Kinematics of the fingers during typing

When typing on a keyboard, the fingers may be in awkward postures, making repetitive motions, and exerting high forces which are risk factors of cumulative trauma disorders. In this experiment, the kinematics of the fingers while typing were investigated for 12 right-handed subjects (6 male and 6 female) to gain a better understanding of factors which influence how a finger strikes a key. The apparatus for this experiment included an exoskeleton to determine angular displacements of the finger joints and a motion analysis system to determine the coordinates of the wrist and the keys on the keyboard. This experiment examined four dependent variables: the fingertip angle with respect to the horizontal at the point of contact and at the point of maximum depression of the key, and the linear vertical and horizontal components of velocity of fingertip due to the finger joints at the point of contact with the key. The factors investigated included <i>Gender, Finger</i> (Index, Middle, and Ring), <i>Row</i> (Upper, Middle, and Lower), and <i>Digraph</i> (typing two letters with the same finger, with two fingers on the same hand, or with two opposite hands). The results indicated that for all four dependent measures, there was a significant difference between all three levels of <i>Row</i>. For the factor <i>Finger</i>, there was no significant difference between the middle and ring fingers. Typing with the index finger, typing two letters with the same finger, or typing on the upper row resulted in smaller fingertip angles than the other conditions. All levels of <i>Digraph</i> resulted in significantly different linear vertical velocities of the fingertip while certain combinations of the levels of <i>Finger, Row</i>, and <i>Gender</i> were significantly different for the linear horizontal velocities. From the results, it appears that the methods employed in this experiment were effective to measure the angle of the fmgertip at the point of contact and at the point of maximum depression and to measure the linear vertical and horizontal components of velocity produced by the finger joints. The results for the linear vertical and horizontal components of velocity for the fingertip also indicate that the wrist velocity (which was not measured) may contribute to the overall fmgertip velocities at the point of contact with the key and for this reason, should be examined in future research.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science

Level thesis:degree_level

masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Department dc:contributor.department

Industrial and Systems Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1994

Author dc:creator

• Long, Manda Marie

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Woldstad, Jeffery C.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Kroemer, Karl H. E.
• Casali, John G.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-06162009-063244

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/43328