Fuzzy clustering of facial form for prototyping environmental protection equipment

Emphasis on the human-to-aircraft interface has magnified in importance as the performance envelope of today´s aircraft has continued to expand. A major problem is that there has been a corresponding increase in the need for better fitting protection equipment and unfortunately it has become increasingly difficult for aircrew members to find equipment that will provide this level of fit. While protection equipment has historically had poor fit characteristics, the issue has grown tremendously with the recent increase in the numbers of minorities and women. Fundamental to this problem are the archaic methods for sizing individual equipment and the methods for establishing a sizing system. This paper documents recent investigations by the author into developing new methods to overcome these problems. Research centered on the development of a new statistically based method for describing form and the application of fuzzy clustering using the new shape descriptors. A sizing system was developed from the application of the research, prototype masks were constructed and the hardware tested under flight conditions