Body Measurement Using 3D Handheld Scanner

Abstract

Body measurement is the first process that must be encountered before any custom-made compression garment can be designed. The current practice of obtaining the measurement is by traditional methods using tools like measuring tape. However, this method is considered to be time-consuming and usually not accurate. The most popular solution to the problem is by using non-contact measurement. The development of the 3D whole body scanner has made non-contact body measurement become a reality due to its capacity to capture a vast amount of information. However, the cost to buy the whole body scanner is quite expensive. Moreover, their sizes are also bulky which make them less portable. Thus, a handheld body scanner provides a solution to the problem. Despite that, current handheld scanner only provide image and visualization aspect, but not the measurement aspect. This paper reports the development of a method to acquire body data from a 3D handheld scanner. In this new method, the point cloud of a body part was collected using the handheld scanner. Then, the data was transformed into point coordinates. Several processes were developed to filter the number of points to allow for faster processing time and increasing the measurement accuracy. In the first process, only points at specific height/layers are selected. In the second process, the remaining points are rearranged according to their height and angle. In the last process, the number of points is further reduced. In this process, the number of points per layer is limited to 72 points. Results show that the method can be used to determine body measurement.