A tailoring system and apparatus for tailoring clothing wherein body measurements are photographically recorded for computer data entry from special form fitting articles of clothing to which disposable strips of tape measures are temporarily adhesively affixed. The customer wears a body suit consisting of a top, a sleeve, and a leg leotard to which the disposable measuring tapes are attached around predetermined circumferential portions. The measuring tapes are attached by small pieces of a double sided adhesive tape that do not stick to the body suit when the measuring tapes are removed. The customer then stands on an elevated platform in the corner of a specially designed room and vertical tape measures are positioned in a predetermined location. The room has a camera embedded in the wall facing the customer and another camera embedded in a wall facing one side of the customer. The walls facing the cameras are imprinted with a grid that indicates height and width dimensions. The cameras are triggered simultaneously. Afterward, the customer removes and disposes of the strips of measuring tape. The resulting front view and side view photographs are then either physically or electronically conveyed to an expert at a clothing manufacturing facility who inputs a predetermined set of sizing data to an integrated computer that controls the operation of machinery for the cutting, sewing, and other processes involved in the fabrication of a custom fitted article of clothing for the customer.

Method of measuring body measurements for custom apparel manufacturing

A garment cutting system adapted for use with fabrics having a stripe or plaid design is characterized by computer assisted design matching that allows for either manual or automatic matching both between a garment marker to the fabric layup and between sequenced garment segment patterns. The present system employs data reduction techniques to reduce processing time and includes apparatus for optimizing image stability, focus and illumination.

A garment cutting system having computer assisted pattern alignment

There is disclosed a method and apparatus for guiding an operation effector to effect an operation along a path on a patterned material using machine vision, characterized in that machine vision is used to make a map of a repeat of the pattern, a path is defined on the map, the material and operation effector are moved relatively along the direction of pattern repeat, the machine vision scans the material during the relative movement and a scanning image compared with the map to determine the relative positions of the material and the operation effector, and the operation effector is guided to effect the operation at a position on the material corresponding to the path defined on the map.

Automatic operations on materials

A method for making fabric pattern pieces (62) for assembly into garments, upholstery or the like, with the fabric of each pattern piece having a fabric design with design features arranged in a predetermined manner with respect to the lines defining the boundary (66) of the piece. The fabric design, which is printed on the fabric web by a computer-controlled dye-jet process, is printed only within the outlines of the desired pattern pieces. This avoids the problems previously associated with alignment of the pattern pieces relative to a repeating fabric design preprinted over the entire surface of the fabric web used as the work material and allows a more compact nesting of the pattern pieces on the web. An electronic pattern piece database (10) is generated, including a template each of the desired pattern pieces. A graphical image (64) representative of the desired fabric print design is also generated and combined with the pattern piece templates, care being taken to adjust the fabric print design in each individual pattern piece such that the match criteria are satisfied and the design appears as desired in the corresponding finished fabric piece. The patterned templates are then arranged in nested relation to produce a cutting and printing marker (30). This marker is utilized to control the printer which prints the desired pattern pieces on a sheet of plain unprinted fabric. The pattern pieces, printed with the appropriately aligned fabric design, are then cut from the fabric web.

Apparatus and method for fabric printing of nested printed images

A method and system for cutting a web, such as a patterned fabric, displays a nested template pattern for the fabric along with a superimposed image of the fabric on a display screen, to allow the nested template pattern to be moved relative to the fabric image, under operator control. The nested template pattern may be moved as a whole, and individual templates may be moved, rotated or warped, so that a new template pattern is produced which is aligned to the fabric image, notwithstanding defects such as skew, bow or uneven repeat in the fabric. Once produced, the new template pattern is converted into customized cutting instructions for the fabric. The customized instructions are used to control a cutting station, for example a laser cutting station, to cut each section of fabric according to its customized cutting instructions. High speed cutting of patterned fabric may be provided by simultaneously capturing the image of a first section of fabric, generating a customized template pattern for a second section of fabric, the image of which has already been captured, and cutting a third section of fabric, the customized cutting instructions for which have already been generated.

Patterned web cutting method and system for operation manipulation of displayed nested templates relative to a displayed image of a patterned web

A matching method and apparatus for the automatic cutting of patterned fabrics by an integrated marking and cutting system first defines matching points in each of the patterns of panels to be cut and digitizes these points so that the coordinates and respective identification codes for each of the points are recorded in a memory. Matching relationships are then defined for the matching points which unequivocally fix the position which the design must be in at each of the matching points and digitizes and records these relationships in the memory. Separation margins between the panels in their distribution are then established either automatically or interactively on the basis of the previously defined matching relationships and a vision sensor is then automatically positioned over the spread patterned fabric which is to be cut in the positions of the matching points which have been defined for each one of the panels which have been distributed for cutting. The relative design position with respect to a reference position at each of the matching point positions is then determined and a position correction obtained for each panel with respect to the position initially assigned to each one of the panels to be cut, each position correction being obtained on the basis of the positions of the pattern determined in the previous step and on the basis of the previously defined matching relationships wherein all of the panels which are to be cut are matched prior to proceeding with their cutting operation.

Method and apparatus for matching panels to be cut from patterned fabrics

Method and device for completing the automatical matching of panels to be cut in patterned fabrics to ensure that the de­sign for each one of the panels to be cut is in its correct position. After defining a series of matching points on each of the patterns and recording as digital data in a memory the matching relationships for each one of these points are de­fined and stored as matching information in the memory, the matching itself is carried out using a TV-camera (12) installed on the cutting machine (11), capturing images from any point of the fabrics being spread in connection with a digital image processing unit which, by processing the images captured, fix the real position of the design on the fabrics. Matching device, integrated marking and a cutting system are connec­ted in such a way to process the image information with the predicted matching relations to generate an adjustment to the position initially assigned to each panel - in both directions and in orientation - and guarantee a perfect cut of the panels.

Lledo Antonio Romero

Papers

Method and apparatus for matching panels to be cut from patterned fabrics

Matching method and device for automatic cutting of patterned fabrics

Patterning method and apparatus for automatically cutting pattern article