Optical 3D scanning methods in biological research – selected cases

Shape measurement by optical methods is more and more often used in research both in human and veterinary medicine. As a result of the measurement, a set with marker positions in space or a cloud of points representing a scanned surface is obtained. The collected data contains useful information, but to extract it, it is necessary to process the data using appropriate algorithms. The aim of this study was to present the algorithms that the author used to process data for the purposes of analyzes which results and conclusions were included in four articles published earlier. The algorithms concern the determination and identification of markers on the body when measuring the posture of soccer players and the analysis of the cloud of points for determining the angles describing the base and surface of the hoof bones in the polar coordinate system. The measurement systems in which data were collected are also described. Sample results obtained with the presented analysis methods are shown. For the first case these are given directional views of the markers determined in 3D space, while for the other two the result containing information about the calculated angles in the form of a table and a graph are presented. The presented data processing methods and algorithms are not only applicable to the cases on which they were tested. Directly or after a small modification, they can be applied in another area.