Computer Vision News - March 2017
At the beginning, they considered using this technology for fitting clothes, like some of other apps existing in the market: typically, users take a picture of their body or body part and then take a photo of an object with a known size such as a credit card or A4 paper. Then the app can compare the two images to give a scale and measurement. Finally, they preferred not to deal with clothes, since scans require a person to either strip down or wear tight fitting clothing. Every time they tried it, the scanning process felt invasive and reminded the unpleasant full-body scanners found at airports. Since this wasn’t going to be a smooth experience for shoppers in stores, Volumental’s founders focused instead on what they saw as the low hanging fruits: scanning feet for footwear. In developing Volumental, they concluded that the best application would be to provide an in-store solution rather than a mobile app, since they felt that something used in the store would deliver the most value and a smoother user experience. Moreover, mobile phones such as an iPhone or Android only have a single camera and not all users are skilled enough to capture the image correctly. Aydemir recalls during his PhD program, while working on 3D scanning, when himself and a group launched a website in which people could plug their Kinect to the computer, go to the website, and scan an object in 3D directly to the browser. It became very popular, but oftentimes the average person didn’t know how to properly scan things in 3D with good results; that is without occlusions, with good light resolution and so on. With that experience in mind, and also because it’s easier to train store staff rather than individual users, Volumental went for a solution which provides in-store scanning with a device rather than through an app. Aydemir also found that using the method of scaling with a credit card or another object didn’t provide accurate results and doesn’t work very well without a very good image. The current solution makes it much easier to get a proper scan of the foot: the User Interface involves a one-step process with just a simple button press. Basically, the person arrives at the shop, takes off his shoes, puts his feet in the device, which in turn recognizes the size of the foot. Shoppers can find the Volumental solution in all New Balance shops from London to San Francisco, Boston to Tokyo. They will continue to roll out more and more soon and plan to be in around 160 stores worldwide during the first phase alone. Computer Vision News Application 5 Application Alper Aydemir, Volumental’s cofounder and CTO “In a store setting, every second counts!”
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