3-D surface anthropometry ; accurate determination of body dimensions

Body dimensions of the user population have to be the starting point of design and evaluation of many workplaces and products. Insufficient attention to these aspects may lead to uncomfortable, unhealthy, or dangerous situations. Few up-to-date anthropometric databases are available. The shortage of anthropometric databases may in part be attributed to the time consuming and expensive traditional measurement techniques. 3-D surface scanning seems a good alternative: it is cheaper for large scale surveys, fast, reliable and yields reproducible results. Some challenges remain: reduction of human movement artifacts, optimisation of body postures during the scan, development of dedicated software to process the data. The whole body scans have applications mainly in three areas: improvement of fit of clothing and equipment, improvement of workplace design and evalua-tion, and a variety of medical applications. It can be expected that in the near future new and comprehensive databases of human dimensions emerge