Will argument-ed reality replace fitting rooms?
Augmented reality tech, which overlays digital images onto pictures of real objects or backgrounds, is becoming more widely used in product selections & advt..
Along with the focus on tech as a new avenue for sales promo, market players such as the cell phone companies offering argument-ed reality software hope that market will continue to expand.
Interior retailer Francfranc hopes to release a mobile device application that will let consumers simulate furniture arrangements in their homes before purchase by as early as March. To use the application, a user takes a picture of a room with a smartphone or a tab and selects pieces of the furniture inside the room appears on-screen.
Toshiba offers a similar app that allows customers to visualize what TVs and other large appliances will look like in their home. It says that the app has boosted sales of products not on displays at retail stores.
Similar technology is being used in apparel retail. Uniqlo, the clothing chain run by Fast Retailing, has outfitted its San Francisco outlet with two virtual fitting rooms. Customers have their picture taken while standing in front of the large such as monitor. They then select clothing items such as fleeces on a tablet, & an image of them wearing the clothes appear on the screen.
"We're using the feel of video games to get people to try colors they've never worn before,"a Fast Retailing official said.
A-net, another clothing retailer, has installed systems at a store at Tokyo and one in Osaka that can adjust virtual clothes to body type and follow body movements. Customers can choose from about 200 items.
Augmented reality apps are expanding as camera equipped high tech smartphones become more common and data networks increase in speed. The research firm Seed Planning says the market for augmented reality technology is predicted to increase ninefold from 2009 to 2015, going from about 20bn yen to about 180bn yen.
Anticipating the increase,communications giant KDDI is marketing development software for system firms creating applications. After testing it with 16 firms from January to May, the company hopes-to sell the package to 20 firms in just 10 months starting from June.
-WP-Bloomberg
Augmented reality tech, which overlays digital images onto pictures of real objects or backgrounds, is becoming more widely used in product selections & advt..
Along with the focus on tech as a new avenue for sales promo, market players such as the cell phone companies offering argument-ed reality software hope that market will continue to expand.
Interior retailer Francfranc hopes to release a mobile device application that will let consumers simulate furniture arrangements in their homes before purchase by as early as March. To use the application, a user takes a picture of a room with a smartphone or a tab and selects pieces of the furniture inside the room appears on-screen.
Toshiba offers a similar app that allows customers to visualize what TVs and other large appliances will look like in their home. It says that the app has boosted sales of products not on displays at retail stores.
Similar technology is being used in apparel retail. Uniqlo, the clothing chain run by Fast Retailing, has outfitted its San Francisco outlet with two virtual fitting rooms. Customers have their picture taken while standing in front of the large such as monitor. They then select clothing items such as fleeces on a tablet, & an image of them wearing the clothes appear on the screen.
"We're using the feel of video games to get people to try colors they've never worn before,"a Fast Retailing official said.
A-net, another clothing retailer, has installed systems at a store at Tokyo and one in Osaka that can adjust virtual clothes to body type and follow body movements. Customers can choose from about 200 items.
Augmented reality apps are expanding as camera equipped high tech smartphones become more common and data networks increase in speed. The research firm Seed Planning says the market for augmented reality technology is predicted to increase ninefold from 2009 to 2015, going from about 20bn yen to about 180bn yen.
Anticipating the increase,communications giant KDDI is marketing development software for system firms creating applications. After testing it with 16 firms from January to May, the company hopes-to sell the package to 20 firms in just 10 months starting from June.
-WP-Bloomberg