Who's that model in the store window? You are!

[mbarker]

Just another quick bit from the news this morning. Somewhere in Tokyo, I think, they were showing what apparently is the newest gadget for store owners. It wasn't quite life-size, but basically it looked like a mirror... Except when the female news person walked up to it and looked at herself, it started showing her image in various outfits from the store. So she suddenly had a dress, a coat, and so forth in the displayed image. This was in the front of the store, where passersby would usually look in the window. Along with the mannequins.

Apparently the built-in camera and software are smart enough to recognize people and put outfits from the store on them. It wasn't a perfect fit, but it was pretty good. They showed that if you turned, the outfit would turn too.

And when the male news person walked up, it also showed him in the picture. But instead of a dress, he got a suit. I'm not sure how good the gender recognition is, but apparently it tries to correctly identify the customer. I can just imagine the fun that teenagers might have with discovering that when Joe walks by the store, he gets put in a dress. Or that Jane gets the suit?

I wondered if the system could be set up to record and playback passersby when there wasn't any particular customer looking in the window. It seems like a likely extension.

Grab the images from passing people, add your own tweaks, and show it to the world. Add in that facial recognition software that they were demonstrating the other day, and it could even respond to individual customers, showing them their preferred styles.

It's interesting that they put this in front of the store. I would've expected it to be used inside, as a sort of virtual "try this on" system. They probably have that too, but I guess the random dress-up appeal may actually be more important for stores.

After all, instead of a mannequin in some outfit, there you are! And I'm willing to bet that almost anyone seeing their own face is going to stop and look. At least until all the stores start doing it.

Comments

[dialyn.livejournal.com]

I'm fascinated....if a person is in a larger size, does the image adapt for that or does it make everyone look as if they are the same size? I don't think this would inspire me to buy anything but I can imagine as a novelty it slows people down. Unfortunately if the image was too true to life, I probably wouldn't buy since the delusion that I might look better used to be part of my purchasing experience. As for showing the results to the world, I'd definitely pass on that. I don't quite understand the need to self-advertise.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

It did seem to "fit" the picture to the person. It was like fitting a picture on top of another picture and adjusting the size up and down, though, it wasn't completely matched up. But it was pretty good.

It really did look as if the person was in a mirror -- and then the clothes started changing. Kind of like the old paper dolls?

I think as a virtual "try this on" it could be useful. I mean, I dislike changing booths. But having it in the front of the store... as you say, I'm not sure I really want everyone else watching. But I would guess it will draw attention for a while.

It's kind of like having the clerk run up the minute you look in the window and say "Oh, this would look good on you" and holding up a coat or something. Some people seem to really like that immediate attention. I'm more likely to leave at that point. If I'm going to look, I want to do it at my pace.

[dialyn.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how this works but I was just listening to the BBC New Hour and they said there are companies trying out a cell phone version of this idea. The person takes a shot of a dress with their phone (if they have a phone that does this, which I don't) and it appears on the screen on a photo of the person which they then can advertise on Facebook in order to get feedback from their friends (because, heaven forbid, anyone makes a decision without consulting everyone else in their virtual world). Then, presumably, if they get rave reviews, they go to the store and hope that the garment is in their size (I assume cost is not a consideration because these people seem to have endless amounts of money to spend on fads). I don't know which stores are involved...the shoppers involved were in Trafalgar Square and seemed to be part of a test project. I'm not sure about the business about having a full figure photo of myself to dress up on my cell phone....I know people like to have photos of themselves because they seem to be afraid they will forget what they look like, but that's not something I'm likely to do.