Development of Active Rocking Chair with Changing Swing According to Heartbeat Fluctuation

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to realize a comfortable swing according to the condition of each individual person. A simple active rocking chair is developed, the swing of which changes with the heartbeat fluctuation of the seated person. The active rocking chair is driven by a solenoid for safety and silence. Swinging is strengthened when the period of the heartbeat lengthens, and it is weakened when the period shortens. Swinging is evaluated using a questionnaire of 16 bipolar scales that was developed for the evaluation of comfortable swinging on the basis of the semantic differential (SD) technique. As a result, it is confirmed that comfortable swinging is realized by the developed active rocking chair. Then the acceleration near the ear of the seated person is measured in order to examine the features of comfortable swinging using the feedback of heartbeat fluctuation. It is clarified that the power spectrum of the envelope of the acceleration waveform shows “1/f fluctuation”.