| (Copyright The Kingston Whig-Standard 2004)
Canadian troops are stripping off their uniforms in a precedent-
setting experiment that could one day provide the most detailed digital
snapshot ever taken for such a large segment of Canada's population. Technology that gathers ultraprecise measurements for military uniforms is being rolled out at bases across Canada.
Troops, clad only in their underwear, step inside an eight-foot- high
booth, click on a joystick and wait several seconds while two cameras
snap their digital image and software converts it into 3-D.
Databases containing body measurements for uniforms will be networked
together, the statistics aggregated and compared. The result will be a
historic analysis of the Canadian Forces' average physique. The
Body Scanning System for 21st Century, or BoSS-21, units - jointly
developed by the Defence Department and a University of Toronto imaging
researcher - are already in use at bases in Trenton, Esquimalt, B.C.,
Edmonton and St. Jean, Que., where they capture 37 standard
measurements in 40 seconds. This fall, the Defence Department
announced expansion of the program, which will see eight more systems
in place at bases by 2008. Portability will transform more than
just the complicated business of provisioning 200 different uniform
styles for 60,000 members of the Canadian navy, army and air force.
"You'll be able to answer questions like, 'is the navy a certain
[average] size?', and contrast that with the army [from] statistics
about the size and shape of [military personnel]," said the device's
co-creator, Shi Yin, a 43-year-old electrical engineer, and CEO of
VisImage Systems Inc., in Toronto. Measurements will be 100-per-cent accurate and instantly retrievable from anywhere in the country.
From garment sizes, military planners will be able to deduce
information to improve decision-making in a range of situations.
Knowing how thin or obese soldiers are from different bases, might lead
to changes in menu design, for example. "Or, you might need
different kinds of garments in Edmonton rather than Victoria, where
it's more temperate, so you'll be able to quantify how cold it is and
figure out if you'll need more fleece [uniforms], and if so how much
more," Yin said. U.S. and French militaries have developed their
own body scanners, but at less than $50,000, Yin's is one-fifth the
price. It's the only one with a cubicle for privacy, and has the most
sophisticated artificial intelligence, he claims. The strongest
interest in such technology outside the military comes from government
health officials, who see scanning as a cheap, error-free way to take a
physical census of citizens. SizeUK and SizeUSA, studies carried
out by the governments of Britain and U.S. in 2001 and 2002, scanned
thousands of volunteers using equipment developed for the garment
industry, and found astounding physical changes in the population,
including rising rates of obesity. Brazil, China, Korea,
Australia, France and Mexico are among nations now planning, or
conducting, similar health-oriented projects. The European Commission
wants to use scanning data to standardize rules for clothing sizes
across member states. Michael Wolfson, assistant chief
statistician for Statistics Canada, who runs the health-statistics
program, said Canada's federal government is considering a "low-dose"
X-ray technology, called Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry, or DEXA, for
a national survey of Canadians' physical health to begin in 2007.
Body scanners have also started showing up in commercial use at some
retail stores in New York, as gimmicks to market better- tailored
clothes. |