Homologous human shape modeling is critical to utilize 3D human body data for product design. Software libraries for homologous modeling were developed and application software to model the foot form was also developed using the libraries. This software was incorporated into a compact low-cost foot scanner. With the scanning system, retailers can select/recommend well-fitting shoes to customers. By storing a copy of scanned data that does not contradict with the privacy of customers, customers can enjoy browsing their foot shape data or shopping in electronic commerce. This system is useful to make a large database of foot forms. Possible problems in making a large database in this manner are discussed. With 3D body scanners, a large database on body dimensions and forms can be developed efficiently. It is difficult, however, to utilize the information on the 3D human body forms for the product design only with millions of surface data points and dozens of anatomical landmarks. Millions data points are verbose to describe a body form, and they have no anatomical correspondence. Landmarks have anatomical correspondence, but they are too few to represent the surface form. Thus, shape representation methods using hundreds to thousands data points with anatomical correspondence have been proposed. Such methods are called "normalized modeling" [1] or "homologous shape modeling" [2]. The modeling protocol is not unique, but the modeling guideline is defined reasonably based on anatomical correspondence and application purposes of the models.
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