U.S. Navy Head Anthropometry for Helmet Design

The U.S. Navy, like other organizations, requires a good anthropometric data base for the development of helmets and other head protective equipment. We develop a requirements list for an anthropometric data base for protective helmets, and then test four available data bases against it. Where existing data bases do not meet current and future needs, we recommend strategies for appropriate additional data collection. Specifically we propose the collection of 3D digital data sets which contain scans of heads without helmets, and scans of those same heads wearing current and prototype helmets. This approach allows the registration of the 3D data sets, and allows the calculation of a helmet-to-head transformation matrix. Such a matrix is critical for the successful design of well fitting new helmet systems.