Obesity has reached epidemic levels in the U.S., with 66% of adults overweight and 32% of adults obese. The research uses the new technique of three-dimensional (3 D) photonic scanning to create and validate an instrument that rapidly assesses obesity in clinical and field settings.
The first aim i s to develop a portable computer vision system of body imaging for 3 D surface imaging of the human body. The hardware system is designed from off-the- shelf components such as digital cameras, projectors, and personal computer. Algorithms for the 3D data are being developed and refined for calculation and system calibration for a small instrument.
The second aim i s to develop algorithms for surface reconstruction from 3D data in order to define a proper surface representation and to reconstruct a 3D model of the human body from incomplete and noisy data.
The third aim begins the human measurement testing in 120 adults.
Aim 3 is to estimate the size and shape of the reconstructed human body by a portable body imager and compare to current methods that assess obesity. Anthropometric parameters will be computed by a 3 second body scan via imaging and then compared to other methods of obesity assessment including BMI, waist circumference, sagittal abdominal diameter, bioimpedence, hydrodensitometry, dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, and air displacement plethysmography.
The final aim i s to validate body imaging as an indicator of central obesity (fat in the abdominal region, as opposed to subcutaneous depots) in a subset of 60 subjects because it is the abdominal fat that is most associated with health risks such as diabetes. Abdominal fat tissue as detected by magnetic resonance imaging scans will be compared to that calculated from 3 D body imaging. In sum, the non-contact, noninvasive nature of this new portable body scanner will produce a quick, inexpensive and objective measure of body size and type of obesity.
