F-cun Was Introduced into Anthropometry from Traditional Acupuncture Point-location Methods

摘要

Anthropometric data is the foundation of ergonomic design for various products and environments. The procedures for collecting anthropometric data are usually complicated and costly in terms of resources such as workforce, time, and money. Hence the common body dimension estimation methods (BDE methods) such as body proportions and regression methods were developed to convert old data into new ones. But there are limitations among current BDE methods: for instance, many of the data calculated with body proportions appear to be inconsistent for different groups of people (Lin et al., 2004; Park et al., 1999). In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), the finger cun system (i.e., the width of the patient's finger taken as a unit of measurement, F-cun in brief; cun pronounced as tsuen) is an intelligent way for locating acupuncture points on anyone's body. Since everyone's body is of a different size and shape, using a person's inborn measurement system makes finding the points a snap. Therefore, in order to correct the limitations of current BDE methods and maximize the value of the Taiwanese anthropometric database, F-cun was introduced into anthropometry from acupuncture point-location methods of the TCM. Each F-cun was used to establish body proportions for other F-cun, the stature (a representative of big length), hand length (a representative of small length) and hand circumference including thumb (a representative of circumference) respectively. Consequently, 12 constant body ratio benchmarks (CBR benchmarks) with F-cun that are least affected by gender and age were identified. The fact indicated that these 12 CBR benchmarks with easily-measured F-cun are available after 12 subjects were recruited as samplings to verify them.