FUNDAMENTAL SITTING ANTHROPOMETRIC AND DIFFERENCES AMONG MALAYSIAN MALAYS, CHINESE AND INDIANS

FUNDAMENTAL SITTING ANTHROPOMETRIC AND DIFFERENCES AMONG MALAYSIAN MALAYS, CHINESE AND INDIANS

Md Deros,B., Daruis, D.D.I. and Mohd Nor, M.J.

Abstract: In ergonomic point of view anthropometric data is very important in product design and other applications. Hence, it is important that the data is representative of the target user or consumer of a product being designed. Few individual efforts has taken place in Malaysia in order to establish an anthropometry database that could be use to represent the Malaysian population. This is an addition to those efforts where each main race of Malaysian namely the Malays, Chinese and Indian has been measured. The measurement comprised of 16 dimensions, using traditional measuring tools. In this paper, 226 subjects were analyzed. Focus is given to seat design requirements such as sitting shoulder height for seatback lateral support, buttock to popliteal length for thigh support and sitting hip breadth for cushion width. There are significant differences between some body parts among the three races particularly in stature the proportion of the upper body part and the lower body part, which are highly correlated to body height. 

Keywords: Malaysian anthropometric, seat design, ethnic difference, stature, sitting.

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