Translation into English has recently been completed for excerpts on ear and craniofacial anthropometry from an innovative, unpublished Bulgarian-language doctoral thesis written in 1986 by a plastic surgeon, M. M. Madzharov, MD-PhD; MD-SC. Most remarkable among the many benefits of the translation was revelation of heretofore unavailable text descriptions for 49 dimensions. Of these, 43 explain the titles and abbreviations with summary statistical data on ear measurements for young adults that were published in 1989 in the English language. Especially valuable among these data were four new and unique, long-axial ear lengths, all measured from a common ear landmark. These could locate “station planes” for cross-section views of human ears, similar to those for 3-D coordinate systems in aircraft and spacecraft fuselage engineering. Examples explaining the concepts and values of such a new approach to ear anthropometry are herein introduced, described and illustrated, together with previously recommended improvements in ear anthropometry notation and illustration, a virtual Ear Primary View Plane, a section plane through the ear long axis, newly introduced “semi-width” measurements extending perpendicular to the aforementioned section plane, new concepts of “view depths,” which are measured perpendicularly from the Ear Primary View Plane toward ear surfaces and a previously described three-axis aircraft motion analogy for defining static ear orientation. These innovative approaches are advocated for adoption by future researchers, designers of related hardware, modelers and standards developers.
Revisiting the shortage of seafarer officers: a new approach to analysing statistical data
