Anthropometry: Anthropometry is the study of the dimensions and abilities of the human body. This is the study of human body measurement for use in anthropological classification and comparison. The use of such data as skull dimensions and body proportions in the attempt to classify human beings into racial, ethnic, and national groups has been largely discredited, but anthropometric techniques are still used in physical anthropology and pale anthropology, especially to study evolutionary change in fossil. According to James Tanner, former Professor of Child Health at the University of London- “Anthropometry was born not of medicine or science, but of the of the arts, impregnated by the spirit of Pythagorean philosophy. Painters and sculptors needed instruction about the relative proportions of legs and trunk, shoulders and hips, eyes and forehead; so that they could more easily go about what we might nowadays consider the mundane occupation of making life-like images”. The subject of anthropometry is of considerable interest to historians, not only because of its intellectual importance, but also because of the capacity of anthropometric measurements to shed new light on the health and well-being of past generations. Usually there are two types of Anthropometry as followsStatic anthropometry: anthropometry: The measurement of body sizes at rest Functional anthropometry anthropometry : The measurement of abilities related to completing tasks.
Anthropometrics: The systematic quantitative representation of the human body is Anthropometrics. Anthropometrics literally means man (anthro) measurements (metric). It is the measurement of the size and proportions of the human body, as well as parameters such as reach and visual range capabilities. Study of Anthropometrics (human measurement) is concerned with the physical sizes and shapes of humans of particular interest are the differences between and among different populations ( men vs. women, Northern Europeans vs. Japanese, etc ). Anthropometric Variance Parameters are as follows:
Gender Age Ethnicity
Gender
Age
Ethnicity
Now let‟s consider an example of Wheel Mobility Device. Wheeled mobility devices are used by people with mobility impairments to support their mobility in buildings and in the community, e.g. manual wheelchairs, power wheelchairs and scooters. In the case of wheeled mobility, static anthropometry includes measurement of people and their devices& functional anthropometry includes measurement of reaching abilities, maneuvering and other aspects of space and equipment use from a wheeled mobility device.
Today, anthropometry plays an important role in industrial design, clothing design, ergonomics, and architecture, where statistical data about the distribution of body dimensions in the population are used to optimize products. Changes in life styles, nutrition and ethnic composition of populations lead to changes in the distribution of body dimensions (e.g., the obesity epidemic), and require regular updating of anthropometric data collections. Typical anthropometric measurements include standing stature, weight, distance between eyes, and circumference around waist. People are all aware of the comfort related issues. Especially in the developed countries the numbers of the working people are very high and they are engaged with different professions and some professions really demand the garments which can serve the purpose. It has been also noticed that a comfortable worker can increase the work efficiency dramatically which will be disclosed in this article.
Historical background of Anthropometrics: During the nineteenth century, the term „anthropometry‟ was promoted and popularized by such writers as Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874), Charles Roberts (d. 1901), and Paul Topinard (1830-1911). Topinard defined the study of anthropometry as the systematic measurement of the different parts of the human body in order to determine their respective proportions not only at different ages, but also „in the human races, so as to distinguish them and establish their relations to each other‟ (quoted in Spencer 1997, p. 80). As this brief history indicates, the origins of the science of anthropometry can be traced in a number of different ways. One of the earliest spurs to development in the modern era was the study of human growth, as indicated by the famous series of measurements conducted on his son by Count Philibert Guéneau de Montbeillard (1720-1785), and published by Georges-Louis Leclerc Buffon (1707-88) in the fourth Supplement to his Natural History (1777). The development of anthropometry was also influenced by the development of physical anthropology and the search for evidence of „racial‟ variations. During the second half of the nineteenth century, sevseveral researchers, including the Austrian physician, Karl Scherzer (1821-1903), conducted investigations into the physical measurements of supposedly „primitive‟ peoples, and the British anthanthropologist, John Beddoe (1826-1911), assembled information on the height, weight, and other characteristics of the different „races‟ of the British Isles. The development of anthropometry was also closely bound up with research into the health and physical condition of people living under different social and economic conditions. The disciplines of anthropometrics have a specialized vocabulary of terms with specific meanings for designating points and distances of measurement, range, direction of motion, and mass.
Measurements of Anthropometrics: For being comfortable working environment there should be some measurements which would be helpful for the efficient anthropometry. There were eleven measurements:1. Height 2. Stretch: Length of body from left shoulder to right middle finger when arm is raised 3. Bust: Length of torso of torso from head to seat, taken when seated 4. Length of head: Crown to forehead 5. Width of head: Temple to temple 6. Length of right ear 7. Length of left foot 8. Length of left middle finger 9. Length of left cubit: Elbow to tip of middle finger 10. Width of cheeks of cheeks 11. Length of left little finger [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/]
Measurements Measurements of Anthropometrics Anthropometrics
For the measurement of anthropometrics we have to divide our body into Body Planes & different Orientations as follows:
Figure: Body Planes and Orientations [Reference: 16, pp. III-78; NASA-STD-3000 260 (Rev A)] General anthropometric terminologies are defined below-
Plane Definitions Head plane: A simple plane that passes through the right and left gonion points and nuchal. Neck plane: A compound plane in which a horizontal plane originates at cervical and passes anteriorly to intersect with the second plane. The second plane originates at the lower of
the two clavicle landmarks and passes superiorly at a45 degree angle to intersect the horizontal plane. Thorax plane: A simple transverse plane that originates at the 10th rib midspine landmark and passes horizontally through the torso.
Figure: Anthropometric Landmarks of the Head and Face[Reference: 16, p. III-81; NASA-STD-3000 263] Abdominal plane: A simple transverse plane originating at the higher of the two illica crest landmarks and continuing horizontally through the torso. Hip plane: A simple plane originating midsagittaly on the perineal surface and passing superiorly and laterally midway between the anterior superior iliac spine and trochanterion landmarks, paralleling the right and left inguinal ligaments. Thigh flap plane: A simple plane originating at the gluteal furrow landmark and passing horizontally through the thigh.
Knee plane: A simple plane originating at the lateral femoral epicondyle and passing horizontally through the knee. Ankle plane: A simple plane originating at the sphyrion landmark and passing horizontally through the ankle.
Figure: Illustrative representation of Body Segments and Planes of Segmentation [Reference: 273, p. 9-15; NASA-STD-3000 264] Shoulder plane: A simple plane originating at the acromion landmark and passing inferiorly and medially through the anterior and posterior scye point marks at the axillary level.
Elbow plane: A simple plane originating at the olecranon landmark and passing through the medial and lateral humeral epicondyle landmarks. Wrist plane: A simple plane originating at the ulnar and radial styloid landmarks and passing through the wrist perpendicular to the long axis of the forearm
Figure: Anatomical and Anthropometric Landmarks[Reference: 16, pp. III-79; NASA-STD 3000 262 (Rev A)]
Application of Anthropometric Data in Design Considerations: Equipment, whether it be a workstation or clothing, must fit the user population. The user population will vary in size, and the equipment design must account for this range of sizes. There are three ways in which a design will fit the user:-
All - A single size may accommodate all members of the popua. Single Size for All lation. A workstation which has a switch located within the reach limit of the smallest person, for instance, will allow everyone to reach the switch. b. Adjustment - The design can incorporate an adjustment capability. The most common example of this is the automobile seat. c. Several Sizes - Several sizes of equipment may be required to accommodate the full population size-range. This is usually necessary for equipment or personal gear that must closely conform to the body such as clothing and space suits All three situations require the designer to use anthropometric data.
Modern anthropometry: Anthropometric studies are today conducted for numerous different purposes. Academic anthropologists investigate the evolutionary significance of differences in body proportion between populations whose ancestors lived in different environmental settings. Human populations exhibit similar climatic variation patterns to other large-bodied mammals, following Bergmann's rule, which states that individuals in cold climates will tend to be larger than ones in warm climates, and Allen's rule, which states that individuals in cold climates will tend to have shorter, stubbier limbs than those in warm climates. On a micro evolutionary level, anthropologists use anthropometric variation to reconstruct small-scale population history. For instance, John Relethford's studies of early twentiethcentury anthropometric data from Ireland show that the geographical patterning of body proportions still exhibits traces of the invasions by the English and Norse centuries ago. Outside academia, scientists working for private companies and government agencies conduct anthropometric studies to determine what range of sizes clothing and other items need to be manufactured in. A basically anthropometric division of body types into the categories endomorphic, ectomorphic and mesomorphic derived from Sheldon's somatotype theories is today popular among people doing weight training. Measurements of the foot are used in the manufacture and sale of footwear; measurement devices may be used to either directly determine a retail shoe size (e.g. Brannock Device) or determine the detailed dimensions of the foot for custom manufacture (e.g. ALINEr). ALINEr). The US Military has conducted over 40 anthropometric surveys of U.S. Military personnel between 1945 and 1988, including the 1988 Army Anthropometric Survey (ANSUR) of men and women with its 240 measures. Statistical data from these surveys, which encompassed over 75,000 individuals, can be found in. Today people are performing anthropometry with three-dimensional scanners. The sub ject has a three-dimensional scan taken of their body, and the anthropometrist extracts measure-
ments from the scan rather than directly from the individual. This is beneficial for the anthropometrist in that they can use this scan to extract any measurement at any time and the individual does not have to wait for each measurement to be taken separately. In 2001 the UK conducted the largest sizing survey using scanners up to date. Since then there have been several national surveys which have followed in the UK's pioneering steps, notably these are Size USA, Size Mexico & Size Thailand, the latter are still ongoing. Size UK showed that the nation had got taller and heavier, but not as much as many had expected. Since 1951 when the last women's survey had taken place the average weight for women had gone up from 62 to 65 kg.
Summing up: Changes in body dimensions reflect the overall health and welfare of individuals and populations. Anthropometry is used to assess and predict performance, health and survival of individuals and reflect the economic and social well being of populations. Anthropometry is a widely used, inexpensive and non-invasive measure of the general nutritional status of an individual or a population group. And finally we can say that, Anthropometry is the practice of designing products so that users can perform required use, operation, service, and supportive tasks with a minimum of stress and maximum of efficiency.
