Abstract:
The high cost of commercial 3D body scanning systems sold for between $10,000 and $150,000 has limited the measurement of Waist Circumference (WC) and Waist-Hip Ratio (WHR), which are more informative health risk predictors than the Body Mass Index (BMI) to the traditional tape method, which gives rise to ethical issues. In this research, a device has been developed to provide low-cost, non-contact and automatic measurement of the three health predictors. Proper design analysis was done for all components of the device considering anthropometric data as well as the technical features of a Kinect sensor. Detailed engineering drawings resulting from derived design parameters were implemented in the fabrication and assembly of the components. A peripheral integrated circuit (PIC) microcontroller programmed in Proteus Design Suite was used to control the device. A software was developed for automatic body land-marking and measurement extraction, using the Visual C# programming language. The developed device provides the BMI, WC and WHR measurements as well as deductions on the health status and disease risk of the
subject according to WHO thresholds for both male values and female values. Test results of ten (10) measured subjects show no significant difference and a very high correlation between the manual tape values and the automatic scan values of waist circumference and hip circumference. The relative error, repeatability and sensitivity of the device for waist circumference and hip circumference measurement are ±0.0909, 0.02992 𝑚, 0.008833 𝑚 and ±0.10, 0.00378 𝑚, 0.007827 𝑚 respectively. The entire measurement process for an individual takes less than two minutes and estimated cost of the device is Three hundred and five thousand, One hundred Naira Only (₦305,100.00), which is 8.5% of the cost of commercial 3D scanning systems
