correct position with bottom back and the chair back following the lumbar spine.
Incorrect slouch
Do not be tempted to slide forwards as this will stop the natural inward curve of the lumbar spine.
Take care with synchro mechanisms whereby the "freefloat" feature allows the chair back to go past 90° resulting in the pelvis rotating backwards to reduce the curve of the lumbar spine.
Physical ergonomics
Physical ergonomics: the science of designing user interaction with equipment and workplaces to fit the user.
Physical ergonomics is concerned with human anatomy, and some of the
338
anthropometric, physiological and bio mechanical characteristics as they relate to physical activity.[5] Physical ergonomic principles have been widely used in the design of both consumer and industrial products. Physical ergonomics is important in the medical field, particularly to those diagnosed with physiological ailments or disorders such as arthritis (both chronic and temporary) or carpal tunnel syndrome. Pressure that is insignificant or imperceptible to those unaffected by these disorders may be very painful, or render a device unusable, for those who are. Many
ergonomically designed products are also used or recommended to treat or prevent such disorders, and to treat pressure-related chronic pain.[citation needed]
One of the most prevalent types of work-related injuries is musculoskeletal disorder. Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMDs) result in persistent pain, loss of functional capacity and work disability, but their initial diagnosis is difficult because they are mainly based on complaints of pain and other symptoms.[11] Every year, 1.8 million U.S. workers experience WRMDs and nearly 600,000 of the injuries are serious enough to cause workers to miss work.[12] Certain jobs or work conditions cause a higher rate of worker complaints of undue strain, localized fatigue, discomfort, or pain that does not go away after overnight rest. These types of jobs are often those involving activities such as repetitive and forceful exertions; frequent, heavy, or overhead lifts; awkward work positions; or use of vibrating equipment.[13] The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has found substantial evidence that ergonomics programs can cut workers' compensation costs, increase productivity and decrease employee turnover.[14] Therefore, it is important to gather data to identify jobs or work conditions that are most problematic, using sources such as injury and illness logs, medical records, and job analyses.[13]
Достарыңызбен бөлісу: |
