Portable 3D body scanner for human metrics applications!

Security is sadly becoming a major factor in public buildings, plants and events as well as in travel. Visitors, and indeed sometimes staff need to be subjected to special scrutiny as they enter premises.

The world’s first portable 3D body scanner from Space Vision, (J), utilises nine board-level UI-1221LE USB cameras from IDS Imaging Development Solutions. Designed to be easily set up in a space of 198 x 230 x 222 cm, the body scanner is used in the human metrics business, where precise measurements of the human body are used in various applications, such as measurements for made-to-order clothes and in dress pattern making software or monitoring body shape as part of dieting and exercise regimes.

The system consists of 3 lightweight portable towers, each containing 3 of the board level cameras. The person to be measured stands in the middle of the space and a safe, low-intensity red laser light pattern is projected onto the body. Changes in the pattern due to the shape of the body are captured and the images analysed to generate around 1 million 3D data points within 2 seconds. All control and analysis software runs on a separate PC.

The compact UI-1221LE board level camera is an ideal choice for this application, with dimensions of 36.0 x 36.0 m x 20.2 mm and weighing just 16 g. It is equipped with a 752 x 480 pixel CMOS sensor. IDS implemented some slight modifications to the connector for Space Vision together with some additional features in the uEye API. The IDS Cockpit application, part of the IDS Software Suite supplied free with all uEye cameras, is used by Space Vision to adjust individual camera parameters and to check images after the set-up procedure is completed.