The Ruwon Footwear Factory operates a shop visited by many people. It sells shoes produced to order to the pleasure of the customers.
“I’m so glad to wear shoes fitting my feet. My son, too, had dif fi culty buying shoes as his feet are unusual in shape. Now, however, he benefits from a laser 3D foot measuring device,” said a customer.
Kim Kum Chol (second right) explains the technical specification of the laser 3D foot measuring device.
“I feel proud of my job whenever I see customers leave the shop happily with shoes to their liking,” said a saleswoman.
Their words are inconceivable apart from the laser 3D foot measuring device invented by Kim Kum Chol, a researcher of the laser institute of the State Academy of Sciences. The device is highly appreciated, for it costs low and is high in ef fi ciency. The following shows how the device came into being.
The research started long ago to make it possible to use laser beams for human life.
Kim came to think of shoes while researching laser beams. At the time a lot of people wanted shoes fi tting their feet, but it was hardly possible to meet their demand. Once, on a business trip to Kangwon Province, he visited the Wonsan Leather Shoes Factory. There he saw a lot of people ordering shoes after measuring their feet by means of a foot measuring device developed by technicians of the factory. But the device could measure only the soles of their feet of different shapes, and the shoes thus produced to order were not as comfortable as the customers wished.
Then he decided to develop the laser 3D foot measuring device. He visited libraries, the Sci-Tech Complex and the Grand People’s Study House to search for relevant data. While studying the data, he pushed ahead with his own research to make such a foot measuring device. In the course of this he became con fi dent that it was possible to make the device if he set up an optical system whereby three-dimensional laser beams would be focused on one side with high accuracy.
It was also diffi cult to make the device, but he managed to do the job. In order to make shoes fit feet of different shapes, he had to give satisfactory answers to different indices like height of foot and instep, length of instep and width of foot. So he had talks with workers of footwear factories and made shoes himself.
At last he introduced the device at the Ryuwon Footwear Factory, and it was highly appreciated. Based on his success in inventing the device, he developed a laser cutting machine. The Pyongyang Bag Factory equipped with the laser cutting machine is producing quality bags.
Not content with his achievements, he is continu- ing with the research to preferentially solve sci-tech problems arising in making production processes and facilities Juche-oriented so as to perfect the structure of the independent economy. People are calling a researcher like him our researcher .
