Measurement and evaluation of sitting comfort of automotive seat

The sitting comfort of six automotive seats, whose top coated fabrics were changed and structures of seats were same, was evaluated by only human tactile sensation while sitting on these seats. The objectives used for the sensory evaluation of seat comfort by the human tactile sensation were examined by factor analysis. As the result of factor analysis, two adjectives high-class and “thick” were common and significant in evaluating the seat comfort. But adjective “sporty” was not influenced by the top coated fabrics of seat. Further a pressure and a contact area distribution between the human body and the seat were measured by a tactile sensor system while sitting on six seats. From the result of correlation analysis between the pressure distribution and the sensory values, it is found that the pressure and the contact area between the back-rest and human back was correlated with “high-class”, and that the contact area between the seat cushion and human buttocks was correlated with “thick”