29 Virtual Reality and CAD/CAM for Customized Shoe Manufacturing
How virtual reality and CAD/CAM enable custom shoe manufacturing
in mass markets
Marco
Sacco1, Giampaolo P. Viganò1 and Ian Paris2
1 ITIA-CNR Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation, Milano,
Italy
2 CSM3D International Limited, Somerset, England
This chapter examines some
issues involved in producing custom footwear on a mass-market basis. The
starting position for custom shoes is the measurement of feet. Traditional
methods can be replaced nowadays more and more by modern measuring technology
based on 3D scanners. While discussing foot measurements, the chapter
will also address common misconceptions about foot measuring, shoe sizes,
better fitting footwear and comfort. However, getting exact feet measures
is just the necessary, but not the commensurate condition for customized
footwear. The feet data have to be translated into a customer specific
last and shoe design. In this context, we will outline the advances in
current CAD/CAM software to facilitate the production of custom footwear
satisfying the needs of mass-market consumers economically. Nowadays,
shoe design is mainly done by hand. However, when providing custom footwear
this is too time consuming and too vulnerable to errors when designs are
interpreted in manufacturing. To solve this problem, the VRSHOE system
was developed. A designer draws (creates) or modifies in this virtual
shoe design environment directly on a (virtual) shoe model the style lines
that were created before in the CAD system. Designers can fly-through
the environment and interact directly with the shoe model using immersive
interface devices. The user interface, the environment and the results
obtained in this project will be presented.
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