19th International CODATA Conference
Category: Multi-disciplinary Use
Overview of the World Engineering Anthropometry Resource Objectives
Kathleen M. Robinette (kathleen.robinette@wpafb.af.mil),
Air Force Research Laboratory, USA
Lee Young Suk, Chonnam University, South Korea
Sandy Ressler, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA
Anthropometric data, the measure of human body size and shape, are collected
and used by all types of organizations for many types of applications. These
include universities, hospitals, health statistics departments, militaries,
apparel companies, furniture manufacturers, automobile manufacturers, safety
equipment companies, aerospace companies, and many other industries and organizations.
Given the global nature of commerce most industries are interested in data from
many countries, however, collecting this data is expensive. In addition, users
of anthropometric information want to push a button to get answers to their
application questions. However at this point even some of the simplest problems
require an expert to intervene. It would benefit everyone if the data collected
by different organizations could be quickly and easily shared in a manner that
is understandable to a novice user. It is our intent to create a system, the
World Engineering Anthropometry Resource (WEAR), which would include not just
the latest 3D surface anthropometric data from all over the world, but also
traditional anthropometric data, fit and accommodation information, analytic
and software tools, and guidance or intelligent agents for using the information
effectively. This paper summarizes some of the objectives and challenges for
this endeavor. The WEAR project itself is a "virtual" project as the
participants are not co-located. The challenges and partial solutions which
range from web-based collaboration systems to simple phone calls will also be
discussed along with lessons learned that are applicable to similar projects.