Body measurement is the first process that must be encountered before any
custom-made compression garment can be designed. The current practice of
obtaining the measurement is by traditional methods using tools like
measuring tape. However, this method is considered to be time-consuming
and usually not accurate. The most popular solution to the problem is by using
non-contact measurement. The development of the 3D whole body scanner
has made non-contact body measurement become a reality due to its capacity
to capture a vast amount of information. However, the cost to buy the whole
body scanner is quite expensive. Moreover, their sizes are also bulky which
make them less portable. Thus, a handheld body scanner provides a solution
to the problem. Despite that, current handheld scanner only provide image
and visualization aspect, but not the measurement aspect. This paper reports
the development of a method to acquire body data from a 3D handheld
scanner. In this new method, the point cloud of a body part was collected
using the handheld scanner. Then, the data was transformed into point
coordinates. Several processes were developed to filter the number of points
to allow for faster processing time and increasing the measurement accuracy.
In the first process, only points at specific height/layers are selected. In the
second process, the remaining points are rearranged according to their height
and angle. In the last process, the number of points is further reduced. In this
process, the number of points per layer is limited to 72 points. Results show
that the method can be used to determine body measurement.