Ethical Praxis in Body Scanning:An Experimental Study into 3D laser Scanning in Fashion and Textiles/Surface Design

Ethical Praxis in Body Scanning:
An Experimental Study into 3D laser Scanning
in Fashion and Textiles/Surface Design

Artists, scientists, anthropometrists and tailors have accurately measured the human body with traditional tools, such as tape measures, callipers and accumulated experience for centuries. Due to the recent acceleration in the quality of 3D graphics technology and computer processing power, many industries who traditionally use 3D software as a design/visualisation tool, are now re-engineering and customizing the products they design and manufacture through the use of 3D Laser scanning technology.

In the world of Fashion, 3D graphics technology has at last emerged from the shadows of academic research projects and hit the high street. Integrated 3D body measurement and virtual fit/ visualisation technology has spread from the Web, into the physical world and is now available for shoppers in high street clothing retail stores.

3D body measurement and digital made to measure services are being accessed by the public to accurately record personalised fit data. The 3D measurement data is then translated to a 3D avatar (model) and an exact virtual body of the customer is created on screen. The customer can interactively view the 3D clothing product on their 3D virtual body, to help them assess and visualise their own fit, body shape and style in the clothing. When the customer is satisfied with the 3D fit on screen, the measurements and style data are emailed to the manufacturer for making up the individual, customised clothing product. This powerful 3D technology heralds the future of fashion design, manufacture, marketing and promotion and offers great potential for use in Fashion and Textiles/Surface/ Product design education.

The paper describes an experimental study into the application of 3D laser scanner technology for learning and teaching in undergraduate and postgraduate fashion and textiles design; clothing manufacture, fashion marketing, merchandising and promotion. The study focuses on a range of ethical approaches introduced to record and test the 3D scanning equipment with a student sample group. The sample group were scanned and their data, with their approval, was to used to simulate a range of individual 3D body shapes which can used for further research in UK fashion education and the clothing industry.

The ethical approaches we established including all additional methods applied for setup, testing of software, editing data and evaluation of the 3D laser scanner for body measurement are described, and the results of the user experiences are discussed. The study seeks to establish the overall efficiency of the use of ethics during the 3D scanning process and to investigate any potential value for use of the 3D scanner in fashion/ textiles design education. Conclusions provide recommendations on the potential effectiveness of connecting 3D body scanning methods to 3D clothing design and construction technology in an attempt to develop new integrated learning methods, and to positively enhance the future of fashion education.