Abstract

Proper break taking during office work iss necessary to prevent musculoskeletal disorders and reduce the risk of heart disease. We present APOEW — an avatar for preventing continuous office work without taking breaks. APOEW is a system that uses a personalized robot avatar to encourage proper break behaviour during office work. The avatar signals the need for a break by stooping. The system was designed to be unobtrusive and blend well with the office environment. The avatars are customisable in order to enable users to design their work environment freely. We conducted a user study where we observed developers working in front of their computers next to the avatar. Preliminary results indicate it has no negative impact on the work environment and users are intrigued by the system. Moreover, a survey on attitude to our concept reveals interesting and positive feedback that will help to develop an APOEW system further.

Highlights

  • T HE SEDENTARY nature of office work is universally recognised as detrimental to health [4]

  • As digital artefacts have already pervaded the work environment and users often have multiple devices present on their desks, we propose introducing an additional object that would remind workers of taking regular breaks

  • In the remainder of this paper, we present the past work that motivated the creation of APOEW and describe the design process of the avatar

Read more

Summary

Introduction

T HE SEDENTARY nature of office work is universally recognised as detrimental to health [4]. As digital artefacts have already pervaded the work environment and users often have multiple devices present on their desks, we propose introducing an additional object that would remind workers of taking regular breaks. APOEW (pronounced ape-oh) is a humanoid physical avatar robot that alters its posture to suggest a break is needed. We designed an avatar which can integrate with the work environment and attempt at persuading the user to take a break without disrupting the work. In the remainder of this paper, we present the past work that motivated the creation of APOEW and describe the design process of the avatar. This paper concludes with a discussion of future directions for the design of tools that support proper posture and break taking

Objectives
Methods
Findings
Conclusion
Full Text
Paper version not known

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.