Perceived, Actual, and Seasonal Changes in the Shape of the Face, Hands and Legs.

Abstract

Abstract. In this study, we measured the shape of the face, legs, hands and fingers during the course of a day to determine the amount of swelling. We examined the relationship between the perception of swelling and the degree of actual swelling, and considered the influence of seasonal factors. The topology of the face was measured using the 3D curved shape measuring apparatus, VOXELAN, while the circumference of the legs and fingers and the volume of the hands were also recorded. The measurements were used to determine the amount of change in each parameter, which was then used to determine the degree of swelling. The subjects for the experiment were 10 healthy Japanese women aged 24 to 30 years of standard build (BMI: 19.3-25.0). Measurements were carried out twice a day in the mornings and afternoon, first between 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. and then between 4:00 and 5:30 p.m. At each measurement session, subjects were asked if they perceived swelling to have occurred. We investigated the relationship between the degree of actual swelling and the reported perception of swelling. We also investigated the influence of seasonal factors by conducting the same tests on the same subjects in summer (August 1997) and in winter (February-March 1998). The relationship between perceived and actual swelling differs depending on the part of the body. For the face, actual swelling correlates strongly with perceived swelling. This trend is particularly noticeable for the upper eyelids. For the thigh and lower leg, on the other hand, there was no significant difference. The frequency with which subjects reported the perception of swelling varied depending on the area of the body, and was generally extremely low for the thighs, hands and fingers. With respect to seasonal variation, swelling in the face, hands and feet tended to be more pronounced during the summer. In the facial region, the biggest difference was in the lower eyelid, where swelling increased more than five times. This level of variation suggests that the atmospheric temperature is the main factor affecting swelling.

Self‐perceived and objective measurements of facial puffiness in Chinese women

“…These results are in line with previous findings where a strong correlation was observed between perceived swelling and actual measurement of swelling by facial topology measurements in the upper eyelids 5 . The perceived and actual decrease in facial puffiness from visit one to visit two may be due to a shift in dermal fluid from the face to the legs due to gravity during the course of the day 2…”

“…Mild or normal fluid retention (often referred to as puffiness) is a subclinical symptom experienced by many women and influenced by several factors such as gravity/diurnal variations, climate, menstrual cycle, pregnancy, high sodium intake, and aging 1‐6 . The diurnal variations and gravity‐dependent shift of skin tissue water have been measured by several groups 2,7 .…”

“…This suggests that dermal fluid shifts from the face to the leg by gravity from morning to afternoon. A study that determined facial puffiness via facial topology showed that facial puffiness was more pronounced during summer, especially in the lower eyelid 5 …”

Development of a new chinese bra sizing system based on breast anthropometric measurements

“…3D-rugle (Murakami et al, 1999;Sohmura et al, 2004) was applied to obtain simple measurements such as height, width, thickness and circumference. Rapidform (Lee et al, 2004;Rapidform, 2004) was used to measure detailed breast variables obtained from the cross-sections and the breast bottom curve.…”

Facial cues to age perception using three-dimensional analysis

“…Previously, 3D form measurements were used to evaluate partial transformations of the face area [26–28]. Although some studies have statistically analyzed 3D facial forms, these were conducted for anthropometric analysis [29] and to examine the link between perceived and measured face shapes [30].…”