A method for acquiring information of a foot, the method includes: acquiring an image captured by simultaneously photographing a user's foot and an item having a standardized size; and calculating information of the user's foot from the image. The calculating the information of the user's foot from the image includes: calculating positions of vertices of the item from the image; and calculating a region where the user's foot is located in the image. The calculating the positions of the vertices of the item from the image includes: calculating one or more feature points corresponding to a corner in the image; and selecting the vertices of the item among the one or more feature points, and the one or more feature points are calculated by using brightness values of pixels in the image.

The invention relates to an inspection method of a shoe worn by a foot of an individual comprising the following steps: acquiring (S1) a thermal image of the shoe when it is worn by a foot of the individual by means of a thermal camera, determining (S2), from the thermal image of the shoe, a lower limit of the foot of the individual, determining (S3) a position of the shoe relative to the thermal camera at the time of acquisition of the thermal image, and deducing (S4) of the position of the shoe relative to the camera and of the lower limit of the foot, a distance between the lower face of the sole and the lower face of the foot of the individual.

A measuring board having a simple structure is to be provided. A measuring board includes a main body having a foldable structure, and the main body includes a placement part on which a foot is placed and that includes a measurement marker, a wall part provided adjacent to the placement part and configured to position a heel during measurement, and supporting structures and that support the wall part. With such a configuration, a measuring board having a simple structure can be provided.

A method of customizing a boot, for example a skate boot, includes generating a tridimensional digital representation of a wearer's foot using numerical data obtained by scanning the wearer's foot. A boot with a foot size corresponding generally to a foot length of the wearer's foot is selected. A core is also selected. The core, a medial side insert and a lateral side insert are inserted into an internal space of the boot such that the medial side insert and the lateral side insert straddle the core. The medial side insert and the lateral side insert are manufactured based on the tridimensional shape of the foot. At least a portion of the boot is then heated such that the boot is thermoformed to follow surfaces of the medial and lateral side inserts. The core, the medial side insert and the lateral side insert are then removed from the boot.

Articles of footwear and methods of making articles of footwear including one or more continuous threads wound around anchor points. The winding of the one or more continuous threads forms a thread pattern that imparts desired characteristics to components of the article of footwear. Thread lines of the thread pattern may be bonded together. In some embodiments, thread lines may be bonded with a bonding layer.

Various articles, such as footwear, apparel, athletic equipment, watchbands, and the like, and methods of forming those articles are presented. The articles are generally formed, in whole or in part, using rapid manufacturing techniques, such as laser sintering, stereolithography, solid deposition modeling, and the like. The use of rapid manufacturing allows for relatively economical and time efficient manufacture of customized articles. The articles may include one or more reinforcements configured to provide added durability to various regions of the articles. In addition, the articles may be formed from two or more materials in a single rapid manufacturing process. The rapid manufacturing additive fabrication technique may also include using of varying intensities of the laser to fuse material to form the articles.

A method for measuring shoe comfort level is provided. A 3D polygonal model of a foot is constructed from an array of images taken from multiple angles of the foot and leg. Each vertex point is loaded with foot anthropometric sensitive characteristics information. A 3D model of a shoe's inner space is constructed with a scanning device having various opening modes. Each of shoe inner space vertex points is complimented by shoe data such as material type, rigidity, structure, vamp and shoelaces. The 3D polygonal foot model and the vertex inner shoe space model are fitted together and the comfort level for the foot is defined with the simulation of movement.

A properly sized article of clothing, such as footwear, can be identified by performing a 3D scan of a corresponding portion of a user's body and comparing the size, shape, and external volume of the corresponding portion of the user's body with known sizes, shapes, and internal volumes of articles of clothing offered by a retailer. This process can increase the ability of retailers to match consumers with properly fitting articles of clothing, such as footwear. Additionally, the proper size, and best fitting styles of footwear can be recommended to the user from a variety of offerings provided by the retailer. 3D scanning the user's body allows both retailers and customers to account for subtle size differences that exist in various clothing products and allow consumers to be matched with the best fitting clothing without the need to purchase or return multiple items.

A shoe sizing assembly for measuring and constructing custom shoe sizes includes a panel that is positionable on a support surface for having a person's foot placed thereon. A scanner is coupled to the panel and the scanner emits a measuring signal upwardly from the panel thereby facilitating the scanner to detect the sole of person's foot. In this way the scanner measures the size of the person's foot. A heating element is coupled to the panel and the heating element heats the panel when the heating element is turned. Thus, the heating element melts an adhesive between the shoe sole and the shoe upper for bonding the shoe sole to the shoe upper.

Systems and methods for supporting an object to be printed in an additive manufacturing process are disclosed. Support structures (202, 302, 402, 502, 602) are prefabricated and positioned in the build area of a 3D printing device prior to printing the 3D object. When the object has been printed, the support is removed and can be reused to print another object by repositioning the support structure in the building area of the additive manufacturing device.