Automatic Landmarking based on 3-D Foot Database using the FFD Method

An auto-landmarking method for foot measurement was developed. With most of the conventional methods, landmarks of the face and the body were estimated using the curvature, textures and statistics information of body dimensions. In this method, landmarks of the foot were estimated by deformation of the generic foot model. Variation of foot shape was represented by the spatial distortion based on the Free Form Deformation (FFD). The generic foot model was deformed and fit into a new measured foot. Landmarks on the deformed generic foot model were projected to the surface of the measured foot. The mean absolute error of the estimated landmarks was 2.8 [mm]. The error of this method is appropriate to distinguish foot shapes for selecting shoes on a retail store, however it is insufficient for anthropometric database.