Your iPhone 12 Pro will soon 3D scan your foot to perfect online shoe shopping

Online shopping has skyrocketed during the pandemic, highlighting its usefulness – and shortcomings. Ordering goods is incredibly convenient until you need to know your size, for clothes and shoes. But Volumental is aiming to solve the latter problem by releasing a mobile app soon for iPhone 12 Pro owners to 3D scan their feet to recommend the right shoe size every time.

And while the Volumental mobile app is only going to be compatible with the iPhone 12 Pro and Pro Max when it launches in the coming months, it's heading to older iPhones by the end of the year. 

The app isn’t only aimed at consumers – it’s essentially a mobile version of the proprietary foot scanner Volumental has sold to high-end footwear retailers like Adidas, Allbirds, Bauer, Fleet Feet, Road Runner, The Athlete’s Foot, and others to install in their stores. Employees use the scanner – a bathmat-sized gray slate with four sets of cameras and sensors pointed at the center – to take detailed measurements of customers' feet, typically as a consultation to sell form-fitting insoles and the right shoes for their physiology and movement patterns.

“One of our strengths, and what sets us apart, is that we have so far scanned close to 10 million people around the world with our retail scanners, and we are in like 42 countries around the world,” Volumental co-founder and CTO Alper Aydemir told TechRadar, explaining that connecting all that data to consumer purchases “allows us to understand really how each shoe fits and what kind of shape fits each shoe the best.”

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