Massage Chair Research Articles

Tracking the effect of a new massage system integrated in automotive seat on relaxation feeling: an electrophysiological study.

Tracking the effect of a new massage system integrated in automotive seat on relaxation feeling: an electrophysiological study.

Research on the Improvement of Shared Massage Chair Based on User Journey Mapi

In this paper, the User journey map is an oriented graph to visualize the user's interaction with products and services. It helps designers to understand the user's feelings, thoughts, and behaviours at a specific time and look for the pain and opportunity points. The rapid development of shared massage chairs in recent years has been chosen as a typical case among a large number of shared products in this paper. According to the earlier survey, we noticed that users always had poor experience when use them. The user journey map has been used as a tool to analyze the experience of using a shared massage chair based on the observation and investigation of users in order to proposes new directions for its improvement.

Psychological Experiences Associated with Robotic Chair Massage: A Pilot Study

This pilot study examined 186 healthy adults who received a 20-min full-body massage in a robotic massage chair. The majority of the participants rated the experience to be highly pleasurable, and this evaluation was influenced by age and life satisfaction. Large changes in pre- to post-massage symptoms of anxiety and tranquillity were also observed. These preliminary findings support the psychological effectiveness of robotic chair massage which can be readily used by lay people and professionals alike to promote mental health and well-being.

The Research and Application of Electric Massage Chair with Residual Current Protection Function

The electric massage chair is a common instrument in family health care. In addition to health function, to provide safety for the users is also very important. Comparing with the current safety protection technology of electric massage chair, this paper designs a residual current detection function to increase the safety performance, which provides a new way for this field. When the residual current is generated, the power is disconnected in time. It not only can protect the user’s personal safety, but also can reduce the occurrence rate of fire.

Sensor data quality processing for vital signs with opportunistic ambient sensing.

Opportunistic ambient sensing involves placement of sensors appropriately so that intermittent contact can be made unobtrusively for gathering physiological signals for vital signs. In this paper, we discuss the results of our quality processing system used to extract heart rate from ballisto-cardiogram signals obtained from a micro-bending fiber optic sensor pressure mat. Visual inspection is used to label data into informative and non-informative classes based on their heart rate information. Five classifiers are employed for the classification process, i.e., random forest, support vector machine, multilayer, feedforward neural network, linear discriminant analysis, and decision tree. To compute the overall effectiveness of quality processing, the informative signals are processed to estimate interbeat intervals. The system was used to process, data collected from 50 human subjects sitting in a massage chair while performing different activities. Opportunistically collected data was obtained from the fiber optic sensor mat placed on the headrest of the massage chair. Using our classification approach, 57.37% of the dataset was able to provide informative signals. On the informative signals, random forest classifier achieves the best classification accuracy with a mean accuracy of 98.99%. The average of the mean absolute error between the estimated heart rate and the reference ECG is reduced from 13.2 to 8.47. Therefore, the proposed system shows a good robustness for opportunistic ambient sensing.

1P2-T06 もみ味可変を実現するマッサージチェアの開発 : マッサージチェアのインピーダンス制御

We have developed new massage chair which has various massage feelings to be altered to suit individual preferences by applying impedance control technology. It controls mechanical impedance characteristics such as inertia, viscosity and elasticity of massage rollers. Subsequently, we experiment to confirm its effectiveness. Experimental results show that almost all of the subjects can recognize many different kinds of massage feelings by using developed massage chair applying impedance control. Thus, changing mechanical impedance characteristics can vary massage feelings.

Mechanical Model of Traditional Thai Massage for Integrated Healthcare.

In this study, a mechanical model was developed, aiming to provide standardized and programmable traditional Thai massage (TTM) therapy to patients. The TTM was modeled and integrated into a mechanical hand (MH) system, and a prototype massage chair was built and tested for user satisfaction. Three fundamental principles of Thai massage were integrated: pull, press, and pin. Based on these principles, the mechanics of Thai massage was studied and a mathematical model was developed to describe the dynamics and conditions for the design and prototyping of an MH. On average, it was found that users were satisfied with the treatment and felt that the treatment was similar to that performed by human hands. According to the interview results, users indicated that they were likely to utilize the MH as an alternative to traditional massage. Therefore, integrated TTM with an MH may help healthcare providers deliver standardized, programmable massage therapy to patients as opposed to variable, inconsistent human massage.

Introduction: Therapeutic Culture

No abstract available.

한국인 체형에 맞는 안마의자용 핵심기능 구현

Abstract As an idea of healing or fatigue recovery, a desire for massage therapy has increased for modern people who complain of pain such as knotted muscles or shoulder discomfort due to fatigue accumulation and stress. To resolve this, although a massage chair has been developed, it does not provide the most efficient massage as it is not suitable for Korean body types. In this paper, this research analyzed massage, assembly, massage intensity, Korean body types and functions of the massage for maximized efficiency to design critical functions. Also, we implemented the action control and algorithm of the massage chair for localization. Key Words : Message, Message Control Algorithm, Healthcare, Message chair, Fatigue accumulation Received 25 July 2014, Revised 29 August 2014Accepted 20 September 2014Corresponding Author: Woo-Yuong Ahn (Dept. of Bio Information) Email: wyahn@hit.ac.krⒸ The Society of Digital Policy & Management. All rights reserved. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is ISSN: 1738-1916 properly cited.

力制御を実装したマッサージチェア

力制御を実装したマッサージチェア

Bodies, Technologies, and Aging in Japan: Thinking About Old People and Their Silver Products

Contemporary Japan is known both for its high tech culture and its rapidly aging population, with 22 % of people currently 65 years and older. Yet there has been little attention to the material culture of the elderly. This paper explores the way aging bodies, official ideology, and consumption of what are called "assistive devices" and "life technologies" come together in the experience of frail old people who depend not only on human caregivers but on "things" such as walkers, kidney dialysis machines, and electric massage chairs. It begins to consider the questions: What technology to aid failing bodies is available, and to whom? How does the advocacy of independence create new forms of consumption? How do "things" mediate ideological change regarding elder care and help to create new understandings of self and one's relation to others? Data come from interviews conducted in 2003-2007 as part of a study of elder care in Japan under the public long term care insurance system that began in 2000. These interviews point both to acceptance of the technology as a way to avoid over-dependence on caregivers, and to resistance to the limitations of aging and to its 21st century definition by the state.

Mechanical Chair Massage and Stress Reduction in the Seriously Mentally Ill Consumer: A Preliminary Investigation

In the present study, the authors evaluate the effectiveness of a mechanical massage chair in reducing stress for people with serious and persistent mental illness. This preliminary investigation involves the use of massage therapy for 19 people with serious mental illness, using a standardized massage protocol. Stress levels were assessed using a 7-point Likert scale, administered before and after each treatment session. Self-reported stress was found to be significantly reduced, with participants reporting an average stress reduction of 1.48. This preliminary investigation demonstrates that use of a mechanical massage chair can significantly reduce self-identified stress levels in persons with serious mental illness.

僧帽筋の筋硬度に対するマッサージチェアの効果

僧帽筋の筋硬度に対するマッサージチェアの効果

Construction of an intelligent massage system based on human skin–muscle elasticity

AbstractCurrent massage chairs realize massage motion and force designed by a professional masseur. However, a massage force appropriate to the user cannot be provided by massage chairs using this method. On the other hand, a professional masseur can provide appropriate massage force to more than one patient, because the masseur considers the physical condition of the patient. This paper proposes a method of applying this masseur procedure to massage chairs. The proposed method is based on estimation of the physical condition of the user, choice of the massage force based on the physical condition, and realization of the massage force by force control. The realizability of the proposed method was verified by an experimental study using the massage chair. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electron Comm Jpn, 94(10): 26–33, 2011; Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ecj.10359

Research on Kansei Engineering and its Application in Massage Chair Design

Kansei Engineering is a technical methodology to translate consumer’s Kansei into product design elements. The target of this technology is to provide designers and manufacturers with a technique to master the emotional and spiritual needs of consumers and then manifest them in product design to enhance competitive edge. In light of this situation and on the basis of finishing a lot of English literature reading about this technology, the author conducted systematical study about Kansei Engineering in this thesis with the aim to enhance understanding of it for domestic designers and accelerate spread of it. Basing on the study about the situations of China’s domestic design industry, the author analyzed several points that China’s design industry should learn from Japan and Kansei Engineering technology, and proposed a simplified Kansei Engineering Model which is easier to execute and suitable for domestic design industry. In conclusion, this paper gives an introduction to the theory of Kansei Engineering system, and explores the relationship between consumer's desire and massage chair design factor with the SD (Semantic Differential) method, providing effective reference for the massage chair design.

Just-In-Time法を用いた適応型繰り返し学習制御の提案とマッサージチェアへの応用

Just-In-Time法を用いた適応型繰り返し学習制御の提案とマッサージチェアへの応用

ＥＥＧを用いた繰り返し学習制御による快適マッサージの実現―力センサレス化と実機による制御実験

Recently the massage chair is used by a lot of people because they are able to use it easily at home. However a present massage chair only realizes the massage motion. Moreover the massage chair can not consider the user’s condition and massage force. On the other hand, the professional masseur is according to presume the mental condition by patient’s reaction. Then this paper proposes the method of applying masseur’s procedure for the massage chair using iterative learning control based on EEG. And massage force is estimated by acceleration sensor. The realizability of the proposed method is verified by the experimental works using the massage chair.

Estimation of Comfortable/Uncomfortable Feeling Based on EEG by Using NN and k-means Algorithm for Massage Chair

A present massage chair realizes the massage motion and force designed by a professional masseur. However, appropriate massage force to the user can not be provided by the massage chair in such a method. On the other hand, the professional masseur can realize an appropriate massage force to more than one patient, because, the masseur considers the physical condition of the patient. Our research proposed the intelligent massage system of applying masseur's procedure for the massage chair using estimated skin elasticity and DB to relate skin elasticity and massage force. However, proposed system has a problem that DB does not adjust to unknown user, because user's feeling by massage can not be estimated. Then, this paper proposed the estimation method of comfortable/uncomfortable feeling based on EEG using the neural network and k-means algorithm. The realizability of the proposed method is verified by the experimental works.

802 マッサージチェアにおける揉み心地及びマッサージ効果の定量的評価(GS-2 健康生活支援)

802 マッサージチェアにおける揉み心地及びマッサージ効果の定量的評価(GS-2 健康生活支援)

Specification Seeking: How Product Specifications Influence Consumer Preference

We offer a framework about when and how specifications (e.g., megapixels of a camera and number of air bags in a massage chair) influence consumer preferences and report five studies that test the framework. Studies 1–3 show that even when consumers can directly experience the relevant products and the specifications carry little or no new information, their preference is still influenced by specifications, including specifications that are self-generated and by definition spurious and specifications that the respondents themselves deem uninformative. Studies 4 and 5 show that relative to choice, hedonic preference (liking) is more stable and less influenced by specifications.