A new statistical method can help researchers predict the postures of drivers of automobiles, based on software used to design car interiors. Key anchoring points are eye and hip locations, which are central to interior design features. The tool can adjust postures based on 69 men and women in 18 different vehicle designs and seat configurations. University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) researchers used regression functions with inverse kinematics to create a predictive tool that can be implemented in concert with other design software. This enables prediction of postures for individual drivers, versus current models that predict for population distributions; can be applied to any human figure linkage; and direct prediction of hip and eye locations for maximum accuracy.
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