With the advent of future vehicles, passengers expect to travel in comfort, and the free leg space between facing-seats could be an issue due to the unsuitability for all people, according to their anthropometric variability. A previous investigation survey showed the need to increase the leg-space between facing seats and, if installed, to improve the surface of the table placed in between. So, four different distances between seat-pans front edges of facing seats have been set-up and tested (44 cm, 51 cm, 58 cm, 65 cm) with a table in between. 13 couples of participants with different heights took part to experiments. The aim was to investigate the relationship between facing-seat distances and passenger wellbeing in terms of postural comfort and social interaction. Postural comfort has been analysed through optical tracking (for postural angles overtime) and questionnaires (perceived comfort). Social interaction feelings have been investigated with questionnaires. Experiment results showed the suitable distance could be 51 cm keeping the same table surface; otherwise, the 65 cm one could be ideal changing the table surface.

Relevance to industry

With the advent of autonomous driving, vehicle manufacturers and designers are working hard to define new paradigms of public transportation in terms of seat layout, passenger wellbeing and interiors’ design. This paper contributes to increasing the general knowledge on the effects of distance between facing seats on postural comfort and social interaction.

中文翻译：

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未来车辆的舒适性和社交互动性设计：对面座椅配置之间腿部空间的研究

随着未来车辆的出现，乘客期望能够舒适地旅行，并且根据人体测量学的可变性，由于所有人都不适合，因此面对座椅之间的自由腿部空间可能成为一个问题。先前的调查显示，需要增加面对的座椅之间的腿部空间，并且如果安装了该座椅，则需要改善放置在它们之间的桌子的表面。因此，已经设置并测试了对置座椅的座板前边缘之间的四个不同距离（44 cm，51 cm，58 cm，65 cm），并在它们之间放置了桌子。13对不同身高的参与者参加了实验。目的是从姿势舒适度和社交互动方面研究面对座距离与乘客福祉之间的关系。姿势舒适度已通过光学跟踪（姿势姿势超时）和问卷（感知舒适度）进行了分析。社会交往感已经通过问卷调查进行了调查。实验结果表明，保持相同的工作台表面合适的距离为51 cm。否则，65厘米可能是更换桌子表面的理想选择。

与产业的关系

随着自动驾驶的到来，汽车制造商和设计师正在努力在座椅布局，乘客福祉和内饰设计方面定义公共交通工具的新范例。本文有助于增加有关面对座椅之间的距离对姿势舒适性和社交互动影响的一般知识。