A Method for Measuring the Weight of Body Segment Based on Human Model and Body Pressure Distribution

The weight of each human body segment is a very important parameter for zonal mattress design; it directly affects the design quality and lying comfort of zonal mattress. However, such researches or a method for measuring the weight of body segment to a living person has not been founded before. This paper explored a method for measuring the weight of body segment based on human model and body pressure distribution. Combined with three kinds of somatotypes, overweight, normal and underweight, using six different weight proportions of the human model, the pressure distribution experiment was carried out on a spring mattress and the regression model was constructed between the weight of each body segment and the force on human model. According to the mathematic model, the force of fifteen subjects (including seven females and eight males) on the same mattress and human anthropometrical measurement, the actual weight of each body segment could be calculated. The error analyzing shows that the mean relative error of the measurement results of three somatotypes was 2.4 %. The error may be caused by the anthropometric measurement of subjects and the experimental instrument. The error range could be accepted and the method can be applied in the practice of mattress design.