Track: Human Factors and Ergonomics

Abstract

Baby walkers have a huge patronage since its introduction in the early 15th century in Europe among parents aiding their children in developing their baby’s locomotor skills, a common misconception that had been overlook, due to poor consideration of the early designs injury reduction had been outlooked resulting to injuries possible, toe walking due to mismatch on the early designs versus the infant’s body measurements. Despite the plea of medical professionals in banning the product in the market due to reported cases of emergency room injuries caused by walkers (Molina, 2018) from which majority is from head and neck injuries along with reports that use of the baby device delays the developmental growth of the infant according to a cohort study and two cross sectional studies reporting developmental delays which has a long run to go since the evidence against the product is not enough considering the large number of baby walker users worldwide. Despite such plea market for walkers had been increasing according to the market analysis conducted by the authors potential market for the product is at 8,856 this 2018 and is projected to go up to 9,753 in 2022. A potential market size indicates a high social desirability for the device, thus the researcher sought to provide a correction to the design in order to minimize if not to eliminate possible risk of injuries. In order to develop a proposed design for the product, the researchers used anthropometry to determine the appropriate dimensions of the product. Identified which body dimensions will be needed as reference for the proposed product dimensions. After determining the appropriate body dimensions, the values for the dimension of the product parts with respect to the 5th and 95th . Materials to be used should be mainly made up of polyethylene and aluminum alloy.