3D body scanning from A to Z

Developed in the late 1980s, 3D body scanners were initially introduced as a response to the growing needs of the apparel industry to improve the fit of their ready-to-wear garments. Today, they are widely used in many spheres from sports to healthcare as a quick and accurate way to gain quantitative and qualitative information about the evolution of the human body.

Let’s see in more detail how different 3D body scanners work and what tasks they can handle.

Whether you’re planning to introduce 3D scanning into your business, hospital, orthopedic clinic, clothing store, or VFX studio, there are a few challenges to bear in mind when scanning a person. Here are our tips for overcoming them.

1. Face and body movement

It’s only natural that people will move slightly or blink when you’re walking around them with a scanner – they will often do so without even noticing. To avoid that, plan the position that the person will be standing in beforehand.

Scanning someone may only take a few minutes, but you still need to make sure that their pose is comfortable, so they can hold it without moving. When people do end up moving, software solutions like Artec Studio allow you to easily fix the scans of a person who accidentally moved during the capture session.

It’s also important to make sure that the scanner you’re using is fast enough. Artec handheld scanners capture wide areas at a very high FPS (frame per second), allowing you to scan people’s bodies much faster than other devices.

Face scanning is super fast and usually takes just 5-7 seconds – enough time for a person to look without blinking. Another way to avoid blinking is to ask the person being scanned to choose one point in front of them (slightly above their eye level to avoid directly looking at the flashlights) during capture. It’s also best to capture the top of the head while they’re seated (after all, they may be taller!)

People yawning or simply changing their facial expression can also pose a challenge. Because of this, we recommend capturing the head and the body in two different scanning sessions.

2. Hard-to-capture body parts (and hair)

Another common challenge is capturing tricky, thin, and hard-to-reach parts of the body like fingers, armpits, legs, hair, and ears. Here are a few useful tips that we at Artec have learned through scanning thousands of people.

Scanning hands

We know it can be hard to keep your hands still for several minutes – not everyone has the patience of a monk or the will of a yoga teacher. To avoid any movement, we recommend asking the person being scanned to hold their hands close to or against their body. If for your particular case, you need to capture the fingers and hands in high detail, we recommend scanning them first, and then capturing the rest of the body for best results. In some cases, it may also be helpful to scan a person in a T-pose or A-pose, especially when capturing precise upper-body measurement data or 3D modeling for animation.

When the arms are kept on the hips, make sure to pay extra attention to scanning the inner sides of the elbows and the armpits. For Artec scanners such as Eva or Leo, we recommend holding the devices at extreme angles from the front and the back to get as much data as possible. Not scanning these areas thoroughly enough can result in bad dark texture.

Scanning legs

Legs are generally easier to scan since they are less likely to move. Still, there are a few things to keep in mind. Make sure that the person you’re scanning is standing on some textured floor, e.g. a colored carpet or a rug, with both legs inside your scanner’s field of view for stable tracking.

We also recommend pointing the device at this textured floor or the person’s feet, whenever you are changing your position. Most importantly, don’t forget to scan the inner side of each leg. To make it easier, you can ask the person to put one foot a little bit forward before the scanning starts. This prevents people’s legs from being “fused” together in resulting meshes.

Scanning hair

Hair is another tricky surface to capture for body scanners as it’s usually thin, and can be messy or uneven.

There are a few simple rules to remember when scanning hair. At Artec, we recommend first brushing the hair to flatten it prior to the scanning session. This way your scanner’s pattern can be projected on the surface much more accurately, yielding a better scan. If the shape of the hair is difficult to scan, you can also flatten the hair a bit by combing or dampening it with water.

For stable tracking, we recommend always having peoples’ shoulders in the scanner's field of view. Before scanning people with long hair, it can also be helpful to place the hair off to the back and in one place so it is less scattered.

Straight hair can often be scanned without issue. Wavy, curly, and thicker hair is a bit trickier, but it can still be captured with a little treatment. Capturing in a slow arc-like motion can help improve results, though body scanning generally needs to be completed quickly to prevent alignment issues caused by movement.

Finally, when capturing complicated haircuts, we recommend increasing the scanner’s sensitivity to help it detect and capture fine surfaces more easily.

3. Scanning shiny, dark, or transparent surfaces

Transparent, shiny, or dark surfaces are known to be hard to capture. Shiny surfaces tend to reflect scanner light patterns while dark surfaces absorb light, making it impossible for a device to make patterns on an object. The same goes for transparency because scanners emit light that goes straight through.

For more stable and even results, we don’t recommend wearing anything semi-transparent, black, or glossy, like leather clothing or jewelry. If the item cannot be taken off, you can try using a matte spray or talc powder to cover shiny areas.

With some scanners, it can be best to ask a person not to change their pose for a few seconds, so you can check your scan for any missing data. If you’ve missed a large area of the body it is much better to scan it immediately rather than ask the person to take the same pose later – it will never be exactly the same.

If you’re scanning with Artec Leo, all that is unnecessary, as you can check data as you scan on a touch screen panel in real time. For more information on how to scan a human body, check out our video tutorial.

Data gathered using 3D body scanners can be used in a variety of applications, from creating 3D-printed figurines to monitoring patient progress. Such use cases continue to progress, opening up fresh opportunities in the fields of design, e-commerce, healthcare, and more.

Avatars & 3D-printed figurines

3D scanning someone to create custom figurines and avatars (or 3D selfies as they are sometimes called) can be a lot of fun. Getting a 3D scan of yourself is easy and fast – almost as fast as taking a photo on a smartphone. Resulting models can either be used to personalize online profiles, or make nice little desktop mascots, like the miniatures made by CoKreeAte with Artec Eva.

Fashion (virtual try-ons)

People come in different shapes and sizes, and despite the best efforts of big fashion brands, it’s hard to fit everybody into a standard size range.

With many customers also shopping online, it’s now as hard as ever to make sure you get the correctly sized product. To make things easier, many stores are starting to integrate 3D scanning and VR into their platforms, so users can try items on in virtual fitting rooms, simply by uploading their 3D avatar.

Some countries have even employed 3D scanning to conduct anthropometric surveys – gathering data that could one day be used to improve sizing.

E-commerce

Alongside fashion applications, professional 3D scanning is also finding wider applications in e-commerce. From clothing items to home furniture, many firms are now turning to 3D scanning to promote products online.

Take Asics, the running shoe manufacturer that uses Space Spider 3D scanning for developing and marketing realistic footwear products. As well as ensuring the quality of its running gear, the company uses the technology to create video and animated materials for innovative marketing campaigns. Strictly speaking, it’s not direct ‘body scanning.’ But e-commerce is emerging as a promising area for 3D scanning as a means of promoting worn products.

Healthcare

Another area where 3D scanning is transforming body measurement is healthcare. Medical practitioners traditionally measure the body’s size and shape by hand, before using that data to assess patient health and offer treatment.

Thanks to the advent of 3D body scanning tech, doctors and clinicians can now get accurate measurements of a patient in just a few seconds. They can then use this external data (all alone, or in combination with the data from more invasive procedures like X-rays, MRIs, ultrasounds, or CT scans) to create individual and custom-fit prostheses and orthoses.

As well as evaluating and monitoring patients, 3D scanning can also be used to simulate or visualize the results of cosmetic surgery, and much more.

CGI (games, movies, special effects)

Realistic full-body models captured with 3D scanners are also widely used in many modern video games, action movies, and VR/AR applications. Film studios use 3D body scanners to capture actors’ bodies and create so-called “digital doubles” to use them in visual effects and 3D animation. Video game developers scan famous actors for the same reason – instead of creating a 3D character from zero, they scan certain actors to create a base for the future character.

Some video game developers go further and allow their players to create a personalized 3D avatar from a selfie and play as themselves instead of using a pre-designed character. Many VR and AR applications also allow the user to upload a personalized 3D avatar which they can use during video conference calls or games.

And there you have it: Body scanning from A to Z!