Basic study safcty and unccrtainty of support cquipments for the elderly

日本迫切需要研制各种安全、舒适的生命支持设备。制造商充分考虑了物理安全，但非专业人员在家中意外使用设备可能会引发事故。另一方面，设备经常会引起使用者的恐惧或不舒服的感觉，这可能会导致事故或拒绝使用。审查总结用户索赔的报告，以提取安全性、可靠性和心理舒适性设计中的潜在问题。心理学关于恐惧和不确定性的一般观点适用于报告的情况。一些简单的实验是在为此目的而建造的测试房屋中进行的。对养老院的老人进行了观察和访谈。虽然目前的观察还很零散，但本研究试图为设备的设计提供一个系统的指导。

It is the urgent issue in Japan that various kind of life-support equipments should be developed, which must be safe and comfortable in use. Physical safety is well considered by the manufacturer, but an unexpected use of the equipment at home by a non-specialist may induce an accident. Another aspect is that the equipment often induces a fear or an uncomforrtable feeling to the user, which may lead to an accident or refusal of use.Reports summarizing claims from the user are reviewed to extract underlying problems in the design for safety, reliability and psychological comfort. The general view from psychology about fear and uncertainty is applied to reported situations. Some simple experiments are conducted in the test houses built for this purpose. Observations and interviews are tried to the elderly in care houses. Although the observations are still fragmental, the study tries to draw a systematic guide for the equipment design.