Do you remember that feeling?
That comes up every time you enter a shoe store and look around for the shop-assistant, who will treat you and your enormous shoe size discretely?
Caroline Walerud, a Swedish woman, came up with a solution to this issue, that affects many women and men. She invented 3D scanning to not buy ill-fitting shoes ever again.
Her words: You can finally forget your shoe size!
Shopping nightmare
That embarrassing moment when you must reveal your real shoe size. That one, when you try to whisper very silently in the ear of the merchant, the size of your elephant foot.
And then, the answer, you get, is something like: “No, we don’t have any shoe in this (incredibly enormous elephant) size!” Or another type of answer might be: “Yes, but normally we do not have them shown (because nobody else needed those).”
BIG-SHOE-ella
For those girls, who could not be the one losing their slipper in the ball.
The prince would probably change his tactic from: “the one, who will fit into the slipper, will be my Cinderella.”
To: “the one who will not lose the slipper while walking will be my bigshoella”.
Those who are born with a medium size probably did not understand. However, those who did understand well and share my problem will agree-
this is not fair!
Even when you get slimmer, your shoe size stays! And if you buy shoes one size smaller, your poor big feet will just suffer more.
Technology that finds a perfect shoe for the customer
“Half of the women regularly buy shoes that don’t fit”, says Caroline Walerud, the 25-year-old Swedish inventor of 3D shoe scanning.
3D shoe scanning
This project started in 2012 in Stockholm-based company Volumental.
Walerud together with other two computer vision experts initiated the research on the new technology that would provide perfect scanning of a foot to sell the highly fitting shoes.
The technology is very easy to use
The customer must stand on a special platform and wait till the volumetric scanning procedure made by cameras will be done for each of the foot.
“The company’s software, which includes Intel INTC +0.00% and Microsoft MSFT +0.45% technology, captures data points including arch length and ball width that a shoe retailer would find it tough to measure accurately using traditional tools,” Forbes.com wrote.
The final screen will be displayed on the tablet of a salesperson who will aim to find ideal shoes for you.
Currently scanning feet in the US, Germany and Sweden
On Monday, Volumental signed a contract about the partnership with an American company Nordstrom that has a chain of shoe shops.
The scanners were already sent to Japan, where the IT developers are establishing a consumer app for the shoe shopping assistants.
The technology was also being used in Sweden by brand Falchenberg and in Germany by Scarosso to create a perfect fitting shoes from customized Italian leather by 3D scanning.
Not just shoes, but also glasses
However, this is just the beginning. Volumental has started the same based scanning technology for opticians and eyewear brands. In this case, the face is scanned to find the perfect glasses for everyone.
So the next time, you enter a shoe store. Don’t feel uncomfortable about your size,
just ask for scanning!
