Anthropometry

Anthropometry is branch of science which deals with the study of measurement of the human individual in order to understand human physical differences. Nowadays, the anthropometry  used in several fields such as in the clothing designs, architecture, ergonomics and industrial design, where statistical data of the distribution of the body dimensions are used to optimize products. Changes in nutrition, cultural composition of  the populations and life styles and other factors lead to the changes in the distribution of the body dimensions and require anthropometric information collections.  

The creator of the anthropometry is Alphonse Bertillon. He was a French Police officer and biometrics researcher. In the year 1883, he gave his name to the system of identification depending on the unchanging character of the certain measurements of parts of the human frame. Alphonse Bertillon found by patient inquiry that many measures of the physical structures along with the dimensions of the bony structures or certain bones in the body stay quite stable all over the adult life. Alphonse Bertillon concluded that when these measurements are completed and recorded step by step each single individual will be easily differentiated from each and others.  This measurement system was then adapted to the police methods when the crime fighters found the value in being able to fix the individual’s identity.

A chart from Alphonse Bertillon's ‘Identification anthropométrique’ showing how to take measurements for his classification system:

There were ten measurements:

Width of the head from Temple to Temple; Width of the cheeks; Stretch -Length of the body from the left shoulder to the right long finger while the arm is raised up; the length of left foot; the length of the left longer finger; Length of head from crown to forehead; Length of the right ear; length of the left cubit from elbow to tip of the middle finger; Height; Bust- the length of the chest from head to the seat measured when seated.

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