How does a 3D foot laser scanner work to measure the foot arch and assess flat feet?

‍What is Flat Feet?

The main manifestations of flat feet are the collapse of the foot arch and the lowering of the medial longitudinal arch.

When the foot arch collapses and lowers, what will be the situation of the plantar data?

1. The arch height will be significantly lower than the normal arch height.

2. In the midfoot part, the gap with the ground will become smaller.

3. In the midfoot part, the contact area with the ground will be relatively large, much larger than the contact area between the sole of a normal foot and the ground.

The 3D foot laser scanner, through optical principles, projects laser lines or structured light onto the sole of the foot, records the deformation of the laser through a camera, and combines triangulation to obtain complete spatial coordinates, ultimately acquiring high-density point clouds and 3D models to obtain complete plantar morphological data.

What is obtained through the 3D foot scanner is the external geometric morphological data of the sole of the foot, mainly the data under weight-bearing conditions.

Especially when evaluating flat feet, plantar data under weight-bearing conditions is needed, especially arch height data and plantar contact area data.

Of course, after having the data, it is not analyzed blindly, but compared with normal arch data, compared with scientific normal reference values that have already been obtained and recognized by the industry, thereby evaluating the severity of flat feet of the sole.

The 3D foot scanner only belongs to morphological measurement tools, but cannot completely replace doctor diagnosis, because the measured data can only see the external morphological data, but cannot see the internal muscles of the sole and skeletal deformation situations.

The 3D foot scanner is relatively suitable for application in foot screening, quantifying the arch, customizing orthopedic insoles, fabrication of orthoses, and data comparison during preoperative and postoperative as well as the rehabilitation process.

If our soles have obvious pain, stiffness and other situations, other equipment is also needed to evaluate the health condition of the foot.

For example, through weight-bearing X-rays, evaluate the bony alignment and angles.

For more complex foot health problems, ultrasound/MRI and other methods may also be needed for detection.

But for most scenarios, applying the 3D foot laser scanner to evaluate flat feet and others completely meets the requirements.

Of course, fundamentally speaking, the foot scanner is only a foot measurement tool, and does not belong to medical equipment; for foot health evaluation, especially when relatively serious foot health problems appear, it is also necessary for doctors and rehabilitation therapists with rich experience and professional medical knowledge to conduct combined diagnosis.

The advantage of the foot scanner is the fast scanning speed, only needing a few dozen seconds to obtain complete 3D foot data, and being able to generate measurement reports; in the measurement report, we can comprehensively understand our plantar data and foot health conditions, providing objective scientific data references for our foot health.