Everyone can agree on one thing; online shopping for shoes is a disaster 95% of the times. While you can definitely find reliable stores to get things, buying shoes that perfectly fit are still next to impossible.
One out of every three shoe pairs bought online is sent back mostly because they do not fit. The good old way of measuring shoes is still prevalent and works perfectly but it just not enough when you want to get things on the web. Researchers have developed a way of measuring feet with your smartphone camera. A researcher from Spain’s Instituto de Biomechanica, Dr. Juan Carlos Gonzalez who is behind the ingenious DOMEscan app says that you can virtually try on shoes just by taking three pictures of your foot. All the smartphone user needs is a standard A4 piece of paper.
All you need is a smartphone, the DOMEscan/IBVapp, a standard A4 paper, and well obviously your feet. Set your foot on the A4 paper, and take photos from above, left and right. The app will create a 3D scan of your feet and will compare it with the online database containing lots of three-dimensional images of the feet.
Dr. González, director of the institute’s clothing research department, says, “The pictures are sent to a server that performs a 3D reconstruction of the foot. In a few seconds, a 3D model of the aforementioned foot and more than 20 measurements are obtained. Any smartphone can be turned into a 3D foot scanner thanks to our technology. The research institute has also developed a freestanding scanner to be used in shoe shops.”
Once the app becomes successful, it is sure to give a boost to the online market of shoes and solve you lots of shoe troubles.