When seeking to reduce vibration in transport it is useful to know how much reduction is needed for the improvement to be noticeable. This experimental study investigated whether relative difference thresholds for the perception of whole-body vertical vibration by seated persons depend on the frequency or magnitude of vibration. Relative difference thresholds for sinusoidal seat vibration were determined for 12 males at three vibration magnitudes and eight frequencies (2.5, 5, 10, 20, 40, 80, 160, 315 Hz) using the three-down-one-up method in conjunction with a two-interval-forced-choice procedure. The median relative difference thresholds were in the range 9.5% to 20.3%. There appeared to be a frequency-dependence at the lowest vibration magnitude, such that higher frequencies had higher difference thresholds. The relative difference thresholds depended on the vibration magnitude only at 2.5 and 315 Hz. The influence of both vibration frequency and vibration magnitude on the measured difference thresholds suggests that vision (at 2.5 Hz) and hearing (at 315 Hz) contributed to the perception of changes in vibration magnitude.
In a re-analysis of an epidemiological study of professional drivers, a software tool available with standards DIN SPEC 45697:2012 and ISO/CD 2631–5:2014 Model 1 was used to calculate the risk to the lumbar spine in terms of daily compressive dose S(ed) and risk factor R. The tool was found to be suitable for risk assessment in a large cohort.
It has not been established whether the smallest perceptible change in the intensity of vibrotactile stimuli depends on the somatosensory channel mediating the sensation. This study investigated intensity difference thresholds for vibration using contact conditions (different frequencies, magnitudes, contact areas, body locations) selected so that perception would be mediated by more than one psychophysical channel. It was hypothesized that difference thresholds mediated by the non-Pacinian I (NPI) channel and the Pacinian (P) channel would differ. Using two different contactors (1-mm diameter contactor with 1-mm gap to a fixed surround; 10-mm diameter contactor with 2-mm gap to the surround) vibration was applied to the thenar eminence and the volar forearm at two frequencies (10 and 125 Hz). The up-down-transformed-response method with a three-down-one-up rule provided absolute thresholds and also difference thresholds at various levels above the absolute thresholds of 12 subjects (i.e., sensation levels, SLs) selected to activate preferentially either single channels or multiple channels. Median difference thresholds varied from 0.20 (thenar eminence with 125-Hz vibration at 10 dB SL) to 0.58 (thenar eminence with 10-Hz vibration at 20 dB SL). Median difference thresholds tended to be lower for the P channel than the NPI channel. The NPII channel may have reduced difference thresholds with the smaller contactor at 125 Hz. It is concluded that there are large and systematic variations in difference thresholds associated with the frequency, the magnitude, the area of contact, and the location of contact with vibrotactile stimuli that cannot be explained without increased understanding of the perception of supra-threshold vibrotactile stimuli.
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