The 30-Inch View

Ergonomic design and photograpy

Here at Humantech, we always like to discuss products that show a unique spin on what is traditionally thought of as 'ergonomic design".

 

Today we would like to highlight a feature on Kodak’s new Z980 camera featured at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show - designed to take portrait-mode photographs without unecessary stress on the shutterbug.  

 

Now, you still have to turn the camera on its side to snap your vertical shot; but it is no longer necessary to do the awkward ‘reach over the top’ or ‘pinch from below’ (depending on which way you turn the camera to take your vertical photos). This camera has both a standard horizontal shutter button and a new vertical shutter button – specifically for portrait mode photo taking.  

  

 According to Kodak, 40% of all photos are taken vertically. So does that mean a reduction in awkward tourist behavior by 40%?  If so, can we do something about folks wearing socks with sandals in Cancun?

 

Check out www.kodak.com for more information on the Z980.

 

Huge thanks to Greg Cresswell from Humantech for contributing this thread.

LEED® and the Ergonomics Credit

For over thirty years we’ve worked with the best companies in America to build and support effective ergonomics initiatives in their workplaces. All the while we’ve been promoting, pushing, badgering and cajoling them to move past viewing ergonomics as a reactionary workers compensation matter, rather to integrate the reduction or elimination of ergonomic risk by being proactive and including it in planning and design phases.

Still there is broad opposition from the naysayers who see ergonomics as costly and based on flawed science.

 

We recently found an example of the ergonomics profession finally recognized for its contribution to business value, although not from  the source we would expect...

 

Imagine our (pleasant) surprise when its recognition comes not from industry but from the US Green Building Council and their excellent LEED certification program.

 

With the launch of LEED 2009, the USGBC has recognized the value of workplace ergonomics as a proactive process. The Innovation in Design Process category provides for five possible points and one point can now be obtained for designs that promote good ergonomic design for existing or planned workspaces.

 

We commend them on their vision.

 

The USGBC has mountains of great information at

http://www.usgbc.org/DisplayPage.aspx?CategoryID=19

An Ergonomic Take on the Diaper Change

Rima Suqi wrote an interesting article that appeared on the New York Times website last Wednesday. Anything ergonomic always catch our eye, but there are so many new parents here at Humantech, we thought it was worth a formal mention.

It is titled "An Ergonomic Take on the Diaper Change".  Here is the link...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/garden/12childcare.html?_r=2&ref=garden

Floridians need not read this post.

With Punxsutawney Phil telling us that we have six more weeks of winter to look forward to, we can expect people to maintain their obsession with the office thermostat or keep running personal electric heaters under their desks.  The big question is: 

“Is all this extra heating power and cost worth it?”

A recent study by Cornell University professor Alan Hedge, Ph.D., CPE, found that working environments with more comfortable temperatures not only make workers happy, but warmer offices can also improve productivity. The study placed computer workers in an environment where room temperature could be taken every 15 minutes. After one month, researchers found that when office temperatures dropped from "Austin to Boston" (77 to 68 degrees), typing mistakes increased by 74% and typing output dropped by 46%. 

So what do you think? Is the extra cost of a warmer office worth the increase in productivity and worker happiness? Or is this research a trap for anyone with facilities management and ergonomics responsibility?

Contributed by James Mallon

Photo of USB heated gloves from www.gizmodiva.com