1. ¹Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, University College London, Institute of Child Health, London, UK
2. ²Department of Computer Science, University College London, London, UK

Correspondence: Dr JCK Wells, Childhood Nutrition Research Centre, University College London, Institute of Child Health, 30 Guilford Street, London WC1N 1EH, UK. E-mail: J.Wells@ich.ucl.ac.uk

Received 7 March 2007; Revised 15 June 2007; Accepted 8 August 2007; Published online 9 October 2007.

Abstract

Information on body shape has long been used in categorizing and monitoring obesity. Alongside abdominal circumferences, recent studies further emphasize the value of indices such as sagittal diameter adjusted for thigh girth in categorizing cardiovascular risk. Whole-body three-dimensional photonic scanning has rapidly emerged as a new technology for digital anthropometric measurement. Photonic scanners capture sophisticated raw data on body surface topography in a few seconds, from which extensive body shape information can be extracted using computer algorithms. Photonic scanning now has the potential to play a key role in (1) categorizing obesity (including childhood screening), (2) ranking abdominal size and shape in large-scale epidemiological studies, (3) monitoring individual patients to evaluate treatment efficacy and (4) estimating surface area for drug dosage calculations. New statistical modeling techniques offer the opportunity to develop novel parameters of body shape for linking with biological health outcomes. The low cost, accuracy, ease of use and high acceptability of the technique make it highly suitable for both research and clinical applications.