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Weekly UpdatesThe New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health reports that 50 percent of all employees in office settings are often so engaged in computer work, they forget to take breaks. Typing at a computer for several hours can cause headaches, wrist pain, discomfort in the back and eye strain. To eliminate these ailments and prevent repetitive stress injuries, many offices provide ergonomic software such as ErgoTrading.net's Office Athlete to employees through their human resources departments.
"The goal of the Office Athlete is to unlock the computer user from the static work posture that they normally assume, with only minor interruption to their work flow," said Eddie Lollie, owner of ErgoTrading.net.
By default, the software will run in the background of a computer and prompt the user to take a 20-second break every half hour. This "average user" setting can be customized based on the amount of mouse clicks or keyboard strokes, the duration of the breaks and the frequency of the prompts.
When a break is triggered, due to time or amount of work, the software window pops up on the screen. The user can then choose to activate the break or ignore it. If activated, animations display short, yet important hand, neck and shoulder stretches to interrupt the repetitive nature of computer work, in- crease circulation, relieve tension and give the user an energy boost.
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According to Lollie, the software's consulting doctors originally had a set of 220 stretches in mind. From those, eight were chosen that would stretch the body's major muscles and could be conducted while seated. A ninth "stretch" that reminds the user to rest his eyes was also added to the animations. To aid the user in selecting the right stretches, Office Athlete details the muscles each stretch affects.
The designers at SIS-USA Inc. recognize that people come in many sizes and shapes and have different physical needs. Finding one universally comfortable work surface height is not only impossible, it's ineffective. Requiring employees to use a workstation that causes them discomfort will lead to a variety of issues ranging from job dissatisfaction to lawsuits over medical problems.
SIS created a line of height-adjustable ergonomic tables to meet the differing needs of employees. These sit-to-stand workstations have an adjustable range of 28 inches that can be operated with a crank or, for the electric versions, driven by a motor. In eight seconds, the table, controlled by switch, keyboard, mouse or remote, can be converted from a petite individual's desk to a tall employee's podium, while supporting 220 pounds of surface equipment. For the Xtra Xtreme Electric version, position information for up to four individuals can be stored. These users simply enter a security PIN code to adjust the table to their settings automatically.
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Beyond the typical commercial offices, other environments such as hotels, computer labs, travel lounges, training rooms, health care clinics and Internet cafes are also popular places for these tables to be implemented since users will be changing frequently.
BY JESSICA JEPPSSON
Jessica Jeppsson is a junior in the Edward P. Fitts Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering at North Carolina State University. Jeppsson also serves as the department's Web architect, writes for NCSU's student newspaper, Technician, and teaches a computing course for first-year engineers.
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