UMTRI Experts Lead Major Data Gathering Effort – 3D Human Body Shapes

UMTRI has been a leader in human measurement since the early 1970s. Researchers in the Biosciences Group have conducted dozens of large-scale studies of youth and adults, measuring body dimensions, strength, and posture in a wide range of conditions. The results of these studies are used globally in the design of an enormous range of products, including clothing, protective equipment, and, of course, vehicles of all kinds. The Biosciences Group has developed design models that enable transportation safety engineers to predict the effects of design changes on safety outcomes as well as subjective assessments of comfort and accommodation. These findings have been used to improve child restraints, vehicle ingress/egress, headroom, seat design, and driver workstation layout.

Historically, body measurement has focused on “one-dimensional (1D)” measures, such as standing height and waist circumference, that can be obtained with simple manual instruments.  This type of data has been used to inform critical areas of health and safety research, including the development of physical growth curves and transportation safety standards. One of the most used 1D datasets was gathered by UMTRI researchers in the 1970s. However, these data are no longer representative of today’s US population, and the lack of three-dimensional (3D) information makes it difficult to apply the data in modern computer-aided design environments.

Biosciences researchers are embarking on a major effort to create a new public repository of 3D human body shapes, building on UMTRI’s current data presented at HumanShape.org.  State-of-the-art measurement and analysis methods developed at UMTRI will enable complete, detailed body shapes to be generated that are representative of the population and yet completely anonymized to respect privacy and confidentiality. The data will include measures of strength and body composition to support health-related research. The outcomes from this project will be publicly available to allow researchers and product developers to create the next generation of safe, comfortable, and accommodating research equipment and products. 

UMTRI’s research in the area of three-dimensional anthropometry has been supported by a wide range of organizations, including the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Defense, Federal Aviation Administration, Ford Motor Company, Toyota Motor Corporation, and Reality Labs Research, a division of Meta. 

Additional Information and website: www.humanshape.org

Relevant Publications

• Al-Dirini RM, Reed MP, Hu J, Thewlis D (2016) Development and validation of a high anatomical fidelity FE model for the buttock and thigh of a seated individual. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 44(9): 2805-2816. 
• Hu J, Zhang K, Reed MP, Wang JT, Neal M, Lin CH (2019) Frontal crash simulations using parametric human models representing a diverse population. Traffic Injury Prevention 19(S1).
• Hwang E, Hu J, Chen C, Klein K, Miller CS, Reed MP, Rupp JD, Hallman J (2016) Development, evaluation, and sensitivity analysis of parametric finite element whole-body human models in side impacts. Stapp Car Crash Journal 60: 473-508.
• Hwang E, Hu J, Reed MP (2020) Validating diverse human body models against side impact tests with post-mortem human subjects. Journal of Biomechanics 98:109444.
• Jones MLH, Ebert SM, Reed MP, Klinich KD (2018) Development of a three-dimensional body shape model of young children for child restraint design. Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering, 21(15):784-794. 
• Klein KF, Hu J, Reed MP, Schneider WL, Rupp JD (2017) Validation of a parametric finite element human femur model. Traffic Injury Prevention 18(4): 420-426.
• Park B-KD, Ebert S, and Reed MP. (2017) A parametric model of child body shape in seated postures. Traffic Injury Prevention 18(5):533-536. 
• Park B-KD, Reed MP, Kaciroti N, Love M, Miller AL, Appugliese DP, and Lumeng JC. (2018) ShapeCoder: A new method for visual quantification of body mass index in young children. Pediatric Obesity 13(2):38-93. 
• Reed MP and Jones MLH (2017) A Parametric Model of Cervical Spine Geometry and Posture. Technical Report UMTRI-2017-1. University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, Ann Arbor, MI.
• Reed MP and Park B-KD (2017) Quantitative Evaluation of Human Body Surface Modeling Methodology. Technical Report UMTRI-2017-5. University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute, Ann Arbor, MI. 
• Wang Y, Cao L, Bai Z, Reed MP, Rupp JD, Hoff CN, Hu J (2016) A parametric ribcage geometry model accounting for variations among the adult population. Journal of Biomechanics, 49(13): 2791-2798.
• Wiggermann N, Bradtmiller B, Bunnell S, Hildebrand C, Archibeque J, Ebert S, Reed MP, Jones MLH (2019) Anthropometric dimensions of individuals with high body mass index. Human Factors. 
• Wu J, Cai M, Li J, Cao L, Xu L, Li N, Hu J (2019) Development and validation of a semi-automatic landmark extraction method for mesh morphing. Medical Engineering and Physics70:62-71. 
• Zaseck LW, Chen C, Hu J, Reed MP, and Rupp J (2018) The influence of pre-existing rib fractures on GHBMC thorax response in frontal and oblique impact. Journal of Biomechanics 69:54-63. 
• Zhang K, Cao L, Fanta A, Reed MP, Neal M, Wang JT, Lin CH, Hu J (2017) An automated method to morph finite element whole-body human models with a wide range of stature and body shape for both men and women. Journal of Biomechanics 60: 253-260. 
• Zhang K, Cao L, Wang Y, Hwang E, Reed MP, Forman J, Hu J (2017) Impact response comparison between parametric human models and post-mortem human subjects with a wide range of obesity levels. Obesity, 25(10): 1786-1794. 
• Zheng J, Tang L, Hu J (2018) A numerical investigation of risk factors affecting lumbar spine injuries using a detailed lumbar model. Applied Bionics and Biomechanics #8626102. 
• Zhu F, Jiang B, Hu J, Wang Y, Shen M, Yang KH (2016) Computational modeling of traffic related thoracic injury of a 10-year-old child using subject-specific modeling technique. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, 44(1):258-271.