Our colleagues at SENTIR Research Labs in Dayton hosted the inaugural Biomechanics and Engineering Anthropometry Meeting (BEAM) this month. This three-day event included dozens of speakers from U.S. DOD, contractors, and other researchers who work on human safety and accommodation. My colleague Dr. Daniel Park presented an update on our PassFit portable anthropometry system that enables rapid prediction of body dimensions under normal clothing. I showed our progress integrating our detailed adult ear geometry model with a new head surface model based on hundreds of surface and CT scans. The new model provides unprecedented accuracy and detail in capturing the size and shape variability in the U.S. population. In addition to our core biomechanics and safety applications, the model will be valuable for the design of helmets and masks as well as audio products, including in-ear and over-ear headphones, hearing protection, and personalization of the head-related transfer functions (HRTF) essential to realistic spatial audio. We will be continuing this work in the coming weeks, adding data from hundreds of additional subjects. Future work will include integrating a parametric skull model, so that we can predict the skull from the surface or add a realistic surface to a skull.
March 2024