[TC]² Announces Integrated Virtual Fashion Technology for NX-16 Body Scanners

[TC]²’s most recent software update for its market leading NX-16 3D body scanner is one of the most significant and comprehensive in the product’s 15 year history. Some of the key enhancements include:

• Virtual Fashion creation on 3D body scans for real time viewing
• Integrated High Fidelity 3D Avatar Mesh creation in seconds
• Over 40 new measurement extraction points (now totaling over 400 unique points of measure)
• Lectra and Gerber Technology measurement file format compatibility

A feature long sought-after for 3D body scanners is the ability to create 3D human models from 3D scans that are suitable for aesthetic viewing applications in addition to the traditional high accuracy body measurement functions. That feature is important for apparel as well as for health, fitness, and medical applications. For apparel applications, the ability to see oneself virtually dressed in various clothing styles immediately after scanning is very appealing.

The new 3D avatar generation feature and virtual fashion viewing technologies are inter-related. The avatar (a commonly used term for a virtual representation of oneself) is created in a matter of seconds by morphing a pre-existing reference template mesh to conform to the body scan geometry at over 3000 points on the surface of the scan body.

Body Scan	Resulting Avatar

The high accuracy geometry of the 3D body scan is captured within the avatar mesh which retains the smooth, watertight, and highly detailed surface (hands, head, and feet) of the reference mesh. The result is the best combination of body scan data features and human computer model features. The avatar is created in an open-source format which can be imported into numerous 3D applications including Maya, 3D Studio Max, Rhino, and other applications supporting the .obj file format. 

This new feature can be used to produce high fidelity 3D human body model representations and also for virtual fashion visualization of numerous clothing categories. 

The virtual fashion element of [TC]²’s new offering is a simplified approach to clothing simulation that eliminates the need to virtually sew over the body or to do cloth draping simulations. The advantage is that the simulation is automatic, fast, and robust. The simulation is created by morphing a pre-existing 3D model template (which has the target clothing on) and morphing it using the same parameters used to create the body avatar.  The result is a highly realistic image produced fully automatically in seconds. 

Body Scans with Jeans and T-Shirt Virtual Fashion	Reference Template

Garment morphing is not a replacement for cloth draping but rather fills a technology gap that exists today which demands automatic processing (low cost) for consumer applications of virtual dressing. The garments which work best with this simulation are those that fit close to the body (jeans, t-shirts, swimwear, intimates, etc.) or those that are relatively unstructured. This new approach results in a much lower total cost of virtual fashion construction for brands and retailers versus traditional processes.

With this new release, one can now produce size predictions, made-to-measure garment specifications, and virtual fashion visualization using 3D body scans - all within one application. These new capabilities are being included at no additional cost with
[TC]² NX-16 3D body scanner purchases and as a free upgrade for existing customers with full coverage body scanner active maintenance programs.

For a video illustration on the avatar from body scan process please visit [TC]²’s ImageTwin Web Site: http://www.imagetwin.com/pavatar.html.