Feasibility of Using Laser Imaging Detection and Ranging Technology for Contactless 3D Body Scanning and Anthropometric Assessment of Athletes

Abstract

The scope of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of using the laser imaging detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology for contactless 3D body scanning of sports athletes and deriving anthropometric measurements of the lower limbs using available software. An Apple iPad Pro 3rd Generation with embedded LiDAR technology in combination with the iOS application Polycam were used. The effects of stance width, clothing, background, lighting, scan distance and measurement speed were initially assessed by scanning the lower limbs of one test person multiple times. Following these tests, the lower limbs of 12 male and 10 female participants were scanned. The resulting scans of the lower limbs were complete for half of the participants and categorized as good in quality, while the other scans were either distorted or presented missing data around the shank and/or the thigh. Bland–Altman plots between the LiDAR-based and manual anthropometric measures showed good agreement, with the coefficient of determination from correlation analysis being R2 = 0.901 for thigh length and R2 = 0.830 for shank length, respectively. The outcome of this pilot study is considered promising, and a further refinement of the proposed scanning protocol and advancement of available software for 3D reconstruction are recommended to exploit the full potential of the LiDAR technology for the contactless anthropometric assessment of athletes.