FitBot revolutionizes clothing retail by conforming to consumer measurements
Professor Maarja Kruusmaa working alongside Fits.me COO Diana Saarva created the Fits.me virtual fitting room, an online changing room where you simply enter your sizing statistics and a robotic mannequin models how various sizes will look on your torso - all from the comfort of your own home.
The female FitBot manequin (Click Image To Enlarge)
Among a host of advantages, the virtual fitting room saves time - the one commodity destined to always be in short supply and solves the single biggest problem for online fashion retail - the lack of a fitting room. When it was introduced for men last year, sales to new customers increased by 57%, and sales to international customers doubled. Now it's available for women too.
The Fits.me virtual fitting room is an online changing room where you simply enter your sizing statistics and a robotic mannequin models how various sizes will look on your torso (Click Image To Enlarge)
All told, the robot is capable of replicating 2,000 body shapes. When a retailer signs up with Fits.me, they first send in their clothes. Each size is placed on the robot, which then cycles through all the body shapes it knows.
While that's going on, a camera is taking pictures of each permutation. This photographic log is then stored in an online database. Once you go online and type your measurements into the retailer's site, it calls up the photo corresponding to your precise body type and clothing size.
Using proprietary FitBot technology, robots can conform to over 85 percent of the female individuals that shop online today (Click Image To Enlarge)
Dr. Kruusmaa says.
"Fits.me has already collected information from well over 100,000 male end users, and the data confirms what many intrinsically observe; over half of the customers chose a size that is different than the traditional size chart would recommend."
The consumer-driven robot concept is also invaluable to retailers. One German test-run showed that the robots increased sales 300 percent, while reducing returns percent.
The FitBot virtual fitting room can't guarantee a perfect fit all of the time, but 85 percent of the time is pretty damn good (Click Image To Enlarge)
COMMENTARY: Now that's what I call a truly nifty idea whose time has come. Women or men can now order clothing online and actually see how particular items of apparel will fit or appear on you.
Courtesy of an article dated June 27, 2012 appearing in Robotic Trends and an article appearing in GizMag
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