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Anthropometry of a Friendly Rest Room

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Anthropometry of a Friendly Rest Room

Johan F. M. Molenbroek PhD & Renate de Bruin MSc

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Anthropometry of a Friendly Rest Room, Assistive Technology, 18:2, 196-204, DOI:
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 A ss! Techn ol 2006;18:196-204
DESIGN © 2006 RESNA

Anthropometry of a Friendly Rest Room

Johan F. M. Molenbroek, PhD, and Renate de Bruin, MSc

Sectionof Applied Ergonomics & Design, Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft,
The Netherlands

The use of common anthropometric tables often is METHODS

not of any help when designing them for disabled peo-
Many ergonomists are not aware of the fact that
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ple. This article addresses the advantage of first doing

an observational study on the use of similar aids by the anthropometric tables they use consist mostly
disabled people. From that study, the relevant vari- of one-dimensional body space information. This
ables and critical areas can be learned. When users does not mean the information is ofless value, but
participate in the design process, the newly developed in this aritcle we explain why it is important to re-
item probably will be innovative in comparison to just alize this fact and we show how information can be
a desk research and development project. This means extended to two-, three-, and maybe even four-di-
that a large sample is not necessary to find the poten- mensional information, which may be more appro-
tial for improvement. The study also delivers a better
priate and valuable for daily use in a design or
understanding of the fit of a particular product. This
article discusses tools in anthropometry can help the
evaluator's environment, Eight design types are il-
designer understand the relation between dimensions lustrated in Figure 2, most of which were described
and decide what should be adjustable and what should earlier in Dutch literature by Molenbroek (1994)
be fixed or produced in different sizes. and Dirken (1997- 2004).
Key Words: Anthropometry-Gerontechnology-
1. Design like Procrustus's: The name is taken
3D scanning-Photogrammetry-Industrial design en-
gineering-Observational research.
from Greek mythology; here the user is fitted to
the product.
2. Design for the Ego: This means the designer
looks only at his own size and assumes his de-
signs will fit everyone else.
When you are sitting on a bicycle and the wind
blows your hearing aids out of your ears and the
insurance company in your country allows you to
replace them only once every 3 years, you probably
do not see this as a case of anthropometry. But, in
fact, it is, because it might be that the designer of
those hearing aids tried to fit them in his own 30-
year-old ears but did not test them in the ears of
an 80-year-old man (see Fig. 1). Using measure-
ments, anthropometrists know that the size of
your ears keeps growing, and a one-size-fits-all de-
sign might not be appropriate.

Presented as a plen a ry session at th e 28th Intern ational RES-

NA Confe rence, Atla nta, Georgia, June 23-27, 200 5.
Address corresponde nce a nd reprint requests to Johan F. M.
Molenbroek , PhD, Section of Appli ed E rgonomi cs & Design, Fac-
ulty of Industrial Design Engineeri ng , Delft Un iversity of Tech-
nology, Landbergstra at 15, 2628 CE Delft, Th e Netherlands . FIG. I. Hearing ai ds designed for old ears.

196
 Procrustus
Ego design
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Design for the
mean
Desi gn for the
small
FIG. 2. Eight types of design.
3. Design for the Mean: The designer thought
about the variation in sizes and decided to take
the mean to achieve comfort for all and to min-
imize the discomfort for tall and small people.
Practically everyone outside the mean is ex-
cluded.
4. Design for the Small: The designer is aware of
the fact that, in using the average values, small
people will have problems. He takes care that
eve ry t hing fits at least the weak and the small.
This means that, using the example of a nut-
cr acker, weak and small people can crack the
hardest nut, but the strongest person will prob-
abl y crack the nutcracker.
5. Design for the Tall : The designer is probably
tall himself, frequently bumps his head, and is
therefore strongly motivated to fit at least the
tall and strong users and might forget the small
and the weak.
6. Design for Adjustability: For users of office
ch air s, it was a great improvement in comfort
wh en vari ou s elements were made adjustable,
st arti ng in the 1970s with sitting height, then
ANTHROPOMETRY OF A FRIENDLY REST ROOM
Design for the
tall
Design for
Adjustability
Design for
More types
Design for All
arm rests, seat depths, and other features . The
disadvantages of this type of solution are how
to determine the limits of adjustability and how
to ensure that the user does not forget to adjust
his or her product.
7. Design for More Types: When a product has sev-
eral types to fit variation in users, like in shoes,
clothing, or personal equipment, the simplest
system consists of small, medium, and large siz-
es . Currently extra large (XL) or even extra ex-
tra large (XXL) sizes are included in this sim-
plified size system, because of the increasing
number of overweight people in our societies.
Anthropometric analysis of the data supporting
decisions on which part of the population
should fit which type of product has not been
extensively described. Exceptions are Roebuck
(1997 ) and HFES 300 Committee (2004). Later
in this article it will be shown that the software
tool Ellipse is meant to contribute to this field.
8. Design for Allor Inclusive Design: This does not
mean that a designer has to design for all 6 bil-
lion people on earth, but it means that through-
197

FIG. 3. A 45-km car can be used with a simple moped
driver's license.
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out the design process he or she must take into
consideration that as few people as possible are
excluded. Design for All is also known as Inclu-
sive Design or Design for the Widest Possible
Audience (Include 2005).
This last method is very appropriate for many
disabled users. Here are some examples:
• A pair of glasses started in the Middle Ages as
an orthosis but has now evolved into a real full-
grown industrial design that is available for ev-
ery lifestyle in awhole range ofqualities, prices,
shapes, and colors. One may know people who
use more than eight pairs of glasses for different
purposes, such as skiing, reading books, looking
at a computer monitor, playing the piano, sun-
Repreoontati Vffie:ss
% excluded
Design t\'Pe
Acljustabi IIityJ
mo re types
Cor relat ion
FIG . 4. Flow chart of steps of an anthropometric design process.
198
glasses, safety glasses, bifocals, and welding
glasses. The anthropometry of glasses is impor-
tant, but it is solved mostly by making them to
measure or by having more types available, and
rarely via the adjustability of the glasses or the
frames .
• Audio cassettes were introduced in the 1950s for
people with bad eyesight because large reel-to-
reel tapes were difficult to change. It seemed
that not only the target group but everybody
else as well was pleased with this palm-sized so-
lution, which still exists though it is now scarce-
ly used with the advent of digital technology .
• The 45-km car illustrated in Figure 3 was mar-
keted for the elderly, but its popularity has been
growing in The Netherlands recently because
you do not need a normal motor car driver's li-
cense but only a simple one for mopeds. It is
used by many young people as a cheap alterna-
tive and by people who cannot get their driver's
license for a car. This also means that stigma-
tization toward the car is diminishing.
Observational Research
To find out at what points a new product does
not fit the human body, the use of a (similar) prod-
uct or an early-stage prototype of that product
should be looked at first. For example, the way a
person uses a toilet can hardly be determined us-
ing only questionnaires or interviews, but videos of
a small sample of test persons in a real or simu-
lated environment reveals properly where it does
fit and where it does not .
12 17
ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 18, NO.2
 TABLE 1. Rel ation b etwee n hum an an d product d im e nsi ons

PI P99 User di m ensi o n Re co m m e nded va lue Product dimension

429 583 Buttock-poplit eal depth P, - 5 cm or (P S- P9 S ) - 5 em Seat depth
344 516 Poplit ea l height P, + heel height or (PS- P9 S ) + heel Seat height
316 454 Hip breadth P9 S + clothing or PS-P9S + clothing Seat width
177 299 Elbow-r est height P S-P95 + seat height Height of horizontal support
362 570 Biacromial breadth PS-P",5 Width of vertical support
634 801 Reach depth PS-P",5 Distance to vertical support
Note: P, = highest measurement value of th e lowest 5%; P 9S = lowest measurement value of th e highest 5%.

Th e next question is how many users should be dimension s of the re st room in re lation to the va r-
in the sample. The an swer is simple: five per ho- ious body dimensions of the user:
mogen eous group. Nielsen an d Landa uer (1993) Box 1: A designer accepts an assignment to ana-
state that to find problems in usage of consumer lyze an d re design a rest room
goods, in general th e sixth person from a sample Box 2: The object ofthe study (e.g., FRR; see below )
Downloaded by [Bibliotheek TU Delft] at 04:57 24 August 2017

r arely brings new problems to light. Box 3: The target popu lation (e.g., European el-
Intervi ews and que stionnaires are useful meth- derly and disabled people)
ods a nd can bring out more background informa- Box 4: The demographic variables (e.g., European
ti on about th e context, but not about specific hu- elderly and disa bled people )
ma n-product interaction that is needed for design Box 5: Relevant anthropometric variables (see Ta -
improvements. ble 1); a key dimension is the popliteal height
In a somewhat larger context, the usage re- Box 6: The criteria for anthropometric data:
search can be explained as shown in Box 8 in Fig- • Relevance of dimensions (see Box 5)
ure 4. To understand the meaning of the boxes , • Representative of population: The popu lation
cons ider th e design of a rest room . The objective of for which the objects are designed should also
the anthropometric aspect is to find out re levant provide the anthropometric data

360 370 380 390 400 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500 510 520 530 540 550 560 570 580 590 600 610
330,.--,..--r-..........-...,...----,.--r---,,...--,..--r---r-.,....---,---r-..........-...,....---.--r---,,....-....,....-r----r-.,....---,---,----, 330
320 320
310
------------------------------------------ ---0----------------------------------------- -- ----------------------------------------, 310
o
300 300
e
I
b
290
280
270 •
.....'...•
.S····.. :
\
"
o
290
280
0
:.t.+ 270
w

s
260
250
.... .+
•
••
.+
••••
• • • •+ • • • • • +• •
• • • •+.+ ••• •
:
I •

.a. •• ..:. +. • •
•
• 260
250
e
e 240 • :"••::.•, •• 15..
100% lh=oreti~.
fit
·4. ••• ... t. 240
t 230 •• • ••: • •-. ~ I • • ' ••
230
o • • •••••: t • • ••• .:. t •• :
r- •••
.+' ••
h 220 • + •• • +t';+. 220
e 210
200
o
..
•

..
•
. •.t..~.
• t • • • • :.

#,+ : • •
••

..
••••
•
."
. · ., ••
_ 210
200

.•... a.. •. •
9
h
190
• •
• •
• c 190
t o
180 o 180
170 ~---~- o o 170
160 , - - - - . _-- ~- - _ .. __. __... __. __.. _---- _. _--_.. _._--------------_._ .. _.. _-. -._ --_ . . _ -- - - -- -- ~._--- - - _ ._ -- - - _ . _ --. _- -- - - - - - - _ . . . _----- --_: 160
150 150
140 L-.~-~-'--~-~~-~-~~-~~-~-"-~--'----''--.......-~---'"-~-~~-~~-....J 1 40
360 370 380 390 400 410 420 430 440 450 460 470 480 490 500 510 520 530 540 550 560 570 580 590 600 610
buttock-pop iteal lenght

FIG. 5 . Example of working with Ellip se, which mak es it possible to shift rectangles includin g per centage of the sample
over a bivariate distribution. Axis description: x = buttock-poplit eal length of Delft student s aged 20-25 yea rs, y = elbow-
seat height of th e same sa mple (n = 354).

ANTHROPOMETRY OF A FRIENDLY REST ROOM 199


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FlG.6a-b. Common way of standing up from a wheelchair (MSc student Jannie Dijkstra Pinte Leite, 2005). (Fig. 6a) Child,
short upper body, long legs, 130 cm. (Fig. 6b) Child, long upper body, short legs, 130 ern,
• Precision: Statistical considerations have to
be applied to determine the accuracy of sam-
ple results
• Design type; see Figure 1
• Adjustability: To fit a product to a range of us-
ers in various dimensions, at least three so-
lutions are possible:
• Adapt the product to a specific user
• Make the product adjustable
• Create different sizes of the same product
Box 7: The function of the user (e.g., an older or
disabled person using the toilet)
Boxes 8, 9, 10, and 14: These factors result from
clothing, posture, and the like as well as from the
extra space the designer allows the user result-
ing from the usage (simulation) research
Box 11: Depending on the facilities of the designer,
an anthropometric model will be available as a
table or as a two- or three-dimensional model
Box 12: Correlation between the relevant variables
should be considered to avoid exclusion of part of
the user population; the software tool Ellipse
takes care of this
Box 13: With knowledge of correlation coefficients
and scatter diagrams about body dimensions of
200
b·
the target population, the design and evaluation
of a toilet bowl can be improved
Box 15: Guidelines for the specific dimensions of
the toilet bowl and surrounding support are de-
fined in this stage of the design process and, in
the present study, will result in a proposal for a
new European standard.
Ellipse and Two-Dimensional Analysis in
Three-Dimensional Space
Two-Dimensional Body Space
We live in three-dimensional space, but we can
solve many problems in two dimensions better
than in one or three. The reason is that we do not
have appropriate tools and data for three dimen-
sions, but these data and tools are available in two-
dimensional space. Second, in two-dimensional
space we see problems we never see in one-dimen-
sional space. The software tool Ellipse was devel-
oped to explore problems in two-dimensional
space.
Ellipse allows you to display two-dimensional
sample data as points in a scatter plot and find out
what percentage of the sample data are within a
ASSlSTIVE TECHNOLOGY, VOL. 18, NO.2
 a
Downloaded by [Bibliotheek TU Delft] at 04:57 24 August 2017

c d

FIG. 7a-d. Fall prevention of elderly and disabled in rest rooms. (Fig. 7a ) To test in an early stage of development if the
reach is suitable for the target group. (Fig. 7b) Computer simulation of the designed FRR (friendly rest room ). (Fig. 7c)
Drawing ofthe prototype for the vertical grab bars. (Fig. 7d) Overview of the FRR for wheelchair users (MSc project by Sonja
Buzink; Solid Works drawings by Diederik van der Pant).

window that is drawn by the user. It can be used,
for example, to see which size of a certain product
will result in including which percentage of the
population. Input data for Ellipse are two columns
of anthropometric data or the summative alter-
native: two mean values, 2 SDs, and a correlation
coefficient that shows the relation between the two
variables. More information about Ellipse can be
found in Molenbroek, Kroon-Ramaekers, and Snij-
ders (2003).
An application of Ellipse is the relation between
the arm-rest height and the seat depth of a wheel-
chair, which in The Netherlands used to be inter-
dependent: A deeper seat depth resulted in a high-
er arm rest and vice versa. The analysis illustrated
in Figure 5 shows clearly that these two product
dimensions should not be interdependent, because
the related body dimensions (elbow-seat height
and buttock popliteal length) are not correlated tr
= -.145).

ANTHROPOMETRY OF A FRIENDLY REST ROOM 201

Downloaded by [Bibliotheek TU Delft] at 04:57 24 August 2017

FIG. 8. Three-dimensional Body Focus System, Geodelta, Delft , The Netherlands.

FIG . 9. Gluing together the images of the 12-16 different digital cam er as.

202 ASSISTIVE TE CHNOLOGY, VOL. 18, NO.2

 Another possibility with Ellipse is to investigate
how many va riations of a product are need ed in or-
der to in clude the whole popul ati on . We used t hat
in another study to prepare a new standard for
school furni tu re, which resulte d in seven types for
child re n a nd young people aged 4-20 years (Mo-
len broek et al., 2003). But it was also used in se v-
eral master design projects . On e exa mple concerns
t he design of a stand-up chair for young childre n
(age abo ut 6-8 years ); see Figure 6.
Three-Dimensiona l Body S pace
We need to have in the near future easily acces-
sible tools to describe the shapes ofkey surfaces in
three-dimensional space in the context of person-
prod uct inter action-in othe r words, to describ e
Downloaded by [Bibliotheek TU Delft] at 04:57 24 August 2017
what is fitt ed . We also need tools to describe the
cha nges over ti me of t his fit (t hr ee-dimensional
space): for example, the ch ange in volume of body
segm ents t hro ugh temper atur e and t hro ugh grav-
it y duri ng the day. Both of these tools are not yet
av a ilab le. What is availa ble approac hes t his goa l
but is not very easy t o access.
Currently we have several digital human models
that for t he most part originate d about 10-15
year s ago, such as J ack, Ram sis, and Sa fework.
The y are neither cheap nor easy nor fast to learn
when you are a design er or researcher and, for ex-
a mple , want to evaluate a conce pt wheelchair in 1
da y. You will nee d an in vest men t that could be
hig her t han what is need ed to buy a new middle-
class car, in addition to a few months of pati en ts
a nd some good skills in compute r-ai ded design
work.
If you acquire one or more of t hese software
packages, it most likely will not solve your prob-
lems in re habilitatio n because the data are not
suitable. What would be desirable according to t he
objectives of this article is to impl em en t t he video
data of your observational research study: for ex-
a mple, to study t he transfer strategies from a
wheelchair user to a toilet. In our FRR (Friendly
Rest Room) project, we t rie d to use a digit al human
model as illust r ated in Figu re 7 bu t in combination
wit h othe r design tools lik e foam- scal e models and
a full-size mock-up test (de Bruin , Molenbroek ,
Groothuize n, & va n Weeren , 2003).
Measu ring Th ree-Dimensional Surface
Anthropometry
Ifwe conclude that the existing data for t he most
part are not va lid enoug h to rep resen t t he elderly
a nd disabled, many experts wou ld agree. Br ad t-
mille r a nd Annis (1997) give a good overview in
ANTHROPOMETRY OF A FRIENDLY REST ROOM
this area, bu t since t hat publicati on , recent in no-
vative experime nts h ave bee n done in t he CAE-
SAR (Civilia n Ameri can and European Surface
Anthropomet ry Resource) Project (CAESAR, 2004 ;
K. Robin ette, per sonal communication, 2005 ).
Using t he Cyberware scanne r a t Wri gh t-Patter-
son Air Force Ba se in Dayton , Ohio , special popu -
lati ons such as people in whee lchairs as well as
obese people (up to 1,000 lb ) h ave bee n laser
scanne d. Th e CAES AR da ta of 2,500 Americans
and 2,500 Europeans measured between 1997 and
2001 are now the best data to re present t he gen -
eral public and will be used in creating new stan-
dards. For example, the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission and National Institut e for Oc-
cup ation al Safety an d Health and the Dutch TNO
Human Factor s use t hem. Th e people were mea-
sure d and sca nne d seated in two poses in CAE-
SAR, so t his resource would be recom mende d for
use for new criteria for wheelchair reaches and
clearances a nd other whee l performances. It would
be of es pecia lly great ben efit to use the CAESAR
da t a to analyze t he possible shift in center of grav-
ity in obese people.
Because t he CAESAR dat a until now h ave been
availa ble only for a selected audie nce and because
t he re always will be new research questions , re-
search into other methods is still interesting to fol-
low. For t hat reason we focus on stereo-photogram-
metry (illust rated in Fig. 8), whic h makes it pos-
sible to capt ure motion in 10 t hree-dime ns ional
pictures per second. The advantage of t his system
is that it is more suitable for t he elderly, disabl ed
people (Hobson & Molenbroek, 1990), and children
because you do not need to sit or stand still. Th e
other advantage is the poss ibility of makin g a
smooth, complete su rface of x, y, z coordinates
ready for compute r -ai ded design (ill ust r ated in
Fig. 9), while the laser-sca nn ed surfaces fre que nt-
ly nee d some correction by filling holes left by t he
sca n.
CO NCLUSIO NS
• Most people don't realize t hat collecting anthro-
pomet ri c data costs abo ut $10 per measure ment
per subject
• Rai sing funds for collecting anthropometric dat a
for a ll disabled people see ms unrealistic
• Better design s of body spaces can be mad e by
small-sca le u sage studies in re lation to availa ble
a nthro pometric data
• For analysis of anthropometric a nd biomechanic
re lations of obese people in whee lchairs, CAE-
SAR data would be reco mme nde d (K. Robin ette,
203
 personal communication, 2005; D. Hobson, per-
sonal communication, 2005)
• Using anthropometry also means including
smart tools; see www.dined.nl
• Including end users during the design process
(participatory ergonomics) is an important con-
dition to make the difference between ordinary
production and universal or inclusive design.
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