The purpose of this study was to examine differences in experienced typists' performance, posture, and musculoskeletal pain when using a split, adjustable (SA) computer keyboard and when using a standard flat keyboard. In addition, the use of a wrist rest was examined for performance, posture, and musculoskeletal pain effects. Eighteen participants were exposed to the SA keyboard and a flat keyboard in a laboratory study of text typing for four consecutive hours on five days. The results indicated that after just 2 h of orientation and practice, the participants could perform as well on the SA keyboard as on the flat keyboard. The SA keyboard provided advantages for reduced wrist/hand pronation. There was no difference between the keyboards in the level of musculoskeletal pain reported by participants after typing. However, they reported increased pain in the back, neck, shoulders, and wrists from the beginning to the end of each of the experimental periods for both keyboards.

There is a critical need for various forces that are working to improve the inner city to coordinate their efforts and to develop cooperative approaches. This includes governments at all levels, social agencies, educational systems, the business community, financial institutions, religious groups, ethnic groups, police, universities and inner-city residents. The diversity in values, approaches, goals, desires and legal requirements makes such a systematic integration very complex and difficult. Several human factors and ergonomics theories for the management and control of complex systems can provide insight into effective means to address these issues. General principles can be established to promote “community ergonomics.”

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This paper presents the results of a study addressing the effect of hands-free cellular phone conversation complexity on choice response time in a detection task. The study utilized an open-loop simulation technique to study four different levels of the secondary task of using a hands-free cellular telephone and their effect on the primary task of responding to stimuli presented through a driving scene. Results from the study showed that the inclusion of the secondary task had a significant effect on choice response time. Also, choice response time associated with complex conversations involving visual scanning was found to be significantly different from that when the phone was not used. The implications of the use of hands-free phones are also discussed.

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