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Accurate data on the body dimensions of truck drivers are needed and such data are not presently available. This paper provides basic source data and an anthropometrical overview of the usefulness and limitations of existing data bases; discusses the influence of population factors, including age, sex, and demographic variables; and reviews population sampling problems. Heavy truck drivers as a whole appear to represent a physically different population from that of either the U.S. general population or other professional groups. Future anthropometric surveys must provide information for improved accommodation for the increasing range of physical size of users, and for obtaining data more useful to engineers involved in heavy truck interior cab design.

Properties of the human neck which may influence a person's susceptibility to “whiplash” injury during lateral impact have been studied in 96 normal subjects. Subjects were chosen on the basis of age, sex, and stature and data were grouped into six primary categories based on sex (F, M) and age (18-24, 35-44, 62-74). The data include: measures of head, neck and body anthropometry in standing and simulated automotive seating positions, three-dimensional range of motion of the head and neck, head/neck response to low-level acceleration, and both stretch reflex time and voluntary isometric muscle force in the lateral direction. Reflex times are found to vary from about 30 to 70 ms with young and middle aged persons having faster times than older persons, and females having faster times than males. Muscle strength decreases with age and males are, on the average, stronger than females.

This report presents the results of a three-year study designed to collect analyze, and reduce selected anthropometric data on 4027 infants and children representative of the current U.S. population ranging in age from newborn to 12 years of age. Since the major purpose was to provide basic measurement data most useful and critical to consumer product design, regulatory consideration, or other direct applications, 12 of the 41 measurements taken were applied measurements which have not been previously available. As an example of the direct application to product design, measurement of buttock depth on 3-to 6-month-old infants provided an objective basis for establishment of crib interslat distances. A substantial portion of the study involved the design, fabrication, development, and testing of a new generation of anthropometric measuring devices which transmit measurement signals to a portable mini-computer data acquisition system or to a set of readout meters.

Basic physical characteristics of the neck have been defined which have application to the design of biomechanical models, anthropometric dummies, and occupant crash protection devices. The study was performed using a group of 180 volunteers chosen on the basis of sex, age (18-74 years), and stature. Measurements from each subject included anthropometry, cervical range-of-motion (observed with both x-rays and photographs), the dynamic response of the cervical flexor and extensor muscles to a controlled jerk, and the maximum voluntary strength of the cervical muscles. Data are presented in tabular and graphic form for total range-of-motion, cervical muscle reflex time, decelerations of the head, muscle activation time, and cervical muscle strength. The range-of-motion of females was found to average 1-12 deg greater than that of males, depending upon age, and a definite degradation in range-of-motion was observed with increasing age.

Empirical models are presented which predict the threespace position of the torso when responding to reaches with the right arm. Models were derived which specify torso position in terms of the spacial location of 10 surface markers. These markers were positioned over palpable skeletal points of the spine and shoulder girdle. The necessary data were obtained through photogrammetric procedures utilizing four orthogonal cameras. The independent (input) variables to these models are the coordinates of the reach target. A supplementary, slightly more accurate, set of models was also derived in which the set of independent variables was enlarged to include the anthropometric dimensions of the subject. The second, concurrent phase of the analysis resulted in the derivation of a set of models which describes the configuration of the internal, torso skeletal system.

The object of this study has been to develop a quantitative description of the mobility of the human torso, including the shoulder girdle, neck, thoracic and lumbar vertebral column, and pelvis. This has been accomplished by a systematic multidisciplinary investigation involving techniques of cadaver dissection and measurement, utilizing cineradiofluoroscopy for joint center of rotation location, anthropometry, radiography, and photogrammetry for selected positions and motions of living subjects, and computer analysis. Positional and dimensional data were obtained for 72 anthropometric dimensions on 28 living male subjects statistically representative of the 1967 USAF anthropometric survey of 3542 rated officers, including bone lengths of the extremities and vertebral landmarks. Normal excursion of these limbs was measured in the living, utilizing the landmarks established in initial cadaver dissection.