Fellows interested in foot scanners,

To add a grain of salt, there are several scanners and milling machines at
the present in middle and final stages of manufacturing that many (most) of
us are not aware off.

There are also many others out there that are used which many (most) of us
are not aware of.  One reason why these such scanners and milling machines
are not in the podiatric nor in the orthotic business is simply because the
commercialization of these have not hit your market.  Why? Because the
podiatric and orthotic communities could not afford these products, and
therefore the developers and vendors of these products do not invest time
nor marketing ($) in these areas.

Why is it so hard to manufacture a scan-cad-cam specifically for and
responing to the requirements of FOs.  The answer is fourfold: 1) Art and
science needs to be combined into one whole.  This art and science data
(info) needs and must be obtained from the clinical and foot manufacturing
people.  Professional (clinical and foot manufacturing) people like yourself
and the technical people who develop do not speak the same language, nor do
they understand what the other is actually doing, and why.  So, here we have
a communication (data-info interpretation) problem.
2) The technology is out there, but in a raw form. It therefore needs to be
adpated to meet the needs and requirements for FOs.  This requires
specialized technical people (technicians) who understand the technology and
most importantly, that they know how and what has to be done to the
technology in order to transform its raw state into an applicable and useful
state.  So, here we have a lack of high-skilled technological specialized
manpower.
3) Time, effort and willingness is needed from the clinical, foot
manufacturing and high-skilled technical people in order for them to sit
down, discuss and define what is needed, what is to be done and what can be
done. So, here we have a time, effort and willingness problem hindreing
setting and achieving goals.
4) Time, specialised (clinical, foot manufacturing and high-skilled
technical) people and high-technology is very very expensive.  The FO's
communitee willingness to pay (and what they can afford) is extremely small
relative to the cost of development and marketing. So, here we have a profit
problem.

>As a matter of interest you may like to know we had here at this university
>for a couple of years, the most sophisticated scanner ever developed. Used
>by the movie industry (US) for computer animations my colleagues and I
>investigated its potential as a source to measure the foot. However this
>multi-million dollar machine was not accurate enough.

It would be nice to refrain from such comments as 'had here at this
university
for a couple of years, the most sophisticated scanner ever developed',
unless one has seen all those available scanners out there in the academic
and industrial world.  There are available scanners that can scan any
surface and any contour from any solid object.  However, no university nor
the FO communitee could afford buying such scanners.

Just adding my grain of salt, as a result of scanning the mailbase postings.

Cheers to all

Norman

Norman Murphy, Ph.D.
Research Co-ordinator
Biomechanics of Hockey Research Laboratory
NIKE, Inc. / University of Ottawa Agreement

Coordonnateur de la recherche
Laboratoire de recherche en biomécanique du hockey
Accord NIKE inc. / Université d'Ottawa




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