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Nissan Employee Body Sizes Will Add to Database for Ergonomic Design

27 April 1998

Nissan Measures Up With CAESAR

    CARSON, Calif., April 27 -- Nissan employees in the Los
Angeles area are volunteering for a program aimed at making Nissan and
Infiniti vehicles more enjoyable and tailoring clothes that fit better.
    The Civilian American and European Surface Anthropometric Resource
(CAESAR) program is creating a database of three-dimensional body measurements
for use by project partners.  A laser scanning device measures and records
detailed geometry of volunteers' outer body surfaces.
    The first measurements are under way at the Nissan Research and
Development, Inc. facility in Los Angeles.  NRD, with headquarters in
Farmington Hills, Mich., and the Nissan Technical Center in Atsugi, Japan, are
supporting the CAESAR program coordinated by the Society of Automotive
Engineers and the Computerized Anthropometric Research and Design Laboratory
at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio.
    "This database will provide us with information far more realistic and
accurate than any data we've used in the past," said Linda Urette, project
engineer in NRD's marketability group.  "As consumers become more demanding of
the vehicles they drive, we must provide the most comfortable, useable
vehicles we can so men and women of all sizes and ages can enjoy their rides."
    She said the CAESAR database will assist, among other things, in seat
design, instrument panel layout, driver and passenger visibility and better
positioning of convenience items such as cupholders and interior storage
components.
    The CAESAR database also will be used by other project partners in the
apparel, aerospace and industrial machinery industries.  Its goal is to record
the measurements of 4,000 people in the United States and 5,000 people in
Europe.
    The database can develop highly detailed, 3D computer animation of
individuals meeting specific demographic criteria, such as gender, age,
height, weight and other basic physical characteristics.  These animations can
then be manipulated in computers for uses specific to a project partner's
need.
    "For example, using this data in a computer, we will be able to clearly
see differences in the ways a small woman and a large man reach for a car's
radio volume control," Urette said.  "We can make modifications in
computerized seat and instrument panel designs."
    After the first measurements are taken at the Nissan facility in Los
Angeles, the scanning device will be taken to seven other locations in the
United States.  Measurements in Europe are to begin in the fall of 1998 in the
Netherlands.
    In North America, Nissan's operations include styling, engineering,
manufacturing, sales, consumer and corporate financing, and industrial and
textile equipment.  Nissan in North America employs more than 20,000 people in
the United States, Canada and Mexico, and generates more than 70,000 jobs
through more than 1,500 Nissan and Infiniti dealerships across the continent.
More information on Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan
and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at http://www.nissan-na.com.

SOURCE  Nissan Motor Corporation