Recent Advancements in Contactless Anthropometry

Anthropometry is a widely used tool across scientific disciplines like, clinical nutrition for assessing growth, body composition and anticipating the health risks, and clothing industry for customized designing. The conventional tools such as the calipers and measuring taps are now being replaced by the digital devices. Among digital devices, the latest technology revolves around low cost 3-D optical imaging techniques which finds their application in all domains including clinical, research and even day-today lives. The literature survey here was carried out in SCOPUS and fifteen research articles, meeting the inclusion criteria, were selected for this review. The study indicated the propensity of the USA and image processing technologies in contactless anthropometric measurements. The consistent studies since 1996 and the domination of the application of the anthropometric data in health services and textile industry suggest necessity of this study. This study utilizes the domain of the optical imaging techniques and provide an overview of the potential applications, operational details and validation studies. The contactless anthropometry is rapidly transforming the static and dormant areas of ergonomics with numerous research opportunities and novel applications.