METHOD OF PRESSURE MAPPING FOR PREDICTION OF COMFORT IN AN AUTOMOTIVE SEAT

摘要

A quantitative method of mapping of an automotive seat forpre;diction of seat comfort includes connecting a computer for storingand displaying pressure maps produced from a pressure mapping system.The pressure mapping system includes a map placed on the seatcomprising an array of resistive elements connected to a data acquisitionboard and utilizing pressure mapping software. A force exerted on themat changes the resistance of the elements which are sent to the dataacquisition board and converted to an array of pressure values by thesoftware to define a pressure map. A plurality of different pressure mapsare generated by different forces exerted on the seat, normalized with acommon reference pressure map and stored in memory. The normalizedpressure map data is then averaged and processed through a comfortanalysis or prediction step which compares the averaged pressure mapto the reference pressure map. The results are displayed based on aratio difference between the averaged pressure map and the referencepressure map to quantify seat comfort. The results are rated based ontotal pressure loading, percent pressure loading of specified delineatedareas on the seat, percent point pressures and pressure map gradientloading.