Posture normalisation of 3D body scans
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Updated: Jan 29, 2026

Author Spotlight: 3D Scanning and Augmented Reality for Enhanced Cancer Surgery Communication
Published on: December 15, 2023
Femke Danckaers1, Toon Huysmans1,2, Ann Hallemans3,4
1a imec - Vision Lab, Department of Physics , University of Antwerp , Belgium Universiteitsplein 1, B-2610 , Antwerp , Belgium.
Abstract:
For product developers that design near-body products, virtual mannequins that represent realistic body shapes, are valuable tools. With statistical shape modelling, the variability of such body shapes can be described. Shape variation captured by statistical shape models (SSMs) is often polluted by posture variations, leading to less compact models. In this paper, we propose a framework that has low computational complexity to build a posture invariant SSM, by capturing and correcting the posture of an instance. The posture-normalised SSM is shown to be substantially more compact than the non-posture-normalised SSM. Practitioner summary: Statistical shape modelling is a technique to map out the variability of (body) shapes. This variability is often polluted by variations in posture. In this paper, we propose a framework to build a posture invariant statistical shape model. Abbreviations: SSM: statistical shape model; 1D: one-dimensional; 3D: three-dimensional; DHM: digital human model; LBS: linear blend skinning; PCA: princial component analysis; PC: principal component; TTR: thumb tip reach.
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