Android Makers Encyclopaedia: S

Here are the few specimen entries for the Android Makers Encyclopedia "S" topics:


     Sagittal plane (n) An imaginary plane dividing the human body along a centerline, left from right, in the direction of walking forward. The associated android descriptive geometry has X = 0.

     Sample measurements: Some sample measurements made by Woodson are:

Assorted Measurements

from Woodson

Measurement (inches)
14 y/o female 5%ile 17 y/o female 5%ile adult female 5%ile
Body weight in pounds 81 92 104
Standing eye height
57.3
On January 15, 1996, a discrepancy was discovered between the "standing eye height" and the "standing stature." That is, a standing eye height of 57.3 inches is too high for an overall height of 59 inches. The appearance of such a subject is nowhere near normal! These values were checked again and were noted correctly.

Woodson's discussion of the standing eye height suggested that there should be 4.8 inches less than the overall height for females. If the usual slump effect is considered, then the standing eye height for females is another 1.2 inches less.

Specifically, a female 59 inches high would have a standing eye height of approximately 53 inches. Therefore, the standing eye height appears to be near .9 of the overall or "standing stature."

Standing stature 57.8 60.0 59.0
Crotch height 26.8
Sitting knee height 17.7 17.8 17.9
Waist depth (stomach to back) 5.8
Buttock.heel length sitting 33.1 34.0
Hip breadth sitting 11.2 12.0 12.3
Head breadth 5.5 5.5 5.4
Max. head height 7.3 7.5 7.5
Chin.pupil height 3.9 3.7 3.8
Hand length 6.1 6.1 6.4
Hand breadth @ metacarpal 2.7 2.7 2.7
Hand thickness " .8
Foot length 8.5 8.6 8.7
Ball of foot width 3.1 3.2 3.2
Head circumference 20.3 20.4
Neck circumference 10.9 11.3
Chest circumference (not bust) 27.6 29.7 30.4
Waist circumference 23.1 24.9 24.1
Hip circumference (standing) 29.9 32.1
Sitting eye height 25.1 26.9 27.4
Hand dynamometer strength (male=105#) squeeze
58#
Back Muscle lift (male 350#) maximum of 5th %le. 160#



     Scalp: Perhaps the quickest, cheapest, most effective method of making an android with a scalp is to glue on a wig. There are some very good, inexpensive wigs on the market. You can find sources in most any casual magazine or even some department or drug stores. Of course, the android's type shred should indicate this application.

In order to reduce confusion and permutation of type shreds, if you use a wig then use false eyelashes and eyebrows too. If you have the tools or technology to root hair (implant a scalp, strand by strand ), then use it for the eyelashes and eyebrows also.

     Shins: (L&R) (see "Tibia") form some of a cosmetic shape of the legs. Care should be taken to assure that the outer front surface is shaped as much like a similar human's as possible. Needless to say, this is more important for an android of the feminine gender. This is a construct of the Tibia. (See the "Hybrid Bones" section for more direct information.) The "shins" do not increment the skeletal element count because they are the common name to a surface of a bone.



     Skeletal and Ligatures: As a "SYSTEM:" The skeleton is the first or deepest layer which mostly defines the size (in height) and shape (in aspect of proportions) of the individual android or human. It would be very difficult to overcome errors in designs of the skeletal frame elements. (Perhaps the contents of Anatomy.INC should be here; or at least in parts as a MODule file.) Subtopics include, but may not be limited to:

[1]    Skeleton
    As a whole, the dry weight about 6# for a woman (8# for a man).

[2]    Skull

[3]    Spine

[4]         Body (See Gray (old) pg. 327.)
    Clavicle = collar bone
    Scapula = shoulder blade
         Ribs: About 18% of the dry weight.
    Sternum

[5]    Arms

[6]    Hands

[7]    Pelvis

[8]    Legs

[9]    Feet

[10]    (Growth)

[11]    Ligatures

[12]    Synovial membranes.



     Skeleton: There are 200See footnote 1 bones in the adult skeleton. It is possible that androtic construction will combine some of those which are still necessary. Some bones suture as a human grows and ages, such as many of the cranial bones, and thus can be formed into fewer units. Others can be made into one assembly such as the pelvis and coccyx.

Certainly some of the cranium and face bones such as the sphenoid, ethmoid, lachrymals, inferior turbinateds, and the vomer will not have an androtic counterpart. Therefore, these are omitted by design. However, the sphenoid has surfaces that support the shape of the face, especially around the eyes, which are incorporated within the structure of adjacent modules or assemblies.

Also, the android's skeleton can be simpler because of the nature of androids. Much of the space in animal bones are used by blood producing cells as a requirement of biology while an android's skeleton is primarily a frame. However, following the concept of an article relating to robots, android frame elements can contain certain necessary components.

Furthermore, it is not possible

yet

to fully articulate, or activate, an android frame with much of the complex musculature details of a human. An android is going to be a compromise of a human body and a machine so that even for the remaining skeletal elements, not every human tubercle, process, and attachments will be part and parcel of the android's bone designs for some time.

The aforementioned certainly helps to limit the number of needed drawings to describe the shape of the bones. Another limiting factor is that many bones will have a right and left side and drawings are assumed to be capable of describing symmetrical elements. Even though humans are somewhat asymmetrical, the normal human asymmetry can be emulated by the practical inability to make perfect mirror image items which are by nature limited production. Our attempt to make a symmetrical android will introduce its own intrinsic asymmetry.

A major problem is that anatomically, past the skeleton, its ligatures, and certain tendons, there are no major skeletal sections severable from the remainder of the systems. An HTA simply can not be "stuck together" in a manner like a (bisque) doll or a mannequin.



     Skin: Average area of skin: Females: 1.9 square meters for 180cm and 75kg. See "Area, Body surface" and [Woodson p. 707].

How much of the body weight is the skin?

This answer may be confusing: One source said: "The skin is about 16% of the body weight." This was on a The News That Didn't Make the News segment, KPQ radio AM, Wenatchee, WA, 11 February, 1993.

However, another source; Boyd, 12 March 1993, stated that the body weight divided by 16 equals the skin weight. Clearly these two functions do not produce the same results. This still begs the question: Is the skin 16% of the body weight or is it one-sixteenth (6.25%) the body weight? This represents a confusion factor of almost three.

Still another source, a relatively recent one, described the skin as weighing about 9-to-10 pounds. [Dean Adel, 3 Nov. `95] This would seem consistent with the "1/16th."

The final layer, as-it-were, of android making is applying the skin. The material and the technique to make a pliable, extensible, flesh colored skin is still in research and development even as of now although some dolls, mannequins and "inflate-a-dates" use a possible similar technology.

A "sensor skin" from the Kennedy Space Center is a NASA Technology Transfer. It "enables robots to sense their environments and handle extremely delicate tasks." [NTB, Sept. 1995, v.19, #9, p.71]

Since the lips do not have the epidermis, they should be masked prior to the application of the equivalent material. "Feathering" the epidermis application near the lips should prevent an unnatural overlapping edge at the lip line.

HUMAN FACTS

How much material for the skin is needed?

From a chart in Woodson's Human Factors EngineeringSee footnote 2, an infant may have about two square feet of skin while a tall and portly person may have more than 33 square feet. The chart suggests that there is some function using height and weight to compute the skin surface area. This is not a linear function because the extreme ranges, such as for the very short people, do not have many weight brackets with any areal values in the chart. The chart, with its minimal weight and height in the upper left corner, represents a deformed acute triangle with the sharp corner at the origin.

For example, a person 59.1 inches tall and 88 pounds, could expect to have about 13.99 square feet of skin. If that same person puts on another eleven pounds, they can be expected to increase the skin area to 14.75 square feet. There was no adjustment for the individual's sex. Their stature is described in terms of their height and weight.

The chart in "Area, Body surface" was adapted to the English measurement units for our comfort. See Woodson's Human Factors Design Handbook for the source if you are more comfortable with the metric system.

THE "BIRTHDAY SUIT"

Using an "inflate-a-date" as a skin source has been considered for budget shred identified androids. It may be better than nothing. How to install it without the obvious carving needed to make it fit your android is unknown.

Your android should be very human-like in appearance. In fact, you should see the desired likeness even without the externals applied. For modesty's sake, cover your android with a sheet or blanket if you have not already started to long ago to protect your work.

It is not unnecessarily prudish to cover your android. Most people find it somewhat upsetting to see an undressed doll or mannequin because of their likeness to humans. It is expected that this effect is more so because of the more human-like appearance of Hatfield Type Androids.

A possible source of a good material for the skin may have been discovered. From an unexpected source, Playboy, April 1994 issue, page 43, revealed that a "Body Parts Life Casting" material is available. A $24.00 kit, a latex-like substance, is available from:

Flax Art & Design    (Listed as "Flax Artist Supplies" in the AT&T 800 number directory.) 800/547-7778.

     Skin material: The response to my query to Flax Art and Design was not as informative as envisioned. However, as of this writing (July 9, 2001), there is a lead to the source of the material used by Mattel, Inc., to make the "twisty-tummy" Barbies.



     Skull-base width: (t t) A caliper measurement between each side of the face at a point not clear in Farkas' reference, but it appears close to the ear opening.

     Soleus: An intermediary layer muscle of the leg, [Gray, p. 436; Alexander, p. 48, 53-7, 74-5] is a broad, flat muscle under or anterior to the gastrocnemius. This starts at the back part of the head of the fibula and the other end merges with the gastrocnemius in the Achillis tendon. As a result, these two muscles make up most of the flesh of the calf.

This muscle of the calf, with others, extend the foot at the ankle. This action raises the heel by their attachment to the os calcis as part of walking and other activities. The soleus, in particular, "steadies the leg upon the foot."



     sto An anthropometric point of the face used by Farkas to describe the geometry. This is the a centerline point at the contact of the upper and lower lip s. (See Farkas' Figure IX-5, XIII-5.)

The coordinates of this point is; since the exact functions are not determined as of :

[0, fnY(sto), fnZ(sto)]

WHERE:
     X=0 because of the centerline function.

     fnY(sto) is a function using the desired body overall height as a factor. Some of the other facial height ratios and measurements are expected to be terms or factors within the final function yet to be determined as of . Of course, inequality between the right and left side could simulate human asymmetry.

     fnZ(sto) is a function using certain factors, among them being head depth calculations, measurements, or other determinations. The exact expression is undetermined as of . Of course, inequality between the right and left side could simulate human asymmetry.




Want to contribute, comment, etc.? Write me! ... Your suggestions are welcome.

as of July 9, 2001 ... Back to the Android Making Encyclopedia Page of/or to The Android Maker site's home page.


Footnote: 1    Apparently, Gray (page 33) did not count the hammer, anvil, and stirrup (the tiny bones in the ear) as material for the skeleton.

Footnote: 2    And by my conversion to English units, . . .


Copyright © 1996, 2001, All Rights Reserved
R. Elaine Hatfield