In recent months, the Covid-19 emergency has completely upset our habits, forcing us to completely review our lifestyle.
We have rethought and modified the ways in which we have carried out the most elementary of our actions so far.
Our daily life is governed by new rules to try to eliminate the risk of new infections deriving from gatherings and disordered crowds waiting for their turn.
With this in mind, we are even more proud to present our new research project, submitted in December 2018 to the MISE call for “Intelligent Factory, Agrifood and Life Sciences” and approved by the Ministry of Economic Development at the beginning of September: TRY IT ON.
Gli argomenti del post
- 1 THE REVOLUTION OF TRY IT ON VIRTUAL FITTING ROOM
- 2 MACHINE LEARNING, NEURAL NETWORKS AND 3D RENDERING
- 3 3D modeling to replicate sartorial properties
- 4 Deep learning to recognize physical characteristics
- 5 Skeletal animation and 3D avatar for an increasingly faithful anthropomorphic reproduction
- 6 Effects of light / shadow for an even more realistic result
- 7 THE ADVANTAGES OF TRY IT ON
- 8 Benefits for the real retail
- 9 Benefits for e-commerce
- 10 The virtual dressing room as a response to Covid-19
- 11 PROJECT UPDATES
THE REVOLUTION OF TRY IT ON VIRTUAL FITTING ROOM
TRY IT ON is a virtual fitting system that will completely revolutionize the way we choose clothes, whether we go to traditional clothing stores or decide to buy them online!
Designed in collaboration with Youbiquo and DiMIE (the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Economics of the University of Basilicata), in particular with the Unibas Computer Graphics laboratory, TRY IT ON will allow consumers to try on clothing simply by looking in the smart mirror installed in the store or using your mobile device, in the case of online purchases.
Once in front of the device, the special cameras made by Youbiquo will acquire the physicality of the person in real time and the system will reproduce the dress he intends to try on in a realistic and faithful way: the user will be able to evaluate not only the appearance exterior of the dress but also its fit, just as if you were actually wearing it.
MACHINE LEARNING, NEURAL NETWORKS AND 3D RENDERING
Smart mirrors and virtual fitting systems are nothing new in themselves: the real innovation are the techniques we are going to use to carry out this project.
3D modeling to replicate sartorial properties
First of all, Sautech Group, in collaboration with DiMIE, will create a complex and detailed 3D modeling system for clothes and fabrics, the aim of which will be to virtually replicate the main sartorial characteristics.
The line of the garment will be reproduced, which indicates how the dress fits the person (for example if the garment is straight, soft or snug); adherence, which expresses the degree of adherence of the garment; and finally the rigidity, which expresses the adaptability of the garment to the wearer.
To achieve greater realism possible, an assiduous collaboration with tailoring industry experts will be activated tailoring (fashion houses, tailors, traders in the sector), capable of evaluate the goodness of the final result.
Deep learning to recognize physical characteristics
The second step will consist in modeling the users’ human body. Each person is characterized by their own physicality, posture and way of moving: unique characteristics of each user that TRY IT ON will be able to detect and use to superimpose, in real time, the vision of the simulated clothes on the real image of the person, that will move following its body and movements.
The end user will therefore have the pleasant sensation of really wearing the dress and not just seeing it superimposed on his image, as happens with most of the virtual fitting room systems currently available on the market.
To do this, deep learning techniques and neural networks will be used with which the system will be “trained” to recognize the bodies of various users.
Skeletal animation and 3D avatar for an increasingly faithful anthropomorphic reproduction
It does not end here. Starting from the images captured by the cameras, the system will be able to accurately acquire the anthropometric measurements of the person, start the process of recognizing the human body and create, in real time, a 3D avatar.
The avatar, invisible, will be superimposed on the person’s image and, thanks to the skeletal animation technique, will faithfully follow his movements.
Effects of light / shadow for an even more realistic result
Finally, just as it is done in the creation of videogames and animated films, realisticity will be added to the images with light / shadow effects on the various surfaces.
The final result will be that of looking in the mirror wearing the desired dress!
THE ADVANTAGES OF TRY IT ON
The commercialization of TRY IT ON will determine evident benefits both for shopping in the physical store and for the online one.
Benefits for the real retail
In the context of real retail, TRY IT ON will allow to obtain:
- INCREASE IN SALES: 63% of customers who enter a store leave empty-handed. The main reason for the failure to sell is to be found in the fact that real retail does not offer the right mix of variety, speed and flexibility required by the consumer, now accustomed to the immediacy and richness of online shopping. The virtual dressing room fills this gap by allowing: greater speed in the purchase, total or partial elimination of the clothing test (the buyer may decide to physically try on only the garments that have “passed” the first virtual skimming) and offer the customer a much wider choice through access to the entire collection. Dresses not present in the store can be purchased online and received directly at the address indicated by the customer;
- DECREASE IN FIXED COSTS: the weight of the costs associated with the rental of the commercial space, staff, utilities, cleaning, etc. it is around 80% of the value of the fixed costs of a commercial operation. The virtual dressing room will promote an innovative business model, which contemplates the use of smaller and more profitable shops: these are guideshops, stores that do not have a physical warehouse but that allow customers to evaluate and wear samples to find the perfect model and fit;
- LOYALTY: the use of smart mirrors in fitting rooms will allow retailers to experiment with new ways of engagement and entertainment, introducing gamification mechanisms aimed at increasing customer loyalty and increasing brand / store awareness. Furthermore, smart mirrors can be used to send offers, discounts and even implement product upselling strategies to consumers. All this offers merchants an opportunity for direct interaction with customers, with a consequent increase in loyalty.
Benefits for e-commerce
As regards to e-commerce, TRY IT ON is proposed as a solution to the two main problems that are still a brake for about half of consumers who do not shop for online clothing:
- CERTAINTY ABOUT THE FIT OF THE GARMENT: the inability to have direct contact with the goods is the main obstacle to buying clothing online, as well as the major cause of returns (about 40%). TRY IT ON offers a method for obtaining more precise information about the fit of the product and provides a “virtual contact” with the goods. In this way, the consumer lives a playful and pleasant experience, which translates into a higher purchase conversion rate and a reduction in the percentage of returned products.
- REDUCED RETURNS: the second advantage is directly related to the first. Following the introduction of such a tool, return rates could drop below 10%. This will result in an increase in profit margins and a possible reinvestment of the savings obtained with a consequent reduction in the prices of online shopping. All this could lead to a significant increase in the e-commerce market share compared to real retail, up to 20% or more.
The virtual dressing room as a response to Covid-19
To all the advantages listed above, there is another that can help address the need, born with the Covid-19 emergency, to limit the number of people present at the same time in the same place and speed up purchase times.
Companies could take advantage of the virtual dressing room to create “24H window shops“, that are points of sale consisting only of smart mirrors positioned in strategic areas within shopping centers or pedestrian areas not easily accessible by customers. These stores will not only allow garments to be tried on, but also 24-hour purchases.
PROJECT UPDATES
The project continues to achieve the final goal. In the following demo we show the state of the art of TRY IT ON:
- creation of the virtual twin by manually entering the measurements;
- first construction of the interface for choosing clothes;
- user tracking;
- heatmap;
- fitting of clothes with choice of model and size.
The next step? Automate the measurement of the body, improve tissue physics and refine the accuracy of the avatar measurements. Stay tuned!
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