Introduction to the Special Issue, Anthropometry in Design

Feature at a Glance: Welcome to the special issue on anthropometry! This discussion will cover a range of differently sized topics to fit your interests. De Bruin and Castelluci discuss the problems of designing school furniture that fits students, noting that “Regarding School furniture dimensions, students are usually exposed to furniture with fixed dimensions, which makes it almost impossible to adjust to the ‘growing’ anthropometrics along their school life and neither does it accommodate multidimensional fit very well.” Griffin et al. discuss developing an “understanding [of] body dimensions in relation to how a body functions, moves, and changes” that “is fundamental to creating compatible wearable products” for aging women. Alemany et al. discuss 4D scanning, observing that “This technology is able to capture the human body surface in motion at high frequency with a high resolution” and offers “an enormous potential to advance in ergonomic design and biomechanics.” Bradtmiller describes the “nearly infinite combination of head/facial characteristics” and that “This combination of traits allows us to recognize unique individuals but increases the challenge of designing head and face products that fit a wide variety of individuals with a relatively small number of sizes”.