Comfort effects of a new car headrest with neck support

This paper describes the design of a neck-/headrest to increase car comfort. Two studies were undertaken to create a new comfortable headrest with neck support. In experiment one, neck- and headrest data were gathered using 35 test subjects. The pressure distribution, stiffness of the foam material and position of the head and neck support were determined. In experiment two a full adjustable final headrest with adjustable neck support was constructed and tested with 12 subjects using a new adjustable headrest under virtual reality driving conditions. Experiment two showed that the headrest with the new/adjustable neck support was favoured by the majority of the subjects. 83% were satisfied with the stiffness of the material. 92% were satisfied with the size of the neck- and headrest. All subjects mentioned that the neck support is a comfort benefit in calm traffic conditions or on the motorway. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.