timhunkin/human factor exhibits

THE MANHOLE One entry to the exhibition was through a manhole, with a Health and Safety Executive research video of manhole size testing playing above		THE BUTTOCK MEASURING MACHINE A ruler hangs beside the monitor for visitors to measure each other's buttocks. This was very popular, and many people thought it was a real ergonomist's tool.

FIND THE PAINFUL TOOTH The visitor has a mirror and a probe and has to search for the fillings in the dummies teeth (a real set of false teeth). When a tooth is touched by the probe the dummy murmors something - when the 'painful' tooth is touched, the dummy screams loudly

		CHAIRS Chairs featured extensively. There was a row of unusual chairs outside the exhibition to try out - and an exhibit which involved voting for the most comfortable chair (the cumulative total were displayed overhead).

MANUAL HANDLING
As the visitors load up the box with books, the dummy complains about the load - and is then relieved when books are removed. There are 2 dummies, one lifting correctly, bending the knees, and this one lifting badly.
manual handling.jpg (10076 bytes)

DRIVING TEST
This was my favourite exhibit, though its impossible to take good photos of it. The visitor sits in the driving seat, next to a dummy examiner. Through the windscreen is a model landscape - a perspective view of endless blocks of flats at night. The lights inside the flats, and those in the middle of the road, chase in sequence, the speed related to the pressure on the accelerator pedal. This gives a wonderful sense of motion. The examiner asks you to operate various controls, and if you find them in time, you pass. Eventually a dog in the back seat starts barking unexpectedly, and miniature dummies start popping up in the road. If you do not take your foot off the accelerator in time, a large dummy splats on the windscreen and you fail the test.
car.jpg (15121 bytes)