Fatigue estimation of visual display terminal (VDT) workers by physiological data--preliminary study of a new computer program for VDT work analysis

The methods for assessing VDT workload based on individual capabilities are necessary to evaluate general fatigue by VDT work. We have developed a new computer program for assessing data entry performance of each individual. Four healthy male volunteers conducted a data entry task at their own pace using this program under a controlled environment. They performed the task for 30 minutes twice with 10 minutes rest between them. As a result, the average number of inputs was 133.2 characters/min in the first task and 129.1 characters/min after taking the rest. The error rate was 8.6% and 10.6% in each task. This program was useful to evaluate their data entry performance. We also reported our concern with a drop in nasal skin temperature that was observed during these VDT tasks.