Development of a Low Cost Foot-scanner for a Custom Shoe Tailoring System

INTRODUCTION We propose a low-cost foot scanner to replace the expensive ones. Components used in our scanner and shape acquisition method are entirely different from those of other classical foot scanners. Several PC cameras are used instead of expensive CCD cameras. Also, the suggested scanner does not require expensive moving mechanism, emitters (laser generator or pattern generator) and some controllers. In shape acquisition process, the foot database concept is newly introduced. And we used stereovision technique and several deformation techniques to reconstruct a foot model. The scanner is made in a form that is simple enough to barely verify the proposed reconstruction method (Fig.1). For the verification, several strangely shaped foot models were fabricated and reconstructed using the suggested low-cost foot-scanner. Although the proposed scanner is not as accurate compared to the high-end active optical scanners, but it has been confirmed to be sufficient to be applied in custom-tailoring shoes.