Will Body Scans Make Online Shopping Easier?
An interesting story has just come out on the Wall Street Journal about a technology that takes the clothes you have and predicts which of their clothes you will fit. You only have to somehow add the size, make and model of your clothes. Since clothes might not fit perfectly, and makes and models of clothes are quickly obsolete, it's automatically a difficult system to obey, but it suggests many new growth opportunities for sales.
In the comments on that article, someone said that "full-body scans" will soon be available. I don't know whether the possibility is true, but it made me think. Online body scans are an interesting idea. Wouldn't it be great if we could have these scanned models of ourselves in our computers (privacy issues aside), and drag an article of clothing from a website onto our own personal model, and see whether it fits, and what it looks like? Maybe one could add several clothes to make up an entire outfit. Seeing brand new shoes, trousers, jackets, shirts, jewelry online on an exact replica of your body could create an imaginary complete wardrobe overhaul.
It sounds like fun to switch variables, as long as it's not the only way to shop. Little girls would love to have the chance to have this technology for a video game, at the very least, I would think, if the technology isn't already available. They have loved to dress up their Barbie dolls for many years.
Most shopping sites would have to model their clothes differently so that each size can be available online for viewing in different sizes and from different directions. That doesn't sound so onerous an imperative if it's done with clothes direct from the factory. It would just create a different goal for photographic models of clothes.
I'm sure many sites would have to follow, because who could have predicted the Amazon would have the plethora of information about new books that it currently provides, or that Google would publish so many of them.
I think having a personal model of oneself online, and being able to try clothes on it would be a huge benefit for many shoppers.