Semi-wearable seating concepts for vehicle control, medical, and wellbeing applications

摘要

This thesis explores how natural bodily movements can be translated into a control interface for vehicles. Focusing on the car, our goal is to increase human performance and wellbeing while eliminating the traditionally antagonistic relationship between comfort and freedom of movement vs. support, safety and sensing the car. We will discuss seating, traditional controls, their origins, evolution, and their implications in the context of today's cars. Based on the physical demands of the vehicle environment, and on positive body experiences from sports and other concepts of movement, we will then explore how we could re-think the function, self-image, and presentation of the human body in the context of cars. We will develop a seat prototype, which will encourage beneficial body sensations and - motions, taking into account the shapes, textures, and emotional significance of touch and movement in and by itself, and in the car environment. The core of our concept will focus on natural movements of the lower back and hips, as experienced when walking or skiing. Building on the exoskeleton-like "Athlete Seat," which blurs the boundaries between wearing and sitting in, we will develop the core prototype out towards the upper body and limbs.