3D Digital Adaptive Thorax Modelling of Peoples with Spinal Disabilities: Applications for Performance Clothing Design

Abstract

Peoples with spinal disability face a huge problem in the design and development of ergonomically fitted and comfortable clothing. Various research studies on the design and developments of functional clothing for scoliosis patients consider their morphological shapes. However, developing appropriate models of the complicated and deformed anatomical shape of the patient in 3D digitization technologies makes it possible to design a comfortable and fitted garment. The current paper proposes a method for developing a fully parametric 3D adaptive model of the thorax of a patient suffering from scoliosis. The model is designed from the spine and follows the deformation of the spine to adapt the thorax skeleton according to the temporal evolution of the spinal column deformation. The integration of the model of the thorax, adjusted to the patient’s data, enables the chain of acquisition, processing, and global model to be validated. The fit of the model could be improved for the different bones and it is possible to modify the angles of the spine to see the evolution of the disease. The developed model greatly helps to further detect anthropometric points from certain bone parts of the skeleton to design a basic bodice adapted to the patient’s evolving morphology.

Keywords

• computer-aided design
• 3D virtual process
• adaptive thorax modelling
• clothing design
• spinal deformity
• scoliosis