Human factors and Ergonomics （HFE） is a discipline broadly related to our lives and work. It has a wide range of relevant content, some of which have already been studied in high school. Making high school students aware of HFE as one of their future majors will contribute to the development of HFE as an academic discipline and related academic societies. However, some way must be devised to help high school students understand the connection between what they learn and HFE. This research issue introduces examples of microcomputers in HFE education for measuring human characteristics and discusses teaching materials for HFE education from the viewpoint of the high school/university articulation as a learning content that can be expanded into the ‘Period for Inquiry-Based Cross-Disciplinary Study’, which newly started in 2022.

The author has been studying creation and application of virtual reality （VR） content from human factors and ergonomics perspective and approach. The results have been published in internationally as ergonomic guidance for VR content creation. In this paper, the author outlines these research issues and describe recent developments.

Human-centered design for service system was proposed as a research issue in ergonomics. Services are a major industry not only in Japan but also in many industrialized countries. Safety, quality control, ensuring accessibility, and improving productivity of services are important issues related to ergonomics. I will discuss specific issues and difficulties in defining a service system that explicitly includes people such as customers and employees, and studying the design of the relationship between value co-creation processes and resource integration.

Virtual Reality （VR） has developed remarkably in recent years and has been paying attention to. This research issue demonstrates the result of an umbrella review of the adverse effects of VR on health and safety. We summarized three aspects of research issues to be considered in occupational health regarding application of VR: 1） accumulating research on medium- and long-term health effects, 2） disseminating and implementing research on organizational and management aspects, and 3） accumulating research on psychosocial aspects when using VR under work settings.

In large-scale production facilities like steel mills and petroleum refining plants, there is a growing need for labor efficiency and reduced manpower. However, automation, such as facility robotization, incurs significant costs, making immediate implementation unfeasible. Consequently, manual labor is likely to persist. While historically dominated by adult men workers, the workforce is now more diverse, including older individuals and women. The equipment, traditionally designed for adult men, may now pose physical challenges for the broader workforce. This report focuses on the valve opening and closing operations in petroleum refining plants, investigating the actual burden of these tasks.

We conducted an experiment where we presented simple tactile stimuli and vibrating stimuli on the palm and compared the distance between the perceived position on the palm and the actual position of the presented stimuli. Twenty right-handed college students participated in the experiment. The participants were asked to report the positions of the stimuli on a tablet showing their own palms. The results showed that the amount of gap varied significantly depending on the stimulus presentation position, but there was no significant change in the amount of gap due to the application of vibration, and no significant change in the interaction between the stimulus presentation position and the application of vibration. The overall average of the gap was 9.62 mm, and the gap was larger in the area near the ball of the little finger and the wrist than in the other stimulus presentation positions. Since the shortest distance between the stimulus presentation positions was 22.1 mm, it is expected that there would be few cases of misrecognition of different positions when tactile information was given at the stimulus presentation positions given in this experiment.

This study examines the impact of interactions with sounds during improvisational music therapy on psychological and psychophysiological indicators. We conducted a sound exchange activity using tone chimes. Improvisational music therapy techniques were employed to initiate empathetic communication. The results indicated that interactions with sounds positively affected the short version of the Profile of Mood States （POMS）, improved interpersonal impression ratings, and increased empathy. Psychophysiological indices also showed activation of psychological adjustment states and sympathetic nervous activity following sound interactions. Furthermore, therapist-led improvisational music therapy interventions demonstrated more remarkable improvements than those led by university student peers in Vigor, as indicated by the POMS and interpersonal impression ratings for empathy, open-mindedness, and trying to fit in. Gaining a clearer understanding of the effects of interactions with sounds on psychological and psychophysiological responses can serve as a foundational element for offering multifaceted support to a diverse range of clients.

The future of driving may involve a more diverse presentation of information, including safety information, due to the electrification of vehicles and the advancement of communication technologies. This study investigated the effects of moving image presentation on driving in a driving simulator experiment, focusing on the characteristics of images that change information within a specific timeframe. Twenty-four non-professional drivers participated in seven conditions: three levels of information presentation methods （31 or more character still images, text scrolling moving images, and short repetition moving images）, two levels of task difficulty for each, and no information presentation. The results showed that the use of text scrolling images, which possess the characteristics of moving images, significantly impacted driving regardless of the task difficulty level. This was attributed to the increased total glancing time owing to repeated glancing, despite the single glancing time being shorter than that of still images. Therefore, as a measure to reduce visual distraction, consideration could be given to limiting the amount of information and shortening the display time, so that the total viewing time is reduced. In contrast, the use of short-time repetition moving images, which suppressed the characteristics of moving images, was affected by task difficulty to the same extent as still images. This suggests that it is essential to devise effective means of obtaining information without requiring memory manipulation or retention.

In this study, we investigated embodiment in drone operation. Through experiments in which operators maneuvered drones through various narrow gaps, we found that when the ratio of gap width to drone width was less than 1.3, the time taken to pass through increased and the impression of safety decreased. This similarity to human walking characteristics when passing through narrow spaces suggests the development of an embodiment towards drones. Furthermore, the results of experiments on drones using visual illusions suggest that the appearance of their shapes may influence the spatial perception of the surrounding environment and potentially enhance operating performance.

In this study, we investigated the relationship between eye movement and subjective evaluations of continuity during video transitions by analyzing both eye-tracking measurements and subjective ratings. We created 3DCG videos using a three-factor design, with two shot composition levels （close to wide, wide to close）, two match on action levels （match, mismatch）, and four ball movement levels （150 px, 300 px, 450 px, 600 px） as stimuli. Participants were presented with the stimuli and asked to rate （5-point scale） whether they saw a continuous connection between the two shots. Subjective continuity ratings were lower when relatively large eye movements occurred after the transition. The results suggest that the relationship between greater eye movement and low subjective continuity ratings, even if eye movement tracked an object in sight.