3D human ear modelling with parameterization technique and variation analysis

Abstract

Anthropometry is vital to provide design references when seeking proper product fit. Nowadays, 3D anthropometry is widely used to provide more size and shape details for improving product designs. However, 3D ear anthropometry is still at an explorative stage, considering the complex ear morphology and other technical obstacles. The proposed research method in this study is applicable to analyse the 3D point cloud of the entire external ear. With the cross-parameterisation technique, the dataset was used to explore the morphological characteristics of the ear. Ear dimensions were automatically extracted and further analysed to explore the gender and symmetry differences using two-way ANOVA. The 3D ear models were investigated through Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The most significant variation was found in the helix and concha region, and the overall ear size is the second important factor determining ear variance. The statistical models were generated as 3D design references for ear-related products.

Practitioner summary: This study revealed the morphological variations of the entire 3D external ear with a parameterised 3D ear dataset. Based on the PCA findings, a set of statistical models were generated as design references for product evaluation digitally or physically.

Keywords:

• Parametric modelling
• 3D human modelling
• principal components analysis
• ear anthropometry

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Kwok, Zhang, and Wang (2012) for sharing their cross-parameterization program for data processing.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The research is supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. PolyU/RGC 15622016).