AFRL's CAESAR researchers win 2008 Federal Laboratory Consortium award Published Feb. 4, 2008 By John Schutte Human Effectiveness Directorate WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio -- The Federal Laboratory Consortium for Technology Transfer (FLC) has selected the Civilian American and European Surface Anthropometry Resource (CAESAR™) project conducted at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate as winner of a 2008 Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer. The FLC presents the Award for Excellence in Technology Transfer annually to federal laboratory employees who have performed outstanding work while transferring technology from a federal laboratory to the commercial marketplace. The CAESAR technology transfer enables international interoperability of equipment and apparel, ensures products made anywhere in the world will accommodate their target populations, and is important to development of biometric identification systems, according to Dr. Kathleen Robinette, research anthropologist at the the AFRL Human Effectiveness Directorate's Computerized Anthropometric Research and Design (CARD) Laboratory who initiated and led the CAESAR project. In addition to Dr. Robinette, the CAESAR project team includes Dr. Gregory Zehner, senior research anthropologist; Scott Fleming, anthropologist; and several General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems personnel, including Sherri Blackwell, technical manager; Mark Boehmer, anthropology research technician; Cecelia Mitchell, anthropologist; Dennis Burnsides, senior systems analyst; Teresa Crase, crew systems engineer; and Dr. Jeffrey Hudson, biomedical scientist. Anthropometry research--the study of human body measurements--at the Human Effectiveness Directorate's Biosciences and Protection Division, Biomechanics Branch, has dramatically transformed engineering of virtually all products people wear or use by providing unique and novel fit visualization and analysis capabilities. Under the guidance of Dr. Robinette, a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement was established between AFRL and the Society of Automotive Engineers International. The research agreement brought 35 companies into partnership with the government including apparel makers, defense contractors, tractor manufacturers, automakers, and general merchandise retailers. That group embarked on the creation of CAESAR, the world's first body-measurement survey to deliver raw three-dimensional scans of every subject. Using a 3-D scanner, researchers can capture hundreds of thousands of data points of the human body surface in just a few seconds. Building upon this success, Dr. Robinette then spearheaded the founding of a worldwide organization known as WEAR (World Engineering Anthropometry Resource) that unites scientists in ten countries on six continents in a quest to better fit the human body to its clothing, technology, and environment. An awards ceremony will be held May 8 at the FLC national meeting in Portland, Oregon.