An Ergonomic Evaluation Of The Kinesis Computer Keyboard :: essays research papers

An Ergonomic Evaluation of the Kinesis Computer Keyboard 1. Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In this information-technology age, everyday tasks are more and more related to computer. That ranges from basic jobs such as providing food recipes for housewives to complicated ones such as analyzing laboratory experimental data for scientists and engineers. This popularity of computer means that the time one has to spend with computer would be a lot more than in the past. Until now, the computers and computer peripherals in the market have been made according to the same design as the ones invented decades ago when computers are used only in large-scale scientific projects or big corporations. That means for most people the ergonomic value of these products obviously was not taken into account when designing them. Fortunately, at the moment, more companies are trying to change the way people work with computer by marketing a number of ergonomic products most notably keyboard, mouse and monitor. There are ergonomic keyboards, mice and monitors being released all the time. The reason why the focus is on these products is that they are the parts of computer one interfaces with the most while working with computer. The subject of whether these ergonomic keyboards, mice, monitors and other products really work attracts a lot of regular computer users. Thus, studies dedicated to it have been done. This report is based on one of the studies about an ergonomic keyboard from a manufacturer called Kinesis. This study looks not only on the effect of the keyboard on the users' body by mean of electromyographic activity but also on the learning rate of the users changing to this new style of keyboard. This is very useful since slow learning rate would lead to the decrease in effectiveness of work. Introduced in 1868 by Christopher Sholes, computer keyboard is still the primary data entry mode for most computer users. With the increase of computer, hence keyboard, usage at the moment, these problems of the keyboard users known as operator stress problems have developed. This is a kind of cumulative trauma disorders which is mainly caused by working excessively or repetitively with the same thing, keyboard, in this case, in the same position for a long period of time. This kind of disorder is considered to be the most expensive and severe one occurring in office environment. This leads to an amount of alternative designs introduced in the market with the main intention of reducing muscular stress required for typing. The reason why these designs have not yet replaced the old one is because of the familiarity of the