Evaluation of Accuracy in Traditional and 3D Anthropometry

We evaluated the accuracy of two types of 3D body scanners and scan-derived measurements using three types of test objects: a gauge; an anthropomorphic dummy; and human subjects. To provide the background data to show the necessity of such evaluation, repeatability of landmarking by a measurer and the repeatability of the landmark locations determined manually using a mouse were evaluated. The results showed that (1) repeatability of scan-derived body dimensions were not always better than manual measurements obtained by traditional methods, (2) the errors in landmarking by a measurer were not always the main cause of measurement errors in scan-derived measurements, (3) accuracy of whole-body scanners was not uniform within the scanning volume, and (4) evaluation using a dummy could underestimate the measurement errors in the human scan-derived data. This protocol may be available for other scanner systems. The necessity of a much simpler certification protocol for daily use was also discussed.