3D body measurement technology

Abto Software has entered the partnership to design and implement the concept of 3D measuring technology. Our company has covered all stages from investigation, product prototyping, and extension to maintenance. At first, the concept was complicated – it required numerous images to capture every angle. After a thorough investigation, we started the implementation of another concept, which works with only 2 photos and absolutely no help from an outside person.

At the very beginning of the prospective partnership, our team has joined to deliver a challenging R&D project. But since the cooperation was fruitful, our company was involved to provide full-cycle services, which include functionality updates, and ongoing support & maintenance.

The project’s main goals:

• Develop a SaaS 3D measurement technology to provide valuable services to businesses across industries – clothing manufacturers, online and offline retailers, fitness companies, and others
• Integrate the 3D body measuring solution into businesses and cover further support and maintenance, considering numerous custom parameters for each individual customer

and improve the existing UI/UX design for better user experience.

The platform is designed to leverage advanced algorithms and analyze the user-provided body measurements. The solution can, optionally, also analyze data from 3D scans to identify the optimal clothing size by regarding the retailer’s specific chart.

This helps to overcome common online shopping challenges and deliver a more enjoyable experience.

The concept we introduced ensures ease of use for the platform’s end-user:

• When registering, the user must provide personal data (age, gender, height, weight)
• Before measuring, the user must place the phone at knee- to waist-level
• The application will provide voice prompts on how to position the head and limbs
• With the front camera, the application will take two photos – from the front and the side
• After that, the application will perform photo segmentation – the system will remove the background and create a monochrome white avatar
• To perform the measuring, the application will send the avatar to the cloud server

The features to mention:

• The registration is simple
• The photos aren’t uploaded to the cloud server to ensure end-consumer safety
• The time to scan and process are minimal
• The measurements are saved to track body changes

By applying extensive expertise, we provided:

• Technology and market investigation
• Solution design
• Product prototyping – we designed and implemented an algorithm to recognize body measurements and provide clothing recommendations
• Web and mobile development
• Third-party integration
• Functionality extension – we built an additional analytics dashboard to assess user preferences
• Ongoing support and maintenance

To provide additional value, we covered:

1. Body measurement SDK development
2. Architecture refactoring

Concept development

The introduced concept at first was complicated and hindered convenient application – the measurements have required 24 pictures to capture the body from every possible angle and assistance from an outside person. To handle this challenge, a thorough investigation was conducted. It resulted in the implementation of the technology, which allowed the measurements to be quickly performed with only 2 photographs and without someone’s help.

Furthermore, to eliminate the need for bulky sensors and markers often used in human motion assessment, pose detection was employed for more precise measurements – requiring only a smartphone or tablet. This ensures correct body posture, including proper arm and leg positioning.

Data protection

To provide accurate measurements, the application uses photographs, which may raise some privacy concerns. To resolve this problem, we did in-depth research and implemented a technology, which segments the photo and alters the image, so that personal images aren’t uploaded to the cloud server, only masks.

Exposure adjustment

Any additional light sources (windows, lamps, mirror reflections) might disfigure image exposure and quality. To maintain necessary exposure, we set dynamic adjustment at the algorithm level.

SDK development

During development, we focused on bringing maximum convenience without affecting overall performance. After studying various resources and spending time brainstorming, we selected the most suitable approach, which enabled SDK development.

The part of the app functionality responsible for Scanning and Image Processing has been extracted into a separate library whose API can be used by third-party clients to develop their own apps. This work contained a number of engineering challenges in API Design, Software Architecture etc.

Architecture refactoring

The customization was requiring numerous configurations, which resulted in differences in the system’s logic. In order to support UI logic, we optimize the configurations for each individual customer and perform architecture refactoring, which somewhat limits customization but ensures smooth operation.

By leveraging domain-specific knowledge and experience, we implemented 3D body measurement technology for the B2B model, benefiting businesses – apparel manufacturers, online and offline retailers, fitness providers, – and end-users across industries.

At the very moment, we assist the company in the smooth integration of the 3D body measurement technology into the customers’ platforms, simultaneously providing ongoing support and maintenance.

Our 3D body scanning technology is twice as accurate if compared to manual hand measuring and provides numerous calculations – chest, stomach, waist, hip, bicep, forearm, thigh, calf, and more – in every new scan. The platform can be successfully used to streamline size recommendation, pattern design, apparel production, and more, providing value to manufacturers and retailers.

The product:

• Increases reach – by providing unique functionality, the solution is helping the client reach more potential customers and enter new markets
• Drives revenue – by rising sales volumes, the solution is, naturally, multiplying revenue