Plus: Fashion Sense Body Scanners, Transparent Concrete and the Roach Robot.

Body Scanners Give Fashion Advice

Choosing what to wear can be difficult, but a new technology has stepped in to help customers make better fashion choices through full-body scanning. A clothing retailer in the United Kingdom recently began using 3-D scanners to help shoppers determine the ideal size and cut of clothing that would make them look best.

London-based firm Bodymetrics, in collaboration with sensing and recognition technology company PrimeSense, developed the new scanners. Each scanner is a booth, similar to a changing room, equipped with eight 3-D laser sensors. As they scan up and down a user’s body, the sensors make 100 separate measurements that are compiled and processed through an analytics system, which then provides recommendations for specific clothing items.

“Shoppers will strip to their underwear and step into the scanner, which is shaped like a photo booth. Low-power, infrared lights will read more than 300,000 points all over the body. The whole process will take no more than seven seconds,” the Daily Mail reports. “One hundred vital statistics can be gathered — from bottom, waist and hip measurements down to the size of the left ankle, thigh girth and inside leg.”

The applications are expected to be beneficial to customers as the fashion industry lacks sizing standards, with size labels varying between retailers and brands. Moreover, full-body scanning could greatly improve online shopping because a customer’s scanned measurements can be uploaded and stored in a database, allowing precise fitting details to be accessed online.

“For the apparel retailing industry, the new body scanning technology has the potential to provide new levels of personalized customer service in stores and increase online sales,” Forbes.com explains. “It could also prove to be the solution to reduce the number of returned clothes due to incorrect fit. Between 20 percent to 40 percent of all online clothing purchases are returned to the retailer because they don’t fit.”

See-Through Concrete

A Hungarian architect has developed the first commercially available transparent concrete, which is already being used in construction projects around the world. Known as LiTraCon (light-transmitting concrete), the material is composed of concrete mixed with thousands of fiber optics strands that form a matrix directing light between the surfaces of concrete blocks.

“The fibers are oriented in a parallel pattern which produces a brighter side and a darker side of the block. The darker side reveals dramatic shadows and silhouettes,” SmartPlanet explains. “Making up just 4 percent of the total volume of the block, the optic fibers give the material a striated texture. The product is handmade, resulting in a unique pattern of light in each piece.”

The optical fibers prevent loss of light, enabling LiTraCon material to potentially transmit light through a thickness of 65 feet. The fibers don’t degrade concrete’s compressive strength either, allowing transparent blocks to be used even in load-bearing structures.

America’s Scariest Jobs

Although Halloween may be over, there’s still plenty to be scared about. In fact, some people go to work every day to handle duties that would terrify some of us. A recent CareerBuilder.com survey asked respondents to rank the scariest jobs in the United States.

The results highlight some of our most common fears, ranging from the physically dangerous to the potentially humiliating:

1. Bomb Squad Technician
2. High-Rise Window Washer
3. Armed Forces Member
4. Miner
5. Police Officer
6. Alaskan Crab Fisher
7. Mortician
8. Firefighter
9. High School Teacher
10. Cemetery Worker
11. Exterminator
12. Stand-Up Comedian
13. Animal Control Specialist
14. Stunt Person
15. Politician

Even though most people aren’t in these professions, there are still numerous things employees say they’re scared of in their own line of work. Thirty-six percent say layoffs are their biggest workplace fear, followed by pay cuts (13 percent), their workload (9 percent), presenting in front of other people (9 percent), forced relocation (4 percent) and the boss (3 percent).

Roach Robot Could Save Lives

Everyone knows that in the event of a major catastrophe, cockroaches will surely survive. Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley have taken this wisdom to heart, building a roach-like robot that can help search for survivors in the aftermath of a disaster, such an earthquake.

An example of biomimicry, the robot, known as DASH+Wings, can move at 1.3 meters per second and climb 17-degree inclines. It also features a set of flapping wings that greatly increases its mobility and versatility in reaching out-of-the-way places.

Here’s a video of the robo-insect in action, courtesy of SmartPlanet:

Have a great weekend, folks.