3D foot scanner based on 360 degree rotating-type laser triangulation sensor

3D foot scanner is a non-contact type device that measures the shape of a foot using laser triangulation sensors. In general, a laser triangulation sensor is equipped with a single camera and a line-laser. Using only one laser triangulation sensor is insufficient to acquire accurate surface information of the full foot. In addition, the single camera in the laser triangulation sensor could cause occlusions when the projected laser line is blocked by protruding surface areas of the foot. To overcome these problems, modern 3D foot scanners use multiple laser triangulation sensors that consist of dual cameras. Most of the general 3D foot scanners use a total of eight cameras and four line-lasers making the device costly. In this paper, we propose an architecture of a 360' rotation-based 3D foot scanner that consists of a single rotating-type 3D sensor and a linear-type 3D sensor. The rotating-type 3D sensor consists of two line-lasers and a single camera and acquires 360' surface information of the upper part of the foot. The linear-type 3D sensor consists of a single line-laser and a camera and acquires sole surface information. Since the proposed 3D foot scanner has only two cameras and three line-lasers, it can be used as a cheap alternative to many existing models.