TY - JOUR
T1 - A quantile-based anthropometry synthesis technique for global user populations
AU - Nadadur, Gopal
AU - Raschke, Ulrich
AU - Parkinson, Matthew B.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was partially funded by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 1131467 . Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2016/5/1
Y1 - 2016/5/1
N2 - Detailed anthropometric data are valuable in making well-informed and responsible design decisions. However, such data are available only for a few user populations around the world. More widely-available information is in the form of summary statistics (e.g., means and standard deviations) and the values of body measures at certain key percentiles (e.g., 5th, 50th, 95th). Such information, while useful, is not suitable for in-depth analyses of a population's variability, since it does not allow for the consideration of correlations between different body measures, does not describe irregular distributions of body dimensions, etc. This paper presents a new method that utilizes values of body measures at different percentiles in synthesizing a detailed anthropometric database for a virtual population of users. The procedure is demonstrated in the context of Japanese civilian youth and U.S. military, and is shown to be simple, accurate, easy to use, and applicable across these two anthropometrically dissimilar populations. The case study shows that the virtual population is statistically equivalent to the actual target population in a number of ways. In addition to achieving statistical equivalence with the actual population's body dimensions, the method also ensures that the synthesized individuals are composed of appropriate and realistic body proportions and combinations of anthropometry.
AB - Detailed anthropometric data are valuable in making well-informed and responsible design decisions. However, such data are available only for a few user populations around the world. More widely-available information is in the form of summary statistics (e.g., means and standard deviations) and the values of body measures at certain key percentiles (e.g., 5th, 50th, 95th). Such information, while useful, is not suitable for in-depth analyses of a population's variability, since it does not allow for the consideration of correlations between different body measures, does not describe irregular distributions of body dimensions, etc. This paper presents a new method that utilizes values of body measures at different percentiles in synthesizing a detailed anthropometric database for a virtual population of users. The procedure is demonstrated in the context of Japanese civilian youth and U.S. military, and is shown to be simple, accurate, easy to use, and applicable across these two anthropometrically dissimilar populations. The case study shows that the virtual population is statistically equivalent to the actual target population in a number of ways. In addition to achieving statistical equivalence with the actual population's body dimensions, the method also ensures that the synthesized individuals are composed of appropriate and realistic body proportions and combinations of anthropometry.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ergon.2015.11.009
DO - 10.1016/j.ergon.2015.11.009
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84951037863
VL - 53
SP - 167
EP - 178
JO - International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics
JF - International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics
SN - 0169-8141
ER -