Methods for Measuring and Representing Automobile Occupant Posture

Many vehicle design and safety assessment applications use physical and virtual representations of vehicle occupants within the vehicle interior. Proper use of these human models requires accurate data concerning vehicle occupant posture and position. This paper presents techniques for characterizing vehicle occupant posture by measuring accessible body landmarks. The landmark locations are used to estimate joint locations that define a kinematic linkage representation of the human body. The resulting posture analysis techniques provide a unified method of measuring and reporting vehicle occupant postures that is suitable for use with both physical and virtual human models.