A Low Cost 3D Foot Scanner for Custom-Made Sports Shoes

Conventional methods to obtain foot anthropometry for custom made sports shoes using anthropometer, callipers and measuring tapes are inaccurate due to the complex anatomy and curvature of the instep, foot arc and related joints. They lead to poor repeatability and large variances, particularly when measurements are taken of different people. Measurements from 3D model have been claimed as a perfect tool to obtain anthropometric data. However a commercial 3D foot scanner to create a 3D foot model can be very costly. In this paper we propose a low cost 3D foot scanner system by integrating available image capture technology such as the Kinect®, appropriate 3D scanning software and a foot scanner rig. An experiment was conducted to compare the anthropometry data taken using conventional method and from the 3D model. The differences recorded for all regions were found to be less than 5%, suggesting that the 3D model produced by this method is accurate. The use of 3D scanner has also decreased the measurement duration, thus increasing the repeatability whilst decreasing human errors that normally occur during the measurement process