High-tech dressing rooms become virtual reality

New technology should make it possible for customers to solicit opinions from friends remotely.

from the April 20, 2007 edition

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The same goes for the "virtual mirror." Not actually a mirror at all, it projects an image of two shod feet, in 3-D, onto a background screen.

Dressing room razzle-dazzle isn't widely available, though. And it's unclear when it might be. There are no plans for a permanent installation of IconNicholson's mirror. While the "virtual mirror" can only be found in the Adidas shoe store on the Champs-Elysées in Paris.

But last month a sample of smart dressing landed, of all places, at the Philadelphia airport. Between terminals A and B, Intellifit, a company that makes body scanners, set up a "virtual fitting room."

The 8-foot kiosk uses technology that was developed in a government lab to screen people for concealed weapons. ("We use it for clothes, they use it for bombs," quips president Rob Weber.) Radio waves scan fully clothed shoppers, recording over 200 measurements. Customers then get a "FitPrint" with their measurements that they can use at Intellifit.com to buy shape-appropriate brands, styles, and sizes. .

So how far off is a smarter dressing room?

Underhill is skeptical. Finding appropriate retail applications for technology can be a challenge, he says. The payoff has to be high for it to be worth the steep cost.

"It will be a long time in coming," predicts Eugene Fram, a professor of marketing at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York. If high-tech dressing rooms become more widespread, it could be a while before people are comfortable using them. Aside from the potential discomfort of knowing your image is somewhere on the Internet, let alone submitting oneself to a full body scan, there's the less tech-savvy consumer to consider.

"It's sort of like with ATM machines," says Professor Fram. "It took a period of 10 to 15 years before there was broader acceptance of them."

Even among the target audience – young women for the "social retailing" mirror – the concept may prove more novel than useful.

At the end of the day, "women like to shop," says Patricia Pao, a marketing consultant. "They like to shop with their friends – it's a very communal experience. With this mirror, you take the human aspect out of it."

• Additional reporting by Simone Baribeau in New York.

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