Student's design project aims to get sedentary kids moving again. Ann Dempsey reports
Last Christmas when National College of Art & Design industrial design graduate Tim Briggs was considering ideas for his final year project, he noticed his eight-year-old cousin Jack Burke in perpetual motion while completely involved with the Playstation console.
"Jack was sitting on a wooden stool, moving constantly with the game. I thought then about designing and making a chair that would move with him, provide different options on ways to sit, increase the interaction between user and game, and, therefore, add to the fun and to the completeness of the experience, a kind of virtual reality," says Briggs.
As the design took shape, the health aspects of a mobile seating option were also realised. Research indicates that the concentration involved in working with computers typically invites a static posture which can be tougher on the body than a moving one, while other studies suggest that any such problems begun in childhood could show themselves in later life.
The result is Extension, his chair designed specifically for children aged six to 12 but which should attract attention from the adult market also. It has gained Briggs, 23, from Stepaside, Co Dublin, a first class honours degree, and now he is hoping his design might find a place outside the realms of the design exhibition and in the marketplace.
During the research stage, Briggs recorded videos of friends and relations across the age range as they played computer games, and also had them complete a detailed questionnaire.
His informal findings, (which could interest the task forces on obesity) showed that the main users of consoles are males aged eight to 28, who play for an average 11.6 hours per week, or 1.65 hours per day.
The youngest group, aged eight to 12, played for 14 hours a week on consoles in their living room, bedroom or playroom, and were much more mobile in mid-zap than their older peers.
When reviewing the current market in computer seating, Briggs found that most game chairs are marketed to adults.
Designed to appeal to the hardcore gamer, they look like office chairs, with built-in, expensive high-tech features such as vibration and sound.
He decided to focus on movement and dynamics as the main attraction in a kid's computer chair which met all safety standards, was light enough to carry, suits the home environment, can be sat upon in a variety of positions, all the while offering a funky modern computer-style look.
He designed and constructed eight different models on his way to the final chair. This is a simple piece of furniture, consisting of two identically shaped, reversible curved pieces, for seat and base respectively, joined by two fat central springs, covered for safety.
The spring coils are closed along their length and open at either end, thus offering a good range of movement but not enough to overbalance. Users can sit with chair facing front, or with chair side toward the screen, with feet on the floor, or leaning back with feet on the chair base.
Briggs made his prototype in wood but envisages the saleable product constructed from polypropylene injection moulding.
What are the health implications? Research indicates that a poorly set up adult computer workstation is associated with musculoskeletal disorder (MSD) - strains and pains to muscles, nerves, tendons, ligaments, joints, blood vessels and spinal discs.
Another concern is the risk of repetitive stress injury when a certain muscle, joint, or tendon is repeatedly overused and forced into an unnatural position.
"The repetitive nature of video games use, such as controlling the joystick, as well as holding static postures can exact a toll on the body's musculoskeletal system," says Briggs.
"By facilitating a more dynamic posture while playing electronic games, it is surmised that the risks associated with this restrained posture should be reduced.
Also, an occasion, a change of posture from flexion [ bending] to neutral and vice versa is beneficial."
In 1987 the US Department of Health and Human Services concluded that back pain in young people is a strong predictor of future back pain.
Reported levels of musculoskeletal problems among children vary widely, (from 2-31 per cent), and risks of MSD, if any, that computer use poses to children are at an earlier stage of investigation.
However, some studies do exist. Research in 1999 and 2002 implicates computer/video game use in MSD and back pain in children. An ongoing study in Boston University Department of Occupational Therapy among a group of middle school children is currently examining whether the physical setup of computer workstation and chair, and individual styles of using interactive media, affects the prevention or reduction of incidence of pain or discomfort.
The Extension chair has been ergonomically assessed by physiotherapy students at Trinity College, Dublin, who put it through its paces, then repeated the experience using a standard chair.
They found the Extension chair more comfortable, and sitting on it improved their enjoyment of the games played.
Subjects moved more often when sitting on the Extension chair, and concluded that the more dynamic postures offered reduced risk of postural fatigue and spinal disc pressure.
"There is a whole other debate about whether the back should be supported or not, and my concept could be adapted to provide a chair with back support for either the adult or child market, or both," says Briggs.
He is now looking for a company with manufacturing contacts and/or facilities to further develop the chair, which he feels could retail for under €100.
"From the exhibition, students were hoping that companies would spot some of their products, but this hasn't happened. I now believe a degree course in industrial design should have a module on marketing. Trying to get the idea across, being taken seriously is difficult, and as an outsider it is not easy to break into existing business networks."
Tim Briggs, industrial designer, telephone 086-1712098, e-mail: timbriggs01@gmail.com
Holding static postures can exact a toll