Driver and passenger comfort, as related to automotive seats, is a growing issue in the automotive industry. Seat designers are creating seats that need to support people in a larger variety of postures. By depicting human musculo-skeletal structures, three-dimensional contours representing the skin surfaces of a small female, average male and large male in a range of postures have been developed using the JOHN software program.

Contour development was based on studying cross-sectional photographs of humans and data from studies performed in seated automotive environments. Because rotations about spinal joint centers are modeled, contours are predicted for a wide range of postures by attaching skin points to different musculo-skeletal landmarks. The contours can be manipulated by changing the amount of spinal curvature and the recline angle. Using this anatomically-based model, seat designers will be able to create seats that fit and support humans in a larger array of postures.