Automatic body measurement for mass customization of garments

We sketch the design of a simple lower body scanner with two scan heads, positioned in front of and behind the body. The scan heads are very simple, and we believe that the scanner could be built for less than $10 K. We then describe a simple model for the lower body consisting of two stacks of ellipses, and an algorithm for fitting this model to the points and silhouettes produced by the scanner. We outline a way of extracting body dimensions from this model and discuss in detail our method to determine a subject's crotch level, a rather difficult problem. Finally, we present simulation results on the expected accuracy of the body dimensions, obtained by means of a scanner simulator.