Does my virtual bum look fat in this?

Reuters

BODY MATCH: Victoria's Secret is using 3-D scanners to help customers pick clothes.

SIZED UP: Technology developed by a US research institute could be used in a New Zealand sizing survey.

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The clothing industry is eyeing up the potential for 3-D body scanners to help confused shoppers select garments, says a top United States researcher who visited Auckland University of Technology to speak at a digital strategies symposium.

Kerry King, product development manager at the Textile and Clothing Technology Corporation (TC2), a United States industry-funded research institute, says scanners have come down in price to the point where the technology is within reach of individual retailers.

Victoria's Secret and menswear store Brooks Brothers are among those to have invested in body scanners in some of their stores.

"The technology can be used for custom garment fit scenarios, where you get body-scanned and you obtain a person's measurements that are used to drive the building of a custom pattern," Ms King says.

"But probably more commonly the technology is being used in the size prediction area, where it is used to direct consumers to garments that might be more appropriate to their body dimension and shape and to help them figure out what size of garment to wear."

Scanners could also be used to make it more practical for people to shop for clothes online, she says. "The technology can be used to drive the generation of a 3-D avatar that represents an individual that could be used for virtual shopping."

TC2 has developed its own scanner and avatar-generating software that costs about US$30,000. "That technology is really just coming to fruition. We do have a few companies we are working with that will probably be employing this technology on the web, but it is not something that is in use today."

3-D scanning needn't necessarily lead to more customised clothing. Ms King says clothing manufacturers can also use scanners for research, to check the typical body shapes of their target markets to help ensure "one size fits all".

In one research study, TC2 scanned more than 10,000 people in 10 US cities. "One of the things we can do with that data is to examine the population to see what is the inseam distribution for a given population and whether we could capture most of the population by having an inseam of a certain length."

Peter Heslop, head of AUT's Textile and Design Laboratory, says the university has gauged interest in doing a similar 3-D sizing survey in New Zealand. It held two forums with designers and retailers in 2008.

The feeling was it would be beneficial, but a major undertaking, he says. Thousands of people would need to be scanned and it was not clear how the industry would organise funding.

"Retailers would be able to capture more of their target market by being able to get clothes they stocked to reach a greater proportion of that target market."

Ms King says much of the US clothes manufacturing industry had moved to other parts of the world. "One of the things we are seeing is technology is an important way for us to interface with manufacturers wherever they do happen to be, in Asia or India or elsewhere."

TC2 is also researching digital textile printing, which, while not new, is becoming increasing commercial.

Ms King says the clothing industry has a reputation of being technology-backward but designers have always had to have strong technical skills. "We face as an industry very unique challenges because of the nature of the materials we work with and it hasn't been the easiest industry to automate."

- © Fairfax NZ News