Towards Automated Capture of 3D Foot Geometry for Custom Orthoses

• Main Author: Madazhy, Rajeev
• Other Authors: Warren N. Waggenspack Jr.
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2004
• Subjects: Mechanical Engineering
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11092004-170632/

This thesis presents a novel method of capturing 3D foot geometry from images for custom shoe insole manufacture. Orthopedic footwear plays an important role as a treatment and prevention of foot conditions associated with diabetes. Through the use of customized shoe insoles, a podiatrist can provide a means to better distribute the pressure around the foot, and can also correct the biomechanics of the foot. Different foot scanners are used to obtain the geometric plantar surface of foot, but are expensive and more generic in nature. The focus of this thesis is to build 3D foot structure from a pair of calibrated images. The process begins with considering a pair of good images of the foot, obtained from the scanner utility frame. The next step involves identifying corners or features in the images. Correlation between the selected features forms the fundamental part of epipolar analysis. Rigorous techniques are implemented for robust feature matching. A 3D point cloud is then obtained by applying the 8-point algorithm and linear 3D triangulation method. The advantage of this system is quick capture of foot geometry and minimal intervention from the user. A reconstructed 3D point cloud of foot is presented to verify this method as inexpensive and more suited to the needs of the podiatrist.