Virtual Reality and CAD/CAM for Customized Shoe Manufacturing

This chapter examines some issues involved in producing custom footwear on a mass-market basis. The starting position for custom shoes is the measurement of feet. Traditional methods can be replaced nowadays more and more by modern measuring technology based on 3D scanners. While discussing foot measurements, the chapter will also address common misconceptions about foot measuring, shoe sizes, better fitting footwear and comfort. However, getting exact feet measures is just the necessary, but not the commensurate condition for customized footwear. The feet data have to be translated into a customer specific last and shoe design. In this context, we will outline the advances in current CAD/CAM software to facilitate the production of custom footwear satisfying the needs of mass-market consumers economically. Nowadays, shoe design is mainly done by hand. However, when providing custom footwear this is too time consuming and too vulnerable to errors when designs are interpreted in manufacturing. To solve this problem, the VRSHOE system was developed. A designer draws (creates) or modifies in this virtual shoe design environment directly on a (virtual) shoe model the style lines that were created before in the CAD system. Designers can fly-through the environment and interact directly with the shoe model using immersive interface devices. The user interface, the environment and the results obtained in this project will be presented.