The Future Of... Dressing Rooms
July 21, 2009 | Length: 00:03:44
Tired of scrutinizing yourself in a fitting room mirror? Researchers at PARC are working on putting an end to dressing room indecision. SmartPlanet correspondent Sumi Das meets up with the brains behind the "responsive mirror" and tries on the technology for size.
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RE: The future of... dressing rooms
My partner and I have been working on this idea since November 2010. We brought this idea to Score foundation (www.score.org) because we needed some mentoring tips and financial help from this organization. I would like to know if you may email me or share my email with the sponsor of this project at Xerox.
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Transcript
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>> No matter what your style we all need clothes. Each year the US Retail Apparel Industry generates over $100 billion in revenue. Online shopping has transformed how we buy clothes. The way we try clothes however is the same today as it was 20 years ago. But in the future dressing rooms may be more intelligent and help us shop smart.
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>> At the Palo Alto Research Center of PARK, Beau Begole assumed spelling leads a research team that's developing the responsive mirror which provides shoppers with what you could call tech support.
>> In the physical world we don't have the same amount of information that you get on the web and so we were think about how can we supplement a person's information needs in the physical retail shopping experience.
>> The researchers answer solves a frequent problem. It's a common situation, you browse around a store, find a few tops and start trying them on but by the time you get to the last one can you remember what the first one looked like?
>> With the responsive mirror it records each instance of you trying on the shirts and then replays that in an electronic display next to the mirror.
>> The responsive mirror will show you exactly how you looked in that first blouse; what's more it will detect and match your current pose. So if you turn to the side the image in the responsive mirror will also be a side view. No smoke or even mirrors at work here. Cameras and equations do all the work.
>> There's an overhead camera that's looking down on the customer as they're standing in front of the mirror and then as you rotate it tracks that motion. Then with each 5 degrees of rotation the front camera takes an image and records that and then later when the person comes in with another outfit on then again it's detecting the rotation in front of the mirror and it matches images from the previous fitting.
>> Using algorithms the technology could also recognize types of clothing and suggest alternatives that may be better suited to you.
>> It can draw people into a retail store because this is a store that's innovating and providing information that shoppers would find useful.
>> Shoppers may also be less likely to return clothes knowing they bought the item with the best fit and feel.
>> If saving time or getting a second opinion doesn't grab you perhaps the nation's current online fascination will.
>> The big vision part of it goes beyond just the experience in the fitting room; it's also the idea of recording those images and providing those to something like your social network site so that you could talk about your fashion choices with friends and peers.
>> The future dressing room, it could help you find the perfect fit. For smart planet I'm Sumi Das.
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==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====