High-tech research may revolutionize apparel industry

2010-funded project well underway

A recently funded CMU 2010 project led by Human Environmental Studies Professor Tanya Domina may lead to the creation of highly customized garments.

The project – Exploration of Functional Design Issues that Interface with the Human Body – involves using CMU’s laser body scanner, which creates a 3-D image based on 350,000 points of data, along with the university’s environmental chamber and a pair of infrared thermal cameras, to build a database of 3-D body maps, thermal profiles, and demographic and psychographic profiles.

Domina, who teaches in the apparel merchandising and design program, is working on the project with research partners Maureen MacGillivray, professor of HEV in the AMD program; Terry Lerch, assistant professor of engineering and technology; and Patrick Kinnicutt, assistant professor of science informatics in the geology department.

“This research project places CMU in a unique position to be the leader in applied research in an emerging field of study, such as wearable technology, and as a site of multidisciplinary, collaborative research that examines design issues that interface with the human body,” Domina said.

Thus far, the database contains more than 400 subjects ranging in age from 8 to 87, said Domina and MacGillivray. Because so much data has already been collected, the project is ahead of schedule, and the focus is shifting to data analysis during the 2007-2008 academic year.

  • Among the $393,328 project’s anticipated outcomes:
  • Garment-testing and body-scanning activities
  • Creation of a 2-D/3-D body-mapping process
  • Thermal database and data-mining activities
  • Undergraduate and graduate students actively involved in faculty/industry collaborative research projects (including a much-publicized collaboration with Reebok on testing the National Hockey League’s new uniforms)
  • Scholarly journal publications and presentations at national and international conferences by the research team members and students
  • Partially or fully funded research projects with textile/apparel companies.

All four research team members are incorporating the project into their classroom teaching. Being a trailblazer puts CMU at an advantage in terms of being able to shape the research process, MacGillivray said.

“We’re charting new territory, so it’s not like there’s a protocol to follow,” she said.

NOTE: Despite the significant progress on the project, additional subjects are needed for the database, particularly older adult males and females as well as males of other ages. To schedule an appointment for body scanning, call Domina at (989) 774-5587 or send an e-mail to domin1t@cmich.edu. Walk-in scanning hours are expected to begin sometime in November. •

CMU seniors, from left, Erika Festian, Bree Hietala, Kyle Wojan, and Emily Kovalcsik demonstrate how they use the environmental chamber.