Carol A C Flannagan | Search PubMed

PubMed2004

Cervical spine geometry in the automotive seated posture: variations with age, stature, and gender.

In the mid 1970s, UMTRI investigated the biomechanical properties of the head and neck using 180 "normal" adult subjects selected to fill eighteen subject groups based on age (young, mid-aged, older), gender, and stature (short, medium, and tall by gender). Lateral-view radiographs of the subjects' cervical spines and heads were taken with the subjects seated in a simulated automotive neutral posture, as well as with their necks in full-voluntary flexion and full-voluntary extension. Although the cervical spine and lower head geometry were previously measured manually and documented, new technologies have enabled computer digitization of the scanned x-ray images and a more comprehensive and detailed analysis of the variation in cervical spine and lower head geometry with subject age, stature, and gender. After scanning the radiographic images, 108 skeletal landmarks on the cervical vertebrae and 10 head landmarks were digitized. The resulting database of cervical spine and head geometry was used to study cervical spine curvature, vertebral dimensions, and head/neck orientation as functions of age, gender, and stature. The data were used to characterize neutral posture cervical spine curvatures using two methods: a curvature index and Bézier spline functions. Lateral-view vertebral dimensions were also calculated for each subject, and a cascading series of equations was developed to estimate vertebral size and shape for a selected age, stature, and gender. The orientation of the cervical spine was defined using a neck chord angle, where the neck chord was varied to use different anatomical landmarks and estimates of joint centers for the top and bottom of the neck chord. Results from the study have been incorporated into a MS-Access based software package that allows researchers and modelers to generate cervical spine geometries for occupants of a specified age, gender, and stature. The program allows selection of individual occupants from the database that meet age, stature, gender, or curvature criteria, or creation of a composite cervical spine geometry representative of the selected age, gender, and stature. This tool will allow researchers to configure and vary cervical spine geometry in computer models and experimental test setups used to study head and neck impact response and injury risk.

Journal Article↗

PubMed2002

A statistical method for predicting automobile driving posture.

A new model for predicting automobile driving posture is presented. The model, based on data from a study of 68 men and women in 18 vehicle package and seat conditions, is designed for use in posturing the human figure models that are increasingly used for vehicle interior design. The model uses a series of independent regression models, coupled with data-guided inverse kinematics, to fit a whole-body linkage. An important characteristic of the new model is that it places greatest importance on prediction accuracy for the body locations that are most important for vehicle interior design: eye location and hip location. The model predictions were compared with the driving postures of 120 men and women in five vehicles. Errors in mean eye location predictions in the vehicles were typically less than 10 mm. Prediction errors were largely independent of anthropometric variables and vehicle layout. Although the average posture of a group of people can be predicted accurately, individuals' postures cannot be predicted precisely because of interindividual posture variance that is unrelated to key anthropometric variables. The posture prediction models developed in this research can be applied to posturing computer-rendered human models to improve the accuracy of ergonomic assessments of vehicle interiors.

Adult↗