Tomorrow's Tailor  (Print This) 02/11/2005 Do you have trouble finding clothes that fit well? The National Science Foundation sympathizes and is funding research toward a technology that might become the 21st century tailor.

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It's a machine that looks like something from "Star Trek."  But the quest of engineers and textile researchers using it at Central Michigan University is for perfectly tailored clothes.  You stand in the middle of four tall pillars, each equipped with a laser and two cameras that scan every curve of your body in just twelve seconds.  Your virtual 3-D image then appears on a computer screen…with more measurements than you probably care to know.  Tanya Domina, a design professor, says that will allow the engineering of better-fitting, more comfortable clothes.  And her engineering colleagues are already envisioning other applications, like body sculpting.  With the National Academy of Engineering, Randy Atkins, WTOP Radio.

• See how the 3-D body scanner works
• Find out how the apparel industry uses body scanning

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