TryOn: An Augmented Reality Fitting Room

Introduction

Augmented reality is the merger between the digital and the physical world. Nowadays, all the big names in the market are focusing on augmented reality as they know the importance of this thing in the near future. Recently Apple and Google both launched their augmented reality development tool kits. Building up on these tools, numerous applications are in being produced, helping to tackle many serious social issues head-on. Different fields are adopting and trying to use this cutting edge technology for various purposes. One of these emerging products is the concept of augmented reality fitting room on which different companies have already started working and have prepared a prototype.

Now people can try on clothes virtually in front of a screen inside a store without taking them off in the dressing rooms. Most of the people like to try dresses before they buy which sometimes creates a lot of disturbance especially for females as they find it difficult to change the clothes in a store inside the dressing room due to privacy issues. Augmented reality here is making the experience of shopping more luxurious and magical. The product uses a screen which acts like a mirror for the customer having a Red Green Blue Depth (RGBD) sensor at top for playing the video feed of a live person on the screen. Then, there comes 3D modeling which is another important part of this technology. 3D models of all the dresses of a particular brand are made using 3D modeling tools and they are inserted in the system. When the user selects their favorite dress, the 3D model wraps around them so that they can see themselves on the screen wearing the same dress. This is how the digital world is merged with the physical world using augmented reality.

Shopping is the most popular activity around. Thus, changing rooms are often crowded with people and customers keep on waiting for their turn. This also puts extra amount of work load on the workers inside the store as they have to wrap up each and every dress. The lady in the Figure 1 below is confused about which dress to buy; whether it is stitched or unstitched. Using augmented reality fitting room she can try maximum number of clothes in front of the screen just by swiping her hand thus helping her in making her cloth buying decision easier.

Figure 1.

Problem in deciding which dress to buy

The idea behind this project was taken from products currently in use in different advanced countries. Some high-tech companies have made their prototypes and installed them in famous brands and outlets. The Figure 2 below is the representation of augmented reality fitting room where a lady can see herself in different dresses on the screen without actually trying them on in the dressing room.

Figure 2.

Augmented reality fitting room

The product is for every kind of dresses, whether they are ready-made means stitched or unstitched clothes. Besides, protecting customer’s right to privacy, the product saves their time. Customers do not have to make those hectic trips back and forth to the try room just to check if a particular dress will look good on them or not. Another great benefit of our product is that it will certainly boost up the sales of famous fashion stores.

The product consists of some depth data sensors used for tracking the human body and then mapping the 3D models of cloths on it in Unity Game engine. The hardware parts consist of Kinect sensor, LCD screen and HD camera; while, the software part consists of Unity, 3D Maya,Marvelous designer, CrazyBump.

Background

The retail industry of Pakistan still has a long way to go and has a huge potential to flourish and improve itself. The women of Pakistan are very conscious when it comes to their clothing and want new and different outfits on a regular basis. This is one area where women spend a large amount of both time and money to have unique outfits to flaunt which makes the fabric market all the more attractive and worth several billions. Moreover the unstitched fabric market is bigger than that of stitched or readymade dresses. People here often like to buy unstitched fabric and later on get them stitched from a tailor.