A new paper on our work modeling child body shape has appeared in Traffic Injury Prevention. My colleague Dr. Daniel Park led the development of the first-ever statistical body shape model of seated children. The model, which is available online for interactive use, predicts body shape for children ages 3 to 11 years as a function of stature, body weight (expressed as body mass index), and the ratio of sitting height to stature. The posture of the predicted body shape can also be varied with respect to recline angle and lumbar spine flexion. Whole-body laser scans from 135 children in up to 4 postures were used to create the model. Applications include the development of new physical human surrogates for safety system design (e.g., crash test dummies) and parametric human body models. The downloadable body shapes are also approprite for use in the development of child restraint systems. The new model joins other body shape models for adults and children available online at humanshape.org.
June 2017
Statistical Model of Child Body Shape in Seated Postures
