Title: The application of non-linear methods to the analysis of finger plethysmograms for ergonomics

Authors: Akira Imanishi, Mayumi Oyama-Higa

Addresses: Department of Integrated Psychological Sciences, Graduate School of Humanities, Kwansei Gakuin University, The Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 1-1-155, Uegahara, Nishinomiya, Hyogo, 662-8501, Japan. ' Department of System Innovation, Graduate School of Engineering Science, Osaka University, 1-3, Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka, 560-8531, Japan

Abstract: Chaotic fluctuations in many biological signals have attracted considerable attention since in the assessment of these properties, chaos analysis can extract more informative knowledge than conventional analysis methods such as spectral analysis. Biological signals, particularly chaotic fluctuation of finger plethysmograms, were used to assess the psychophysiological state of workers in ergonomic research of Japan. This paper introduces the method of chaos analysis and the results of our two studies. In both studies, it was shown that chaotic fluctuation (largest Lyapunov exponent) in finger plethysmograms might have the potential to assess the mental workload of workers and to prevent the occurrence of human error. In the future, if we can determine how chaotic fluctuations in finger plethysmograms are related physiological mechanisms, chaos analysis is expected to make a great contribution to various fields.

Keywords: chaos analysis; nonlinear dynamics; Lyapunov exponent; finger plethysmograms; human error; mental workload; ergonomics; biological signals; psychophysiological state; workers mental state; human factors; Japan; physiological mechanisms.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2009.028549

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2009 Vol.1 No.4, pp.404 - 419

Published online: 18 Sep 2009 *

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