The design of products is not limited to its dimensions, it also concerns with how the product is used. How it is moves in relation to the body and how the the user changes over time. This page gives a short introduction on dynamic anthropometry. It deals not only with body dimensions in 3 dimensions, but also includes how the body moves or changes over time.

One of the reasons for the limitation of one- and two-dimensional data is the motion of the user in its environment. When designing a cabin and controls for any kind of application, the full range of motion of all body parts of the user, interacting with it's surrounding (the controls, the seat, the dashboard etc), will be needed. The simulation of the moving geometry of the user (and the controls) will be complex and dependent on many variables. Even more difficult is it to make this simulation with the variety of a whole population (to create a representative sample of a group of individuals). Thinking of stepping in and out of a car, will give you a good impression of what is needed for 4D anthropometry. What should a Digital Human Model be able to do to make you happy as a designer or researcher.

There are some DHM that can do such work in combinations with integrated video from a testperson, like RAMSIS and JACK.

Advantages

• You can easily find out which car(concept) is useful for your purpose before your bought or tested the car with reallife testpersons

Disadvantages

• It cost an investment in time and money that most small studios will not risk.
• They will probably be better of in making a mockup and use selected testpersons to find the answers on that question.