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AI Tailors Can Wait (bloomberg.com)

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the too-soon dept.

Bloomberg Businessweek: Original Stitch has all the trappings of an e-commerce success story. The pitch is simple: Original Stitch uses computer-vision software to review photos of your most beloved dress shirts uploaded to the company website, then delivers perfectly tailored copies. We tried it -- the only problem was that it didn't work. When the first shirt arrived too tight around the chest and too long in the sleeves, we figured an editor's sloppy photography was to blame, but the problems persisted with a second attempt. A third shirt, ordered under a different name to make sure we wouldn't get special treatment, could barely be buttoned up. The sleeves felt like tourniquets. "We tried to push the envelope," Original Stitch founder Jin Koh acknowledged after we confronted him with the results. "Obviously, it's still in beta." In December, three months after launching the service, Koh quietly pulled it down. He's returned to asking users to fill out a questionnaire with their own measurements while he works out the bugs.

8 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Why test at all? by ranton · · Score: 2

    Why test your product at all if customers can just do it for you?

    1. Release product under name #1
    2. Get a lot of test data from thousands of soon to be disgruntled customers
    3. Close up shop
    4. Release product under name #2
    5. Profit

    --
    -- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
  2. Denise by CastrTroy · · Score: 2

    I say we name this AI, Denise.

    Sure the AI has some flaws now, but it will eventually get better. Also, a lot of the problems are going to come from the quality of the picture. The lens usually distorts the image. I remember doing an AI project one and we had to account for the fish-eye effect of the lens. Also, our adjustments only worked for our camera and would have been broken for another camera.

    --

    Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
    1. Re:Denise by scdeimos · · Score: 2

      I'd say Keystone Effect will have a bigger influence on distorted garments than any lens distortions.

      If you take a look at the Bodygram page at Original Stitch the example photos are taken from directly above the shirt.

      The first picture in TFA demonstrates the Keystone Effect well - instead of the camera being directly above the shirt when the picture was taken it was off-center by a couple of feet and taken from below. This resulted in the top of the shirt appearing about 70-80% of the width of the bottom of the shirt.

      Another potential problem could be the target. The Bodygram page says to "place a piece of standard paper on top of the shirt" to use as a target for the vision system - but do they mean US Letter standard, ISO A4 standard, or some other standard? Obviously choosing the wrong size paper will influence the measurements of the shirt.

  3. Re:It isn't AI by Maxo-Texas · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.vetta.org/documents...
    which leads to...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    It's a form of A.I.

    It's not strong A.I.

    Strong A.I. could be an extinction level event for humans. I think limits on available power will slow it down enough for us to have time to react. But there's a significant chance for a failure of friendliness combined with superhuman intelligence and superman manipulativeness. And people researching strong A.I. don't appear to be taking sufficient safeguards to me.

    --
    She was like chocolate when she drank... semi-sweet at first and then increasingly bitter.
  4. Re:haha by Hal_Porter · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Subjective is right. I got some made to measure shirts in Taiwan which fit like a glove and were hence unwearable. I ended up getting them to clone my favourite shirt which was quite a bit looser and thus wearable with a suit for eight hours in a place which is usually boiling ass hot.

    Meanwhile it's not all that hard to buy ready to wear shirts which fit OK.

    The problem is not creating clothes that fit like a glove, it's the subjective deviations from that which everyone is used to.

    --
    echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
  5. Bumper Sticker Quality by Hylandr · · Score: 4, Funny

    "We tried to push the envelope, ... Obviously, it's still in beta."

    This needs to be printed on a t-shirt. I would wear it everywhere.

    --
    ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
  6. Obvious solution is obvious by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The obvious thing here is that they are trying to copy an existing thing, not by taking a picture of the wearer, but by taking a picture of the item. Take a look at all the chinese counterfeit websites (here's one: gamiss.com ) generally any website that is 85% off and looks like a generic shop with a label applied and uses the same photos you see on eBay are selling counterfeits (anything "new without tags" is counterfeit.) Now take a look at the reviews for these sites, you will see the same thing

    "Ill fitting"

    "looks like it was made in a sweatshop"

    "what the fuck is this trash"

    Especially with sites that deal with wedding, bridesmaid and prom dresses.

    This "AI" is no better than the counterfeiters. The reason is that they're working from a photo. I bought one of these dresses from one of these sites after seeing it in the advertisements for like a month just for the hell of it. When I got it, the material used was basically garbage, and it was too short. I'd have to be 4' 6" for it to go to my knees.

  7. I will buy from an online tailor named... by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 2

    I will buy from an online tailor named Garek. That is all.