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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."
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
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.
I don't see how you could buy clothing without trying it on.
I (and many other men, I'm assuming) do it all the time. We do the hold it up to our body thing (mentioned earlier), but frequently I'll just get my general size. Oh, I wear medium shirts so just buy medium shirts (especially if I stick with a certain brand). There's none of this garbage that women deal with where a size 1 at one place is a size 5 at another or whatever because pants are 33 inches in the waist and 34 inches long. Period.
I think that the problem with this is that it might be exceedingly clever if it weren't in between markets. People who simply don't care (for argument, I'll just say "men") might use it and take a look, but they couldn't care less if a store didn't have the feature, because it's not too influential in their decision. Those who do care ("women") wouldn't be satisfied with this sort of technology (especially if it hasn't yet been proven) and would insist on trying the clothes on regardless, to ensure the colors look right "in this light" or some similar thing, to see how the clothes hang, how they move when she walks or whatever.
It's like selling the hybrid manual/automatic gearshifts in cars (though I don't know if this has been at all successful). Those who hate having to worry about shifting would just as soon go with an automatic, and those who really enjoy the control and fun of driving a manual would probably prefer a manual (of course). So I don't know if it's a winning tactic trying to market to this middle, "grey" market where there might not actually be many people.
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.
To see it in action, go to their site. and click on 'My Model' in the upper left corner.
>>There's none of this garbage that women deal with where a size 1 at one place is a size 5 at another or whatever because pants are 33 inches in the waist and 34 inches long.
Not always true. 36 waist isn't always 36. Sometimes it's 37, sometimes it's 34. Even length can vary.
wbs.
Huh?
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 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
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.
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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.
My Virtual Model Inc. has set the standard for online apparel shopping. Two core technologies - the My Virtual Model(TM) Dressing Room and My Virtual Model(TM) Fit - enable consumers to 'try on' clothes on the Internet. 2002 saw the introduction of a third product, My Virtual Model(TM) Imail. This innovative marketing tool offers a unique, fun and simple interactive My Virtual Model(TM) Dressing Room integrated in an e-mail.
For merchants, deploying My Virtual Model(TM) technology improves bottom-line profitability by increasing revenues while cutting costs. Shoppers using My Virtual Model(TM) solutions spend more, buy more and return far fewer items - resulting directly in reduced shipping and handling costs.
My Virtual Model Inc. was co-founded by Louise Guay, Ph.D., and Jean-Francois St-Arnaud. In 1990, the two entrepreneurs joined forces to build one of Canada's leading multimedia agencies, Public Technologies Multimedia Inc. (PTM). The first release of My Virtual Model(TM) technology in 1997 was a major breakthrough in online customer service. In 2000, PTM became My Virtual Model Inc., in recognition of the company's focus on the online apparel shopping market.
--- Worst tagline ever.