Augmented reality, or the blending of the real world with computer graphics on the fly, is one of the most exciting fields in tech right now. Unfortunately, there haven’t been many practical uses of the technology — we’ve seen some very impressive video game peripherals and a few Terminator-style phone overlays from companies like Layar, Sekai Camera, and Seer Android, but these still have a ways to go before they’ll hit the mainstream.
Zugara, an interactive marketing agency, has built something a bit more practical for the time being. It’s put together the Webcam Social Shopper, offering a way to help you try on clothes online from the comfort of your bedroom. At least, it lets you overlay a static image on top of your body and pretend you’re wearing it. Which is sort of a start.
From a technological standpoint, the application is pretty cool. While other similar clothing applications require you to upload a static image of yourself, the Zugara app uses your web cam, detecting where you’re standing in a room and adjusting the position of the overlain clothing appropriately. Even better: instead of having to return to your keyboard and mouse to try on a new outfit, you can simply move your arms above your head to navigate through the various clothing options (be sure to watch the video to see how it works).
Now, it’s pretty obvious that this isn’t going to be particularly useful for figuring out how any item of clothing is actually going to look on you. The clothes are basically just images being pasted on top of your body, without any attention being paid to your proportions (it would be much more useful if the app could generate a 3D model of your body and adjust the clothing fit accordingly).
On the other hand, it could be handy for figuring out which clothes might look good together. Clashing colors and patterns may be incredibly obvious to the well-trained eye of a veteran shopper, but for some people (read: me), a virtual fitting room could prove useful. Zugara is also trying to weave a social element into the application, offering examples of sharing outfit choices over Facebook or allowing friends to help choose outfits in real time, which could turn out to be the app’s real strength.
At this point Zugara is describing this as an Alpha app — it hasn’t yet been integrated with any stores or brand sites, so you can’t try it out for yourself. But it won’t be surprising if we start seeing similar technology popping up at online stores soon. Even if it doesn’t work all that well for actually trying on clothes, the social component and novelty factor could make it appealing to stores anyway.
Update: Zugara’s Jack Benoff comments below on the sizing issues and the goal of the project:
-If you click on the link below you can check out more information about the app and our thinking behind it. It’s important to point out that we aren’t trying to replicate that moment when you walk out of a dressing room, but rather that moment when you find an article of clothing on a rack and you hold it up to yourself. It’s that moment of turning to a friend (or the mirror) and say something to the effect of: “What do you think?”
-As you will see in the blog post below. Future executions will allow for a user to enter their measurements and get a “fitted” image. Sizing though, tends to be specific to the retailer/brand and will need to be “tailored” (i.e. integrated) accordingly.
You can find more information on the project here.
Hahahaha great title!
That software looks sweet! I think project Natal will be similar.
Hi Jason,
That’s really amazing technology. Its definitely gonna change how people shop online. Loved the article and the video.
Thanks.
Mani Raj
Havoc Marketing
Interesting, but too many steps for the end user in my opinion, particularly for that client (shoppers). the uploading photo thing is actually probably easier.
Fun, but I think it’d be much cooler if you could take the picture, upload photos of YOUR clothes then put together outfits.
Maybe Polyvore could use something like this however.
Interesting, but too many steps for the end user in my opinion, particularly for that client (shoppers). the uploading photo thing is actually probably easier.
Fun, but I think it’d be much cooler if you could take the picture, upload photos of YOUR clothes then put together outfits.
Maybe Polyvore could use something like this however.
Actually, Jason, if you read the entirety of the original post from Zugara, you would have seen that they are working on digital sizing technology, and that this is the alpha.
Hey Jason –
First off, thanks for the coverage. We (Zugara) truly appreciate it. I just wanted to quickly address a few points that you raised:
- If you click on the link below you can check out more information about the app and our thinking behind it. It’s important to point out that we aren’t trying to replicate that moment when you walk out of a dressing room, but rather that moment when you find an article of clothing on a rack and you hold it up to yourself. It’s that moment of turning to a friend (or the mirror) and say something to the effect of: “What do you think?”
- As you will see in the blog post below. Future executions will allow for a user to enter their measurements and get a “fitted” image. Sizing though, tends to be specific to the retailer/brand and will need to be “tailored” (i.e. integrated) accordingly.
http://weareorg...motion-capture/
Thanks again, and if anyone wants to chat about the app you can find me at http://twitter.com/jack_benoff
Amazing technology, and yet still when the clothes arrive half are jettisoned immediately to Goodwill as my wife believes they make her bum look big/wrong/flat/round
Very cool technology, actually it’s the first really useful application that I see out of it, .. menu selection by waving in front of a webcam.
For graphics, it is usually very impressive, like the GE demo on Energy, but this time, on Zugara, the user is centered and it’s about getting something done.
On the next Gen .. it could do measurements, from comparing the size of a hand or head to estimate the waist & more , .. then help you build an order that fits.
Can’t wait to see the upcoming tools.
I am sorry, but I think its ok to stepout to a neigbourhood store and find what you like, try it out.
If you really didnt have the time to do that, you probably don’t need that stuff anyways.
Clothes. No. Something else. May be. ( like furniture).
But some stores aren’t always located locally, for example, Victoria’s Secret does not carry their clothing (Jeans, T-Shirts, dresses, etc.) in their stores so you have no choice but to shop online and currently Phoenix (which is where I live) does not have a TopShop or Bloomingdales, so in order to get items from these stores I need to purchase online or travel outside of the state.
This app looks great and definitely has great potential. I like their description of their concept and why the clothes aren’t fitted (yet) because that is exactly what I do – even more so than trying clothes on – I just hold it up and see what it looks like next to me before making a decision to try on or just purchase right away. I’m glad to see something like this being developed as it is a great stepping stone to improving the online shopping experience.
Love the idea. It definitely adds a new dimension to the online shopping experience.
I wonder how much cooperation one can expect/assume from users when it comes to enhancing their shopping experience. Maybe they will appreciate the novelty of AR, but IMHO I am going to say they would rather have one (or a few) static pictures over which they could do quick overlays and browse through catalogs.
The key still is figuring out sizing and fitting. It seems to be the achilles heel as far as online apparel shopping is concerned. Good luck to the team @ Zugara. Looking forward to future releases.
Minor technical note:
They probably will have trouble with some sites where the clothing is not nicely segmented out (polyvore has similar issues). These are easily the majority of clothing shopping sites out there.
The technology definitely has some potential, especially when looking at personalization. Frauenhofer and adidas developed a magic mirror (http://www.dw-w...3655143,00.html) where people can see themselves wearing a pair of virtual shoes. In future technology such as the virtual dressing room will enable this for apparel. Maybe not from home using the webcam but at a retail store using a high quality setup.
If you want to test, we’ve built one here:
http://labs.e-g...angeTShirtLogo/
Just remove the printed marker and interact with the arrow on top.
Hi…Cyril i’m very interested about this video.
And also i want to work on this augmented reality,
can you give some guidelines .
Thanks in advance.
Srikanth
Another AR application by using QR Code.
QR Code AR Demo ( Augmented Reality )
http://www.yout...h?v=I6MiJKgtbug
If you care how the clothes fit, however not on yourself, take a look at MixMatchMe:
http://www.mixmatchme.com
This site has recently launched and currently allows you to mix & match clothes from Boden & French Connection on a model.
More cool brands are coming soon.