A Generation Method of Representative Human Models at the Boundary Zone of a Designated Accommodation Percentage

Abstract. Representative human models (RHM) for the target population are used for anthropometric product design and evaluation in virtual environments. The existing RHM generation methods such as boundary approach use multivariate data reduction techniques such as factor analysis to reduce the original set of anthropometric dimensions. Due to the limitation of the data reduction techniques the lack of representativeness of RHMs by the existing methods has been reported. The present study developed and evaluated a boundary zone method. The proposed boundary zone method generated representative human models at the boundary zone statistically accommodating a designated percentage of the population without any data reduction technique. The evaluation results showed that the accommodation percentage of the boundary zone method was 91%, which was higher than those of square (41%) and circular method (82%) and similar to that of rectangular method (92%). Furthermore, the representative human models by the boundary zone method were within the size ranges of the target population