Study of Human Perceptual Characteristics of Body Inclination Using a Tilt Bed

This paper investigates human discomfort response to the foot-to-head acceleration. During ambulance transport, a patient suffers from the foot-to-head acceleration, which might deteriorate his illness. To investigate the relationship between the ride discomfort and the foot-to-head acceleration, experiments were performed using a van type automobile similar to an ambulance. The experimental results show that head-ward acceleration is more uncomfortable than the foot-ward acceleration. For further investigation of the difference of ride discomfort caused by the direction of acceleration, two experiments were peformed using a tilt bed. In these experiments, foot-to-head acceleration is applied to the subjects by tilting the bed. Using a tilt bed, we investigated two things; relationship between discomfort and inclination of the bed ...