BACKGROUND: The concept of comfort is one way for the growing airline market to differentiate and build customer loyalty. This work follows the idea that increasing the contact area between human and seat can have a positive effect on comfort [5, 6, 7]. OBJECTIVE: To improve comfort, reduce weight and optimise space used, a human contour shaped seat shell and cushioning was developed. METHODS: First the most common activities, the corresponding postures and seat inclination angles were defined. The imprints of these postures on a rescue mat were 3D scanned and an average human contour curve was defined. The outcome was transferred to a prototype seat that was used to test the effect on perceived comfort/discomfort and pressure distribution. RESULTS: The resulting human contour based prototype seat has comfort and discomfort scores comparable to a traditional seat. The prototype seat had a significantly lower average pressure between subjects' buttocks and the seat pan over a traditional seat. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that it is possible to design a seat pan and backrest based on the different contours of study subjects using 3D scan technology. However, translating the 3D scans into a prototype seat also showed that this can only be seen as a first step; additionally biomechanical information and calculations are needed to create ergonomic seats. Furthermore, it is not possible to capture all different human shapes and postures and translate these into one human contour shape that fits all activities and all human sizes.@en

Everyone can, to a certain extend, imagine what the future of transportation holds; delivery drones, high-speed trains and autonomous vehicles that will provide us with the experience of having a private chauffeur. One of the shared characteristics between these concepts of future mobility; is that they improve efficiency, e.g. when we can let go of the steering wheel, the time gained can be spend to send out one last e-mail or have a more social commuting experience. Developments in the light rail industry like the Hyperloop concept improve time efficiency, and therefore allow us to arrive at our destination much sooner than before. Yet, comfort, quality time and time efficiency are not the only concerns when it comes to mobility. New challenges manifest themselves, and my initial goal has been to understand the active role mobility could play to solve the challenges that we will meet in a future scenario. The context driven design methodology Vision in Product design has been used to create a future vision and mission statement, which acts as a response to the generated vision. The vision communicates three phenomena that will significantly influence urban environments, and the goal of this thesis has become to provide a solution for these challenges.