Body scans: getting the best fit and function; Susan Ashdown's body-scanning technology is positioning the industry to design better-fitting apparel for larger consumers and more functional clothing for police officers, pesticide applicators, and even astronauts.

In the apparel industry, a business where the bottom line depends on knowing the size of the human body, Associate Professor of Textiles and Apparel Susan Ashdown has a point--300,000 data points, actually--to make.

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"Anthropometric 3-D body scans take 12 seconds and produce about 300,000 bits of information that define our size and shape," Ashdown says of a futuristic technology her laboratory helps to advance.

"Scans of hundreds of people of various sizes, shapes, ages, and ethnicities increase the number and accuracy of measurements used in size prediction," adds Ashdown, the co-leader (along with Suzanne Loker, the J. Thomas Clark Professor of Entrepreneurship, also in the Department of Textiles and Apparel) of the Cornell Body Scan Research Group. "A process that combines objective fit information with fit preference can be industry's most realistic way of satisfying customers."

America's current obesity "epidemic" is posing new challenges and opportunities for the apparel industry, Ashdown observes. "Plus-size clothing has been recognized as a new market opportunity because there has been a lack of well-fitted, attractive clothing for larger women. The goal of the industry is to satisfy the needs of all women," she says, "but this is easier with ready-to-wear sizing when there is not such a wide range of variation among people in the population."

Some manufacturers resort to flattery, with an unstated policy of "vanity sizing" and adding extra material to make women think they still fit into a fondly remembered, smaller dress size. (The approach also works on men with the "hidden inch" waistband that allows growing gentlemen to say, "I still wear a 38 waist.") Ashdown knows why vanity sizing works so well: "Many women find their dress size to be a powerful measure of self esteem," she says. "They feel more comfortable with the size label they are used to, irregardless of the actual measurements of the garment."

The resulting confusion in size designations could be resolved by labeling women's clothing with actual body dimensions, as is done with blue jean sizes labeled with waist and inseam measurements, according to Ashdown. "Apparel companies that believe their sizing gives them a competitive advantage maintain that women do not want to see their body measurements on a hang tag. But surveys show that many women would prefer this to the current guessing game about sizes."

Will the time ever come when the traditional system of women's dress sizes will be meaningless and the more detailed specifications from a body scan will be confidential information between the consumer and her dressmaker? Ashdown predicts a mix of different sizing strategies in the future. When custom apparel is manufactured from scan data (such as the men's suits currently made by Brooks Brothers), then ready-to-wear sizing designations will become irrelevant, she predicts. If this system is totally automated, then only the computer will have the actual body measurements. However, it is unlikely that we will ever totally eliminate ready-to-wear clothing with some method of size designation.

Looking good in clothes that fit will always be important, but now Ashdown also is applying the anthropometric body scan technology to clothing with an even more important purpose: protecting health and well-being. Here, functionality is critical.

"The scanners are designed to create 3-D images of people posing in what we call the modified anthropometric position--standing with the legs slightly apart and the arms away from the body," she reports. "We do not stand this way normally, and we need to move many different ways in our clothing. An agricultural worker applying pesticides has to reach and stretch in a chemical-resistant suit. A police officer in a bulletproof vest has to get out of the patrol car and run down an alleyway. A firefighter has to climb a ladder to crawl through the window of a burning building."

Accounting for range of motion in a variety of work situations will be a challenge for anthropometric body scanning, but Ashdown is confident the technology can be adapted. A study is already in the planning stage to improve the design of functional protective clothing for pesticide applicators, a project in collaboration with faculty from other universities across the country. A newly acquired, portable body scanner will supplement the stationary device, which is installed in a Martha Van Rensselaer Hall laboratory, and will permit scans to be taken in workplace environments.

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Next, Ashdown will address what she calls the ultimate protection problem: spacesuits for NASA astronauts. She will use a sabbatical leave to work at a NASA laboratory on new applications of anthropometric body scanning.

"Astronauts come in more shapes and sizes these days," she says, noting that some international participants in the American space program would have trouble functioning in John Glenn's old spacesuit. Ashdown and anthropometrics will make sure tomorrow's astronauts have the right fit.

Ashdown's early work was supported by a USDA Hatch grant awarded by the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station.

more information?

Susan Ashdown

Cornell University

Department of Textiles and Apparel

327 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall

Ithaca, New York 

14853-4401

607-255-1929

[e-mail]

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