Toshiyuki Taguchi

EVALUATION OF RIDING COMFORT: FROM THE VIEWPOINT OF INTERACTION OF HUMAN BODY AND SEAT FOR STATIC, DYNAMIC, LONG TIME DRIVING

Until now, seat riding comfort has been studied mainly using dynamic vibration analysis; and there are few studies that give importance to the sensory characteristics of the driver and passengers. In order to apply to the design of comfortable seating, the authors developed a new seat evaluation method that emphasizes the interaction between the human body and the seat. For static seating comfort, they determined seat compliance as a new evaluation index by using a human body pressure distribution that is calculated by dividing the seat into 16 segments, and is related to seat flexion. For dynamic riding comfort, speed of the human body pressure distribution, and the acceleration of each human body part were made into an index. For long-term sitting fatigue, physiological data such as stress hormone density and electromyogram data also were made into an index. Finally, to quantify the conventional sensory evaluation, the authors matched the physical and physiological data with sensory evaluation data. For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD E206480.

Multiple ion sensor array

Abstract The remarkable progress in the technology of semiconductor fabrication over the past 10 years has accelerated the development of many multiple ion sensor arrays. We have also fabricated a compact multi-ion sensor, which enables simultaneous measurements of H+, Na+ and K+ ion concentrations to be made with a small amount of a sample. The sensor is expected to be an effective clinical device for rapid ion concentration measurements at the patients bedside. This paper first reviews some developments reported previously, then describes our multi-ion sensor and finally discusses remaining problems.

Study of breath alcohol detector

A novel detector of breath alcohol for a driver has been developed. The detector has three features. A mouth piece is not required because drivers breath is introduced to the detector by a suction pump. The influence of fluctuations of drivers breath flow is extremely reduced by the calibration of alcohol concentration using a humidity change. The detector is able to measure breath alcohol concentration rapidly, and the measurement time is about 2 to 3 seconds. The excellent performance have been demonstrated both in breath alcohol simulation tests and in a drunken persons test.

Development of a new breath alcohol detector without mouthpiece to prevent alcohol-impaired driving

A new breath alcohol detector for a driver has been developed. A mouthpiece is not required for the detection because driverpsilas breath sample is captured by an electric suction fan of the detector. The influence of an arbitrary dilution of driverpsilas expiration is extremely reduced by the calibration of alcohol concentration, using an oxygen level of driverpsilas expired breath that is measured simultaneously with the alcohol content. The detector is able to measure breath alcohol concentration rapidly and easily, compared with the current breath alcohol detectors, which require a blowing through a mouthpiece. Good accuracy has been demonstrated in an experiment with the drunk subjects.

Development of a New Breath Alcohol Detector without Mouthpiece to Prevent Drunk Driving

Breath alcohol interlock systems are used in Europe and the U.S. for drunk driving offenders. Although a certain effect has been revealed in the prevention of drunk driving, problems to be solved remain with commercialized detectors, i.e., a person taking the breath alcohol test must strongly expire to the alcohol detector through a mouthpiece for every test, more over the determination of the breath alcohol concentration requires more than 5 seconds. The goal of this research is to develop a device that functions suitable and unobtrusive enough as the interlock system. For this purpose, a contact free alcohol detector, which doesn’t require a long and hard blowing to the detector through a mouthpiece, has been developed as a tool available on board for the prevention of drunk driving. The detector consists of an electric suction fan, an alcohol sensor, and an oxygen sensor mounted in a gas flow passage. It doesn’t require a mouthpiece for the detection because driver’s expired breath is captured by the suction fan. The influence of fluctuations of the alcohol sensor signals caused by air mixing is extremely reduced by the calibration of alcohol concentration using an oxygen level of driver’s expired breath that is measured simultaneously with the alcohol content. The detector is able to measure breath alcohol concentration rapidly and easily, compared with the current breath alcohol detectors which require a blowing through a mouthpiece. Good accuracy has been demonstrated in an experiment with the drunk subjects.