Slashdot Mirror
Virtual Dummy To Try On Clothes
Roland Piquepaille writes "BBC News reports that Toshiba is working with a Japanese software company to create a 3-D fashion simulator that will allow virtual modelling and coordination of clothes, cosmetics and accessories in real time. This means that by as early as 2006, you will no longer have to contortion yourself in a minuscule fitting room. 'Video cameras snap the shopper, then clothes and accessories are selected and displayed immediately. The process of turning the images of the shopper into photo-realistic avatar -- or virtual representation -- happens in real-time.' This summary contains more details and references. It also contains images of a virtual model trying different clothes and accessories adapted to different backgrounds."
Oh, great. A computer simulation of my big, fat butt. I am overcome with joy at the prospect.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
This means that by as early as 2006, you will no longer have to contortion yourself in a minuscule fitting room.
...
And there goes the hidden cam live internet feed porn business
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
People don't try on cloths to see what the cloths look like. They can do that by just looking at them. People try cloths on to see how they fit - ie, how big their boobs/asses look.
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
Is my coffee defective, or is this concept just underwhelming?
"Derp de derp."
After these roll out, how long would it be until the software is modified to bias how you look?
It could make you more "perfect," and you would buy that dress!
Usually when a new technology is developed, it is first used for weapons, crime, or porn. But a legitimate use?
the clothes you're currently wearing don't fit you well and don't reveal your body outline to the computer/video camera? I noticed the pictures in that story were of rather skinny customers wearing tight-fitting dresses -- not all of us dress like that. What about winter when one may be wearing several layers already?
I don't think they should have used "start with a naked model" and "seduce even men" in the same article. :-)
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
It's just on the computer now.
- A
I defy anybody to be able to make my clothes match up though, what with this being /. and all. We shall not be cool!
Gee, I hate when I have to contortion myself anywhere. To even have to contort myself, grammatically correctly no less, would be even more brutal.
Canadian Cynic, canadian politics is less boring than you
My wife has been calling me a "virtual dummy" for years! Think I should apply for this job?
"Freedom means freedom for everybody" -- Dick Cheney
The problem with this is that fitting rooms are to see how the particular garment actually fits. It's one thing to see how it looks on you, but to figure out whether you need a medium or large, you need to try the clothes on.
I am feeling fat and sassy
How long before large shopping chains will start to hack these programs to alter the shopper's virtual body to fit the clothes better, so they can make better sales?
If programs would be read like poetry, most programmers would be Vogons.
First of all, the same size is never the same size is never the same size. If you really want to know whether the clothes fit, you have to put them on. A second, related point is whether the clothes are comfortable. No matter how good they look, in the end you need to wear them.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
Computer: Increase girth by 300%, descrease height 20%, expand goatee to full beard, increase length by 345% and add dorito crumbs.
> They need to finish perfecting the ones that take off their clothes FIRST.
First karaoke, now this.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
First real world application:
Porn.
Can you put it in chains ?
"However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results" - Winston Churchill
Greeeeeat. This thing looks like the precursor to the individualised advertising in Minority Report. Couple this with RFIDs, sold-to-highest-bidder advertising slots and rights, and it's a marketer's dream come true. Pity it may well be a privacy advocate's worst nightmare.
Help protect civil rights from abuse by the TSA - visit TSA News Blog.
http://www.tsanewsblog.com
I take the summary (about to leave work, can't RTFA) to mean that "Toshiba and a Japanese software company" haven't started the project, much less come up with a working prototype. Since getting stores to buy and use (and therefore test) this sort of thing would take a couple years, I'll believe this isn't vaporware when it's in the first store.
Maybe they're working on my flying car, too.
It's nothing but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand.
That the Bravo Network will now feature Queer Eye for the Virtual Dummy
"....That computer simulation needs the newest line of Dolce and Gabbana clothes line."
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
bah.. I remember when VRML was all the rage, and this sort of tripe was bandied around as the "Next Big Thing". Seems no-one learned the lessons back then that this kind of defeats the point of shopping !
I mean, look on the street - how many people are actually clothing co-ordinated ? Those folks from Queer Eye would have a field day in the UK. What is important about shopping, especially clothes shopping is the feel of the garment, the feel of the fit etc. And if going by what my girlfriend does, impulse buying features heavily in the pain
"I am not bound to please thee with my answers" [William Shakespeare]
Crap, I think Darl patented it.
She's not a virtual dummy, she's brunette :-)
"'I pass the test,' she said. 'I will diminish, and go into the West, and remain Galadriel.'"
- JRR Tolkien.
But that wasn't the most interesting part. Behind the scenes, the software draws upon a vast digital library of clothing images, and it needs to be able to drag them off a centralised clothing server and install them quickly on the computer running the kiosk in the clothes store. Of course managing a digital inventory of several thousand clothing packages and being able to quickly install them on remote machines is a challenge. And it gets harder when you consider the short lifespan of today's fashions: what is current today is an embarrasment tomorrow, and the clothing definition files need to be constantly updated. Fortunately the Toshiba engineers had a very powerful open source resource to draw upon: apt-get!
At Toshiba, they saw that Debian's apt-get package management system was a perfect 'fit' for a digial clothing management system. New fashions could be installed as easily as getting the central controlling software to issue an 'apt-get install boob-tube'. By checking the sources.list file, the kiosk computer is able to download regionalised versions of whatever clothing is being requested...Japanese versions of the same item are sometimes radically different to the Albanian version! Updating to a new look is just as simple. For example, 'apt-get dist upgrade aguilera-crack-whore'. Simple!
You'd be really surprised where apt-get is turning up these days. For so many problems, it fits like a glove! (sorry, couldn't resist!). It's a great day to be an apt-get user! apt-get dressed to kill!
It is doubtful this will work any time soon. Sometimes, two "identical" articles of clothes, from the same manufacturer, from the same factory, differ by as much as an inch(!), due to imperfect manufacturing processes. That's why you have to try stuff on in the store. Combine that with the fact that you may be wearing baggy clothes that make it difficult to size you, and it's unlikely this little scheme will work, at least as it is described in the article.
I don't see how you could buy clothing without trying it on.
How many times have you run into clothes that are either mislabeled, or cut too small?
I've learned the hard way that it's always better to spend the 10 minutes trying stuff on in the store, rather than spend an hour on a return trip.
So I think this modelling scheme is useless. Unless of course that XL shirt is really an XL and not an L.
Also, you need to experience how clothes feel. Do they look cool when you look in the mirror? Do they feel good on you? Does that sweater itch your arms? A model can't tell you this.
I'm all for progress, but it has to be practical. Especially when it involves me spending money on something.
wbs.
You always need to try on clothes.
Huh?
guess that was just a little bit too racy for some of the moderators on here.
I had some dealings with a startup company that was exploring similar ideas. They were planning to put these simulators into retail stores (ie. GAP and kin). One of the biggest problems that they got stuck on was how do you accurately model the persons body without making them stip naked and put on a MoCap suit?
How long before the representations are secretly tweaked (displaywaist = size 6) so that the shopper will "look good" in the clothes? And I can see the tie-ins with advertisers, with avatars saying things like:
"Hi shopper, this is what you look like now, but here's what you would look like (shrinks waist) if you go the XXX diet!".
Just wait until the kids start hacking it!
What is the inverse of the Matrix?
No - I didn't.
And I think I speak for many, many people when I say I that I couldn't give a fuck what OS they used for their screenshots either.
Interesting, though seemingly unremarkable - I believe Pixar already has a program whereby you can scan in a McCall's pattern, and it will sew the garment and fit it to one of their characters...
Philip Sandifer's academic website
Some of you may remember that cheezy 80s serie called Street Hawk (basically a motorcycle version of Knight Rider). I remember seeing in the pilot episode something really clever : the hero was hired to ride this super-duper motorcycle (secret mission and all) and, to make his bike outfit, was asked to step into a clear tube, then the tube filled up with some foam to take a "print" of his entire body, then 5 minutes later, some magic computer spewed out a custom bike clothe set for him.
:-)
Street Hawk's cheesiness aside, I've always thought that was really a clever idea : custom-made instant clothing. These days, technologies could allow a shop to have a 3D scanner where one would step in to have his body scanned, then the customer could select a model, and the model could be made on the spot by a high-speed sewing machine, or simply ordered with the custom fit data and shipped to the customer. If the piece of clothing was to be made on the spot, shops could simply carry fabric, buttons and accessories, and carry patterns in a computer that could make the piece of clothing automatically in, say, 20 minutes.
Personally, I'm a lot taller and heavier than the average person, and I've always had trouble finding pants. I would dearly love if clothes could be custom-made by a machine, as well as a tailor, but for cheap.
Dream on
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
"I wash my [ass] with a rag on a stick." -- Bart Simpson
I love futurama.
"503 Service Unavailable"
/. was down for a while tonight? A metaslashdotting, perhaps?
Anyone else notice
Totally OT but... for about 10 Minutes around 20:15 EST Slashdot was returning 503 errors, anyone else notice??
...or are you just happy to see me?
The Barbie dress up program.
But who the hell can tell if something looks good on a screen ?
There is a LOT more to looking good than just "the clothes" or the style of the clothes.
Anyone who owns an Armani or HSM will attest to what I am talking about.
Because its really so hard to walk ten feet and try on new clothes. On another note when I try on clothes I like to see how they feel(ie too tight/loose), and I like to see what it looks like up close in a mirror, also what if the computer some how manipulated the clothes to make you look better than you really do look? Your probably just going to end up trying them on eventually anyways. And besides, is it really that difficult to visualize yourself with a shirt on ? I should hope not. This is a stupid idea and it will never work.
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
Finally the answer to "Does this make me look fat?"
"Objects in mirror are less attractive than they appear."
Off course, if the clothes are wrong for you, the store's computer and salespeople will tell you so instead of taking your money and letting you walk out with embarrassing clothing...
You can't take the sky from me...
AND HERES THE PROOF!
some random commenting given by the machine countering 'does this make me look fat'-questions.
HSN.com rolled out "my virtual model" over a year ago. You give it your dimensions and can even upload your face. then you can try on the clothes you see on TV.... Only for women though.
Post: Sigged, for your pleasure.
I really don't see the need for this kind of technology.
Why, why why!? Can a computer REALLY extrapolate my dimensions from a simple photograph? Is the computer also going to tell me if I will like the feel of the fabric on my skin?
Are we, as humans, getting so lazy that we can no longer spare a minute or two to dress ourselves so that we may be better informed before purchasing clothing?
What exactly happens if a store has a strict return policy, the computer tells you it will fit...but you get home to find it doesn't? Will the manager/cashier simply say "I guess you should have tried it on!" ?
Now we're all gonna start dressing like people from Vice City. I knew the 80s would make it back into fashion somehow.
I have to go dig out my white suit and salmon shirt...
The server looks like it was crapping out before slashdot crapped out: http://colo.fibersnet.net/mirror/radio.weblogs.com /0105910/
Btw, next time I'll have a mirror for slashdot in case it gets slashdotted, again.
A company already developped "Virtual Model" to buy clothes over the Internet a couple of years ago.
http://www.myvirtualmodel.com
Well it is a medium-sized company (not toshiba) but they are doing very well.
Montreal - Best city to live in!
This doesn't sound good for the consumer, since we're already being told how much we need this or how good we'd look in that, or how we can't live without some new gadget that does some menial task 'faster' or 'better' than ever before (but breaks 10x faster). We don't need a new technology to try and fool us into buying something that we don't really look good and/or feel good in.
I think I'll continue to actually feel the product in my hands and try it on to make sure it isn't a complete piece of crap, and I don't look like a complete moron in it.
So, this is, like, an opposite to X-Ray vision?.. Coooool...
The real virtual dummy will be holding his wife's purse while SHE tries on clothes.
In many instances, I'm as concerned with how things feel and move on me (say, a nice suit, or a jacket, or a different cut of pants than I usually buy) as I am with how they look. I see a shortcoming.
Karma: Excellent, but still won't get you laid.
I fully expect that most retailers would have a version of the software in which your big, fat butt doesn't look quite as big or fat in the clothes you're modeling. People want to buy clothes that make them look good and it is the job of the software to convince them that they look good in those clothes.
Mmmm.. Donuts
...can go jogging for me.
Land's End (www.landsend.com) has had a jr. version of this for a long time.
The model shows how dumpy I really look, regardless of color or outfit. As a result of experiencing the preview, I haven't bought anything from them in a couple of years.
So using this technology this company is going to sell more clothes why?
Live Long and Prosper - Thanks Leonard. You are missed.
Actually, I've been informed that they have a working prototype that runs off of a Phantom gaming console. They refused to turn the unit on to show it off, however. The actual product will, of course, run Duke Nukem Forever, as well.
True story.
This will never catch on. Clothing is a lot more than "how it looks" but also how it feels on your bod. I hat shopping for things, but even though my wife knows what size I ware and what I like, I still want to know that I am comfortable in the stuff.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
But how will I know whether the clothes fit?
Next...
Anyone remember that Batman movie where they computer generated the security camera to make it look like the guy ran out the window?
Alls we need is to have the cameras going on without us knowing about it... and the use of video recordings for evidence is now out the window (if it isnt already); until then, I cant wait how this gets abused under the Patriot Act.
slashdot was slashdotted today!!e careful you dont slashdot me ;)
http://www.miketland.net/slashdot.jpg
b
...people will pay virtual plastic surgeons to give their virtual dummies virtual liposuction.
You won't need a mirror, you should be able to do stuff virtually if Toshiba's software takes off... ;o)
How long before these virtual models are available on porn sites for...people other than lonely geeks like myself...to dress / undress.
That's right, Lands' End has a a virtual model to try on clothes before you buy!
"The old forget, the young don't know" --Japanese Proverb
To see it in action, go to their site. and click on 'My Model' in the upper left corner.
For those who can afford it, it's old news, they even use RFID technology........
I read it somewhere else, but here are the results from a quick google search At Prada, a dazzling glimpse of retail technology future, it's from October 25, 2002!.
"Customers can hang clothes they're trying on in one lucite box, and accessories, like shoes in another. An image is captured from their radio-frequency tags and projected on a plasma screen beside the closet in the dressing room. By pushing buttons on the screens, customers can mix and match outfits, and can find out more details about the clothing.
Which is a 16 year old cheerleader.
A virtual Pamela that is (if the real one is unwilling). Especially in nothing but my socks.
Maybe I could see how a virtual George Bush likes it in my shoes (or shirt).
Filters!
Let's see...a cellulite filter, an acne filter, a bad hair day filter, a hangover elimination filter, a wrinkle remover, an age regression filter...etc...
You just know they're going to incorporate this idea into an episode of Will & Grace next season.
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
Recently, I bought 2 pair jeans at the store, after trying them on.
When I got home, I realized they were waaay to big.
(odd, because I always get the same size of same brand)
Took them back, and got the next size down, which are still too big.
No two are alike! There is no conformity in manufacturing when you get paid by the unit.
Hilariously, while I was there, there was a dude and his wife in the next dressing room trying on clothes.
He said something like this:
"The ones from Egypt are too short, the ones from Panama are too long, the ones from Malaysia are too tight, the ones from India are too baggy..
They're all the same size!"
-- Spankmeister General
They'll never replace the thrill of masturbating into an Old Navy cotton pullover and discreetly returning it to the store shelf.
However, I DO see this being very big with all of the online clothing stores. Get your image scanned in at the physical store (or send in an image) and the software lets you browse their store at home and see what you really look like in it.
Wow, just wait till we get cheap holographic displays!
I also expect this to become popular with the porn industry. Imagine being able to take a girl, take software that is designed to figure out what her body looks like, and then instead of clothing, swap on a "nudity skin". Oh yeah, new wave of pr0n on the horizon!
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Cool. Does this mean we will get to see naked photo-realistic avatars of all the other shoppers too??
;-)
If so, I'm going to start taking my girlfriend underwear shopping more often
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
Who created that 3D model of the nude chick? It couldn't have been a geek.
;-)
You'd have to have access to an attractive naked chick to make a 3D model of one.
I'd rather be a conservative nutjob than a liberal with no nuts and no job.
The phrase "let's go to the mall" currently holds two prospects for those not going:
1) The promise of an afternoon alone with TV/Computer and beverage(s) of choice while someone else is shopping.
2) The bleak trudgery of shuffling from one shameless, image conscious, capitalistic establishment to another.
Once this system is in full swing, going shopping will be as easy as hitting a browser. Depending on where you sit with the above choices, this may be good or bad.
On a final note, this ultimately will not come to pass because it overlooks one of the fundamental reasons people go shopping. There is something satisfying about trying on new items and seeing your reflection as a different person whether that is more elegant, sophisticated, professional, sexy, etc. A virtual reflection will never have the same appeal because inside you'll know that the image you're seeing isn't really you (this opens up some psych/philosophy discussions pertaining to what is real). Also you can't feel the material actually against your skin. Yes, someday a tactile system will help in this arena, but that would just be another type of virtual reflection of reality. Not to mention the amazing looks when someone close to you witnesses a new you stepping out of a dressing room.
Interesting concept which has its place, but a totally virtual world cannot succeed when it comes to fashion.
> After these roll out, how long would it be until the software is modified to bias how you look?
"Honey, do these pants make my ass look big?"
"No darling, it's your ass that makes the pants look big."
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
that was no dummy, that was my wife!
i didn rtfa. i didn't even rtflc (read the fscking lame comments)
SCO sue me
There's a company in Burbank called CyberFX which has been doing 3D scanning for years using Cyberware scanners. They did all the obvious things with the technology -- reverse engineering, prototyping, sculpture scaling (they did the massive baseball glove a PacBell park), porno (scanning and sculpting rich guys' girlfriends), scanning actors for CG doubles in movies.
What they really hit it big with, though, is dressmaking dummies. In the past, dummies were built by hand, and they were just not very good. They didn't match people very well, and each one was different. Now, (say) DKNY sends their size 4, 6, 8, 10 models to CyberFX, they get scanned, and perfect copies are sent to all the dressmaking facilities around the world. Actors have dummies made that match them perfectly, so wardrobe departments can make clothes that fit perfectly.
Dick Cavdek, who runs the company, has come up with significant mechanical advances on dummies, too, so that they are sturdy, light, and can be broken down to be shipped easily.
I went by there a few years ago, and was absolutely amazed by how one guy just revolutionized an industry.
thad
I love Mondays. On a Monday, anything is possible.
'Video cameras snap the shopper, then clothes and accessories are selected and displayed immediately.
And I suppose the virtual models tell you which bits chafe?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
I just love this comment from the article: "... could cut down unnecessary time wasted wriggling in and out of garments, and prevent impatient finger-tapping of waiting friends and partners". I don't know about other people, but I spend a lot more time looking at myself with the garments on in front of the mirror, thinking wether I have any clothes or accessories to match, and deciding if this is a waste of money. If you are spending that much time wriggling, maybe you picked clothes that are 4 sizes too small :)
Reading the article, I notice that the digital model starts off nude, then has clothes rendered onto it. In order for these photorealistic images of a person in new clothes to be generated, it would seem that the software requires a nude scan of said person. Of course, the person could be scanned while clothed, but you'd really just be rendering new clothes on top of the old ones (which, in the software, would take on the rigidity of flesh). It might be possible to design an algorithm to "strip" the scans, but the accuracy would be limited by the varying bagginess of whatever the person is wearing.
Naturally, privacy and convenience concerns arise when one is asked to submit to a nude, full-body digital scan in order to use the new fitting system. The store could keep scans on file, making this a one-time affair, but unless a secure crypto system (wherein only the customer possesses the key) is implemented, the potential for creepy abuse is enormous.
One solution I can think of, however, is to do the scan in a private booth while the customer is only wearing underwear (most undergarments being tight-fitting enough as to not affect the image of the clothing being worn). This is still more convenient than going through a stack of clothes to try on, as the user needs only "change" once. The model for the system could be deleted after use, or the customer could elect to store it on a USB memory stick they bring with them, updating it only occasionally as their physical appearance changes significantly (it could even be stored centrally if a department store chain, or better yet a consortium of them, decides to implement a truly secure system).
It's true that this system doesn't offer as good a "feel" for clothing as actually trying on outfits. For men or women on the go, however, it could drastically reduce time spent clothes shopping. Imagine browsing through the latest fashions at home, picking out a few you like, then heading to the Department store, where they have everything you picked out, in your size, ready for you to try on (and you'll still want to, if for no other reason than to gauge the comfort of the clothing and verify the program's accuracy). An hours-long shopping trip could be reduced to a managable 10-15 minutes.
Of course, my wardrobe consists mostly of items from Goodwill or Thinkgeek, so this is of little utility to me. Nonetheless, it has some potential to make life a lot more convenient for my girlfriend, my sister, etc.
Anonymous Luddite: "What do you think of the dehumanizing effects of the Internet?"
Andy Grove: "Not Much."
Hey, it's better than looking at a picture in a catalog, and people have been buying clothes that way for years.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Hasn't Lands End had something similar for a while: http://www.landsend.com.
In this house we obey the laws of Thermodynamics!
Video cameras snap the shopper, then clothes and accessories are selected and displayed immediately.
:)
You walk by a store front in the mall, and the display in the window is comprised of 1/2 dozen virtual mannequins that ALL LOOK JUST LIKE YOU and are wearing 1/2 dozen different outfits....hope it can accurately spot male/female
Woody Allen in "Sleeper".
"Don't blame the log for the fire." --Andrew Ratshin
The ones they already have are close enough -- I was quite suprised at how well the model looked like me, and how the representation of the clothes on the model was like they were in reality.
Land's End is just one site that uses them.
I think Hanna Barbara has a patent on this.. Mr. Spacely won't be impressed.
shoplifters? Seriously this is going to throw off my whole game.
hate titty pee colon slash slash
back in 1970 i helped out with a somewhat similar project at the Royal College of Art in London (i was writing 3d mapping software at the time). Some lucky students got to digitise real-live naked girls. .. the hardware wasn't fantastic but it did work..
but it was a great excuse to closely examine some very pretty girls' bodies
the 3d-figures were used in a program that "hung" student's dress designs on them
Paul
www.opencouncil.org
Open
No. That's pretty much it.
2006, huh? I wonder if it'll run on Longhorn... Get ready for the Blue Sarong of Death!
The Philosophy of Liberty | lewrockwell.com
I worked for an hosting service and we hosted JC-Penny's version of tis. The virtual manequin, it was all 3D and everything, so I'm not too sure what's so inovative with this. You could set your manequin to match your shape (required some hard honesty, I'm sure) and put clothes on it to see how they fit. I wonder if they still do it, I know for sure that we aren't hosting that anymore.
Mind the frickin' laser...
I suppose it's a measure of how far technology has brought us that something as useless as this needs a further 2 years of development time.
I can hardly wait.
Apache guy, Open Source enthusiast, runner
During the dotcom years, I remember meeting with a client who represented a company that was going to put 3d scanning stations in malls for this very purpose.
"It's simple!" sez their Marketroid. "You go into the booth, strip, get a full body scan, and then we upload the 3d model to our Microsoft Passport(tm)-like service. Then, any participating online retailer will be able to recommend sizes, show you how you personally would look in any outfit, and do dynamic upselling by showing how much better the Gucci looks."
They even had a plan to implement realtime draping/rendering software so you could get photo-realistic images of yourself in those clothes. They thought that boyfriends would finally be able to buy clothes for their girlfriends. They thought that geeks would start getting color coordination.
My first thought was: how many people are going to let some bizarre company photograph them in their underwear (or less), just so that company could better market to them?
My next thought was: nobody reads the disclaimer they sign. I'll set up booths in malls, and run a voyeur web site, and people will even pay to model!
My next thought was: Jesus, I've gone as insane as these lunatics. I need a drink.
Needless to say, they burned through a lot of money, and it never went anywhere. Some guys got some nice SGI hardware out of it for the software side. The "idea people" probably got nice fat salaries for a while, and then had to go back to selling life insurance or flipping burgers or something.
Jesus, do I miss those days!
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
....does this dress make me look fat?
Find out yourself bitch!
Like many of the above slash friends, I don't see this being super useful for fitting clothes. Especially off the rack clothes.
It might be useful if we ever get into warm capable ships and start wearing those Wesley Crusher suits. I'd have to beat myself up, just on principle.
If that is so, I'd say the high end market is shot also. Anyone that has the money to get custom fitted clothing probably has the money to have some tailor and fitter kiss their butts in person. I can respect tailors for their technical skills, but a good one can also keep you out of fashion trouble. As if I have the money to care about that right now!
If I understand this article, the big deal is the ability to simulate different fabrics draping over the model, not the ability to model a body. We've been able to do that for awhile. Maybe we could use it to make better space suits and their undergarments. After all, we basically make only one size and color, and dangit, our astronauts deserve to feel sexy.
All that being said, I want a copy of this technology. I'd like to do some historical 3d graphics, try out some ergonomic ideas & such.
Anybody that says I want to play virtual Barbie is a damn liar.
Why do I have this? I don't smoke.
I attended a presentation by a company trying to do something like this in Pittsburgh a few years back when I was hunting for a job. I'm pretty sure that company died soon after, but I can't recall their name...
;)
They were working on a mathematical system to model dropping cloth over a surface, so online stores could let people try clothes on 3d models with their dimensions. I thought it was an interesting idea, but decided that I didn't want to interview with them as I expected they wouldn't make it. I was just hoping the cloth modeling they developed would end up making it to video game development
Is this really meant as a replacement for the fitting room? It seems like it accomplishes two things to me.. 1) It lets the shopper try a wide range of different looks and styles really quickly. Instead of having to try everything on to see what it looks like, you can use this as sort of a shopping filter to see if that shirt and those pants really DO go together. After you have a few outfit combinations that you like, you then actually try them on for fit and 'real world' look. This is a GOD SEND for any man that has a wife that likes (no loves) the mall.
2) It was mentioned in the article, but it goes a ways towards solving a lot of the problems (visualization problems) associated with shopping online.
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I don't try on clothes to see how they look - I can see what hideously colours and styles they have just by looking at the rack. I try on clothes to find out how they feel - if it isn't comfortable, I ain't wearing it (even if my bum doesn't look fat...)
"If it sounds like Boo.com, run."
Investment Strategy Tip #172
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
from the pictures in the article it appears you get fully naked in front of the camera. I see whole websites dedicated to just having those pictures
There's more to this that meets the eye. Err, your eyes anyway.
Saaaaaay, don't you need a new swimsuit?
Need Mercedes parts ?
The concept itself is kind of intriguing - for quite some people(like myself) it would be really cool to save the time and hassle of trying on clothes in real shops.
However, it is really difficult to realize. You need inexpensive ways of getting 3D-Data of customers bodies (even data about the "consistency" and "elasticity" of certain parts). And, as many people pointed out, you need far better information about the clothes than just an (often inacurrate) size. The software part for modelling and rendering ist not too difficult.
Miralab at Geneve University has done some cool work in this field:
http://www.miralab.unige.ch
I think they had some cooperation with a larger clothes retailer in Europe on such a project but don't know about the current status.
In early 2000, I consulted with a company that handles much of the B2B for the fashion industry. This functionality was discussed as part of a B2C add-on. They wanted it, and were trying to price it, but many factors made it difficult:
1. The audience was mostly female. Most men would not bother with the system. And women were less likely to be buying on the web. So the ROI was difficult to justify. (This and some of the following include sexual stereotypes. There is a reason they are sterotypes.)
2. Most women will lie about their body size. Could we automatically adjust the virtual bodies up one size? Yes, but that would upset the honest women. Would women be honest when their purchasing decisions depended on it? Since the system was not built, this was never answered.
3. Would women even enter all the information needed? Height, weight, waist, inseam, bust, shoulders, arm length, neck width, circumference of biceps and thighs. Think of all the measurements that a tailor makes. Now expect women to enter all that for each website that uses the system, and update it when their shape changes. (Very few people are the same size in January after the holiday eating as they are in September after Summer's outdoor activities.)
4. Would women be concerned that there is a complete record of how their body changes? My mentioning this was a little ahead of the times, as privacy concerns were not in your face then. But would you like a system that remembered every time you added a few pounds?
5. The model would need to show how clothes drape over the body form. We would need incredible horsepower to run the system. We already knew all the details of the fabrics as part of the B2B system that helped designers choose appropriate fabrics for their creations. That part was just programming, but 3D modeling is CPU-intensive. (I recommended hiring some game-engine programmers to optimize the system.)
6. How are the clothes shown? Do we offer choices for whether a blouse is tucked in, and how tightly? How many buttons are fastened? The width of a belt, and exactly where it is worn?
7. Could we show several products at the same time? This one had us baffled, especially if we were to combine products from several companies. The company hoped to set up a single website that the branded websites would pass buyers. I do not know if the fashion companies would have done this. The largest companies have a complete line, so would prefer to buy the technology for their own website.
---
The company sold software. I was recommending that the software be free, but that the company take a (very small) cut of each transaction. They were already discovering that people were using their free-but-limited version to not pay for the full-featured version, even if the customers had to type much of the information in the comments. The company asked me to make it impossible to use the free version for the main tasks that were in the full version. I recommended making the full version (their cash cow) free, but providing a central clearinghouse to handle the transactions. My recommendations were presented to the president of the company. The company was bought later that year and I have not heard from them since.
I just looked up the company that bought them, and they have several press releases this month about winning new customers for their "product lifecycle" software, so they are still active as software sellers, but they do not own the B2B fashion market as I recommended.
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
I smell a lawsuit comming on. As soon as SCO realizes these people are using virtual dummies....after all that would be a virtual Darl, right?
. Quit playing Monopoly with Bill. Switch to one of many non-Microsoft products today.
Then again, you can see yourself in something you can't afford, also...still kinda useless, but so are video games, and I still spend money on them.
" Awww, that's so cute !! Can't nerdy-boi afford a Maccie?? But of course you WindowMaker desktop looks much nicer than the BORING MacOSX thingy, right, my sweetieboi?"
I'm just jumping into this flame after having noticed the same thing about the use of OSX. As to the original post, yeah, it's cool that it runs on OSX. Actually really cool, though it does make me wonder whether it is an app written for OSX or that's simply a web interface.
Regardless, don't take pot shots at WindowMaker. It's my favorite window manager, and I'm someone who uses OSX, Windows, CDE, KDE, Gnome and fvwm2 on a regular basis (don't ask about CDE, just don't ask...) Pretty ain't got nothing to do with it, just utility.
Anyways, I'm only responding because using "boi" in lue of "boy" is really fucking disturbing. I mean, I understand the point of putting one's self in a certain mindset when creating such a flame, but it takes a special kind of person to sound like a rich woman with a poodle.
Please don't do that anymore, it hurts my brain.
A mobile phone of the future which will capture a hot chics body image and which lets you display a virtual nude of her.
:)
Keep up the good work and the future is always inviting!
Pixels keep you awake!
This won't work. The main point for the average person trying on clothes is to see that they fit, and this system won't determine that with any useful degree of accuracy. Often a few millimetres makes all the difference.
A Montreal based company has been doing this for years.
h om e.jsp?
http://www.monmannequinvirtuel.com/mvmhome/jsp/
--- Worst tagline ever.
i go clothes shopping with my wife quite often (can you hear that whip cracking sound?) and its amazing what a wide variety of garments seem to pass off as being the same size.
i'm even worse. I am 95% pragmatic in my clothing purchases, which means when i try on a pair of pants, i put my normal cargo load in the pockets, sit down, stand up, walk around, etc. Most garments fail the load-pockets-and-sit-down test (i have fat legs).
when i try on coats i try sitting, standing, buttoned, unbuttoned, and so on. i insert and remove my phone from the breast pocket, if so equipped. I hold my arms in the full range of positions for steering and shifting a car. My shoulders and chest are quite large from weight training and i've only ever found one sport coat that wasn't ready to burst the shoulder seams and back pleating when i tried to put my arms in the steering wheel position. It a cheap JC penny coat that had a lycra blend in its composition.
so anyhow, garment manufacturers don't currently take my particular oddities into account. nor do they widely manufacture for people shaped like my wife. yet some how they suspect that they can even get away from the facility of test fittings on real humans ?
on the other hand, perhaps this would be useful if they'd use the body scans, remove the heads and send the data back to the designers to get an accurate sampling of the customer base.
My opinions are my own, and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.
1. Black trousers, good fit or one size too large + belt (black).
2. Black jumper/pullover or, if feeling adventurous, dark-coloured checked shirt.
3. Black socks and black shoes/boots.
4. Underwear, colour not important. (Black?)
This has successfully kept me clothed, warm and unlaid for years. IT CAN WORK FOR YOU!!
People aren't going to get naked to buy clothes. Maybe they would go down to underwear. Maybe they would do it once and save it for later so that they didn't have to do it again until they changed size - unfortunately that would entail giving anyone access to your profile online, which wouldn't be so bad as long as it's just a set of points and not a picture.
Alternatively, you could use terahertz imaging to scan the body through clothes.
---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?
As well there's comfort issues. It might look great but if it's really tight somewhere I don't want it. And what about things like sitting, leaning over, etc to see how something gaps and shifts. If I'm going to own it and wear it, at least I can try wearing it before shelling out the $$.
I hope you're not pretending to be evil while secretly being good. That would be dishonest.
Sorry, I need a vacation.
today is spelling optional day.
Imagine combining customized virtual mannequin technology with retina scanning technology as seen in Minority Report... You see yourself in their ads, wearing their latest clothes.
...I always assumed people would be more interested in seeing the virtual models without the virtual clothes.
As the original AC, no I don't use Window Maker, and although I could afford to get a Mac if I wanted to - if its gonna turn me into someone who calls random AC's "sweetieboi" - I'm steering well clear of them.
Forever.
Hugs and Kisses,
Your "nerdy-boi"
20$ says Matrox will create a hardware-accelerated proprietary solution for this, just like Matrix Palette Skinning (i hope i got the name right). The G550 was a fiasco.
Trolls dont like to be Flamebait, because they burn so well. Protect our Troll heritage!
I remember in 1999, the famous modeling agency Elite (press release) announced that they would have the first virtual runway model, made by Illusion2K and named Webby Tookay. I saw the demo reels, and I recognized the art style from a well-known 3Dstudio artist Steven Stahlberg (who had Tookay modeling some victorian clothes in a bodice-ripping adventure scenes before).
Nothing ever came of Elite's project, and the only other comparitive software, the "Cosmo Home MakeOver" died out after a year on the shelves. Call me a cranky old man, but I don't see this idea going very far either.
If anyone wants to see the current incarnation of this technology (if it can be called that), check out:
;)
http://rnainc.jp/360models_03_ss/index.html
It's really primitive, especially compared to the My Virtual Model that landsend.com has had for years. It's just one static model represented by a bunch of jpegs loaded into Flash, with clothing as additional transparent images transposed on them. No actual 3D at work here. Looks like just photos taken from several angles. Stupid!!
She is pretty hot, though.
Justin
"Why would God give us a waist if we wasn't supposed to rest our pants on it?" - Rev. Roy McDaniels
I think my eyes started to show my brain whatever they want to at this time (1am).
The Virtual Dummy site looks a lot like Groklaw. Hmmmm... Maybe Pamela Jones is secretly behind all this..
Insert funny conspiracy theory abound Pam taking over the world here. X-D
I wonder in what is this "super-new" thing is different from the "good'ol'" Kiss files? From the screenshots it looks like kiss format wont die...
-- search the web
You choose your outfit, and in a spray of stars your image spins around while items of clothing appear one by one. Your image points to you and says in a high voice - "Fashion victim I will punish you!"
Hello slashdot slugs! Order your mumu now! We've got all the sizes for you all of you fat bastards! As a bonus, free fork lift and jaws of life extraction from your room!
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Disclaimer: 100 ton capacity helicopter transport extra.
so long for shoplifters :)
I hate going shopping enough already. Now you're going to make me get pictures taken too? Why not just shove a pitchfork into my ass while you're at it?
Oh yes! Now because a computer has super-imposed a sweater on my torso, I know that the one in my hand will fit just fine with out going to the dressing room. "I'll take two, please."
Remember from 1999-2000 when the giant clothing start up boo.com crashed. They had a system like this where you could put clothes on a manequin to try them out...
Except back then it took about 20 minutes to load on most peoples dialups.
read the book buy from amazon Its a good read, even if it was from ages ago. you'll wonder how they thought they could implement all they wanted, it was about 3 or 4 years ahead of its time.
How many computers are too many?
Somehow the first thing I thought when I read this posting was that it would be a hell of a lot more interesting if you could remove the clothe entirely.
you know, it might look great, but what if I don't like how it feels when worn? So, you'd have to try it out, anyway. Japanese people... you all are so inscrutable ;)
So you will be able to buy clothes without trying them on by seeing them on your avatar, but guess what happens then - you take them home and try them on. Although on the surface the avatar seems more efficient, I believe it will just mean more trips to the store for returning things, more used items and higher administrative and restocking costs.
Probably the best use of this system will two-fold:
1)be to screen clothes to find those you really like to decide which to actually try on in the fitting room.
2) to put outlandish clothes on your avatar to see if there is some hidden combination that magically transforms you into a cool person.
And in other news, the Department of Homeland Security is probably examining the technology to see if they could use it in Airport Terminals. Basically the idea is to have a stripped down body scan of each subject and then compare a current scan to the body of the subject to identify any possible weapon caches. Of course, they have yet to find out where the original will be obtained.
-- Make every moment count.
This idea was directly stolen from the Idea Board at SlipHead.com. Take a look at this story on SlipHead and tell me if they didn't steal it!
One of my bosses[0] at my last job left the company to go screw with something like this at another company. Think around 1998. Dunno whatever happened to it.
I actually thought it was kind of an original (but lame) idea at the time, but it seems slashdot knows better.
[0] Was he my boss? I have NFI, I had 1093280182 bosses, and they all kept whining about a "TPS report" or something... and they took my stapler...
Assume I was drunk when I posted this.
Although the concept is nice, I must pose the question? What kind of money is used to research and develop these things? I mean...shopping is easily one of the most insulted past times in American culture, and now Japan is helping us further the past time...how is funding accomplished? Is it the same amazing government that did a reasearch for years and costing over $5 billion into determining why beets are not widely eaten...only to determine that they just don't tasts good?
---[ #!/usr/bin/aykon ]---
My greppable genius program picked this post out out.
Let me know the stock name of your new company (grepforclothes.com?), so I can invest my soul.
I like her hairless body.