The Conference on Standardization of Anthropometric Techniques and Terminology.

The conference, attended by anthropologists, engineers, dental and medical researchers, physical educationists and statisticians, took place on 28–30 March 1967 in the Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. The ultimate purpose was to improve the comparability of anthropometric data from all workers, by establishing standards for the many new dimensions required in engineering anthropology, and by developing a terminology that reconciles the new standards with previous usages. In this effort, the group selected a list of dimensions (though with dissent on type and number) recommended as a minimum for all human biological surveys; and they chose from previous usage a terminological structure whose form, content and mode of presentation they recommended as standard practice by all anthropometrists. Both official and dissenting lists are presented, and the terminological structure is described, with examples. Despite solid progress toward a standardized technology encompassing both classical and modern practices, the conference left numerous points of technique or terminology unsettled, some of which are briefly described. Hence future meetings appear necessary, perhaps annually, until such remaining problems can be resolved.