NEW METHOD BASED ON IMAGE ANALYSIS TECHNIQUE FOR BREASTFEEDING POSTURE DATA COLLECTION
Abstract
Anthropometry data is a branch of ergonomic that must be embedded into product design to ensure comfort and efficiency. In order to maintain mobility for collecting anthropometry data, manual measurement method is always applied. This paper presents an automatic method that is flexible, cheap and fast to do data acquisition using image recognition system. The data collected were meant to be used in redesigning a compact (in size) support pillow for breastfeeding that is suitable for travelling. Subjects were 100 Malaysian working mothers from Klang valley. Data from the system were compared to manually measured data. T-test showed that there were no significant differences between the two system at p<0.001. It was also shown that the data were easily measured within a couple of days. It was concluded that image analysis system is a promising method that could replace 2D anthropometry data collection.