Body measurement of riding horses with a versatile tablet-type 3D scanning device

Abstract

The measurement of various body dimensions of horses plays a significant role in quality improvement, genetic breeding, health, and soundness. There has been significant advancement in the technology for acquiring stereoscopic images with a three-dimensional (3D) scanner. This study aimed to validate the accuracy of body measurements obtained from stereoscopic images taken with a 3D scanner. We manually took the following body measurements for 8 riding horses: height at the withers, height at the back, height at the croup, chest depth, width of the chest, width of the croup, width of the waist, girth circumference, cannon circumference, and body length. Using a versatile tablet-type 3D scanning device, we captured a 3D image of each horse. Relative errors varied from −1.37% to 6.25%. The correlation coefficient between manual and 3D measurements was significant for all body measurements (P<0.01) except for width of the waist and cannon circumference. The low accuracy of cannon circumference (r=0.248) was due to effect of hair. A simple regression analysis of all body measurements revealed a strong correlation (P<0.001, R 2 =0.9994, root-mean-square error [RMSE]=1.522). Notable advantages of this methodology include high accuracy, good operability, non-contact, high versatility, and low cost. Further studies are required for the establishment of an accurate measurement methodology that can scan the whole body in a shorter time.

3D imaging and body measurement of riding horses using four scanners simultaneously

“…It was very important to compare the accuracy in this study with that in our previous report [12]. Table 3 shows the body parts that showed poor values in each of the valuation indices: significant differences, absolute relative errors, correlation coefficients, and Brandt-Altman plots.…”

“…It was very important to compare the accuracy in this study with that in our previous report [ 12 ]. Table 3…”

“…To reduce possible variation, conventional manual measurements were always carried out by the same animal keeper, as noted in the study by Pérez-Ruiz et al [ 15 ]. We measured equine conformation by the same method noted in our previous study [ 12 ]. The following manual measurements were obtained:…”

“…To reduce possible variation, conventional manual measurements were always carried out by the same animal keeper, as noted in the study by Pérez-Ruiz et al [15]. We measured equine conformation by the same method noted in our previous study [12]. The following manual measurements were obtained: Height at the withers (HWi) Height at the back (HBa) Height at the croup (HCr) Chest depth (ChD) Width of the chest (WCh) Width of the croup (WCr) Width of the waist (WWa) Girth circumference (GiC) Cannon circumference (CaC) Body length (BoL)…”

“…However, since specialized equipment and advanced data processing technologies, such as filtering and deep learning, were required in the above studies, it would be beneficial to develop a technique that could easily and accurately measure body size on-site. We recently developed a method to measure the sizes of horses using a highly versatile tablet-type 3D scanner [ 12 ]. Our previously reported method with a single scanner did not have accuracy problems, but significant methodological challenges remained.…”