Industrial Health
Online ISSN : 1880-8026
Print ISSN : 0019-8366
ISSN-L : 0019-8366
Ocular Surface Area as an Informative Index of Visual Ergonomics
Midori SOTOYAMAMaria Beatriz G. VILLANUEVAHiroshi JONAISusumu SAITO
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JOURNAL FREE ACCESS

1995 Volume 33 Issue 2 Pages 43-55

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Abstract

A large ocular surface area (OSA) is thought to be one of the causes of eye irritation and eye fatigue. Because ocular surface is very sensitive to various irritants such as dust, heat, dryness, air flow, etc., a large OSA increases the possibility of eye surface exposure to such irritants. Thus, OSA is one of the most important indices of visual ergonomics. This paper aims at making OSA an exact and practical index by first describing an accurate method of measuring it, and then clarifying the relationship between OSA, the width of the palpebral fissure, and vertical gaze direction, all of which are thought to be strongly correlated with each other. We derived the following equations:
1) y=0.039x1+3.36, r=0.99,
2) y=3.05x2-0.39, r=0.97,
3) x1=72.7x2-91.4, r=0.97,
where x1=vertical gaze direction (degrees),
x2=width of the palpebral fissure (cm),
y=OSA (cm2).
Finally, this paper also introduces the practical applications of OSA measurement, and notes the differences between OSA when VDT work (word processing using a keyboard and drawing a picture using a mouse) is performed and when traditional office work without a VDT (reading, drawing, and writing) is performed.

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© National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health
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