The science of sitting, and vice versa
October 15, 2010 10:27 AM Subscribe
I want to upgrade the chairs in my lab-- the ones that our human (well, undergrad) subjects sit in to do experiments. Priorities: stability, comfort, adjustability (with a caveat).
I run experiments with human subjects. During the experiments, the subjects wear an EEG cap like this one (GIS result). We need subjects to stay as still as possible for most of the experiment, since motion of any sort tends to show up as an artifact on the EEG. They do, of course, have breaks where they can stretch, etc as needed, but still, they're essentially trying to remain as motionless as possible for up to 1.5 hrs. Predictably, this leads to some soreness.
I currently have chairs like this. They're fine, except they could be a little more comfortable, and it's kind of tough for subjects to get in and out of. This is one of our chairs in the testing booth. With the arms and lack of rolling feet plus the small space, it's tough for people to navigate (especially while wearing the cap). Plus, we'd like to standardize things like distance from the screen, left/right position, make sure they're not sitting at an angle, etc.
Primary requirements:
Money is not really an object for the perfect solution. That said, we wouldn't want to pay through the nose for only a tiny improvement.
TIA!
I run experiments with human subjects. During the experiments, the subjects wear an EEG cap like this one (GIS result). We need subjects to stay as still as possible for most of the experiment, since motion of any sort tends to show up as an artifact on the EEG. They do, of course, have breaks where they can stretch, etc as needed, but still, they're essentially trying to remain as motionless as possible for up to 1.5 hrs. Predictably, this leads to some soreness.
I currently have chairs like this. They're fine, except they could be a little more comfortable, and it's kind of tough for subjects to get in and out of. This is one of our chairs in the testing booth. With the arms and lack of rolling feet plus the small space, it's tough for people to navigate (especially while wearing the cap). Plus, we'd like to standardize things like distance from the screen, left/right position, make sure they're not sitting at an angle, etc.
Primary requirements:
- Stability. While the subjects are doing the experiment, the chair should not be able to move. Definitely no wheels. No swiveling, no height adjustment, no rocking, no rolling. This was the priority in using the current chairs. If we could add some way of anchoring it to the ground better (i.e., make sliding impossible), that would be great too.
- Smallish footprint. Eventually this will be used in a booth that will have about four feet by six in floorspace.
- Greater comfort. Mentioned above. Could be in the form of more ergonomic shaping or more padding. A headrest could help too. Something like a La-z-boy would be taking it a little TOO far; we don't want them falling asleep.
- Greater ease in sitting down/getting up. My dream situation would be a chair that could swivel 180 degrees to sit/stand, but then be locked in place, facing the monitor, for the duration of the experiment. No arms, or preferably, arms that raise/lower would help too.
- Adjustability. In a perfect world, I'd like to be able to change the height of the chair based on the participant's torso length (so their eyes are all at the same height). Changing back angle based on their preferences would be nice as well.
Money is not really an object for the perfect solution. That said, we wouldn't want to pay through the nose for only a tiny improvement.
TIA!
Best answer: I'm not sure if there's anything here that will suit your needs, but for some odd reason there was a barber shop catalog in my doctor's office last week and I remembered the name. Here's their selection of barber chairs.
posted by sharkfu at 11:15 AM on October 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by sharkfu at 11:15 AM on October 15, 2010 [1 favorite]
In the same vein as barber chairs, what about a dentist's chair?
posted by sciencegeek at 11:21 AM on October 15, 2010
posted by sciencegeek at 11:21 AM on October 15, 2010
Response by poster: sciencegeek: Like the idea; I had the same one. The only problem is that I don't think we have the space for it. Plus, I'm not sure if they swivel. Also might be overkill, since we don't need reclining.
But it just so happens that a barber chair would fit my needs pretty well. I called the company sharkfu linked to, and it turns out that swivel lock is a standard feature.
So chalk this one up for old-fashioned, talk-to-a-human-being research. Now I just need to find a barber supply warehouse to check these things out...
Thanks!
posted by supercres at 11:57 AM on October 15, 2010
But it just so happens that a barber chair would fit my needs pretty well. I called the company sharkfu linked to, and it turns out that swivel lock is a standard feature.
So chalk this one up for old-fashioned, talk-to-a-human-being research. Now I just need to find a barber supply warehouse to check these things out...
Thanks!
posted by supercres at 11:57 AM on October 15, 2010
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My dream situation would be a chair that could swivel 180 degrees to sit/stand, but then be locked in place
posted by supercres at 10:39 AM on October 15, 2010