A Study on the Ergonomic analysis of Ear ClipHeadphone

• Main Authors: Wei-Jen Chen, 陳偉仁
• Other Authors: Chih-Fu Wu
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2006
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/26371076722314648329

碩士 === 大同大學 === 工業設計學系(所) === 94 === Music appreciation through the walkmans has become a fashion. Recent studies,however, indicate that long-term use of headphones may result in hearing deterioration.Being an open system, ear clip headphones are less harmless to the ear. But prolonged wearing of headphones that do not fit will cause discomfort and aching of the outer ear.This is especially true with ear clip headphones. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the comfortableness of the ears wearing ear clip headphones sold in the market. It also explores the impact of the features and sizes of the ear on design of ear clip headphones.During its preliminary research, this study through subjective questionnaire surveys conducts experiment with users of different pinna configurations and lengths. The outcomes indicate different pinna configurations do not significantly affect the degree of comfortableness. Meanwhile, the impact of pinna length and headphone shape is more significant. The follow-up experiment includes ear-headphone interference analysis through 3D scanning of pinna configuration in conjunction with establishment of 3D headphone models. Findings indicate that different headphones affect significantly different areas and that the aching point of test subject’s ears is identical to the interference position. The final stage involves statistical analysis of the 3D scanning data.The headphone length and width are defined as headphone design variables for improvement of ear clip headphones. Evaluation of wearing comfortableness of headphone users follows. The outcomes indicate ear clips smaller than the ear are prone to cause pressuring pain. Ear clips larger than the ear with a headphone width of about 4% and length of about 8% receive better evaluations. Findings of this study may serve as ergonomic references for design of ear clip headphones.