Obese Body Shapes

My colleagues Dr. Monica Jones and Dr. Daniel Park participated in the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society annual meeting in Washington, DC this month. Dr. Park participated in a panel discussion on new markerless motion techniques for ergonomics analysis. These methods have great potential for gathering data on worker motions in realistic scenarios without time-consuming and intrusive interventions. Dr. Park's contribution was based on innovative work he's doing using Kinect in concert with our new articulated, rapidly generated subject-specific avatars. Dr. Jones presented work on a new database of body shapes and postures of individuals with high body mass index. Around 5% of US adults have a BMI greater than 40 kg/m^2, and these individuals often experience difficult with the fit and performance of consumer products, vehicles, medical devices, and other products and environments that are too frequently designed for the average. Integrating studies like these with earlier work on body shape modeling, we aim to produce tools that enable the design of products that work well for a wider range of the population.