Women who have a tough time finding jeans that fit just right now can get some high-tech help.
Shoppers at Bloomingdale's at Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto will find a recently installed Space Age-looking plexiglass booth that can glean their specific body shapes and precise sizes. Using that information, store employees will be able to recommend jeans that not only fit well but flatter the customers' bodies.
The typical woman must try on up to 11 pairs of jeans before she finds the "perfect fit," said Suran Goonatilake, CEO of Bodymetrics, the startup company that developed the system. "We get that down to, say, two pairs of jeans."
The system, the first of its kind to be installed on a permanent basis, works by scanning women's bodies. But unlike an airport scanner, the system doesn't use X-rays. Instead Bodymetrics' scanner is built around a collection of Microsoft Kinect devices.
The Kinect, which is sold as an accessory to the Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console, is able to generate 3-D images of people's bodies using two cameras, one that sees visual light and another that senses infrared light. The Xbox 360 uses the Kinect's 3-D "seeing" capabilities to allow users to play games by using their hands or bodies without a game controller.
The scanner developed by Bodymetrics, which is based in London but has an office in San Francisco, uses a system of 16 Kinects to precisely scan women's bodies. The system combines the images taken
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from each of the Kinects -- which are arrayed in lines of four in each corner of the booth -- to get precise measurements.
The measurements are accurate down to a centimeter, Goonatilake says. That's more accurate than you'd typically get with a tailor -- and the process takes far less time. Once a woman disrobes down to her underwear, the body scan takes less than 10 seconds.
After the system scans a woman's body, the results are sent to an account the customer has created with Bodymetrics, which uses the data to recommend particular sizes, brands and styles of jeans, based on what Bloomingdale's has in stock. A store sales representative can help the customer narrow her choices of color and design.
Customers can also access their account at home and will be able to see recommendations from Bloomindale's online store.
Bloomingdale's ran a test of Bodymetrics system in its store in Century City earlier this year and was "pleased" with the results, a company spokeswoman said in an email. The company sees the system as a way to attract and retain customers, said Marissa Vitagliano, a Bloomingdale's spokeswoman.
"Bloomingdale's hopes that by bringing technology to the store in a new and interesting
Demonstration model Jaela Judd, left, waits for the results of her Bodymetrics scanning system that Bodymetrics Creative Director Tania Fauvel controls from an iPad in a garage in Palo Alto on Aug. 3, 2012. (LiPo Ching/Staff) ( LiPo Ching )
way, we will engage our shoppers and help make their experience in our stores fun and productive," Vitagliano said.
Burlingame resident Amy Roseveare, 43, while recently shopping for jeans at Bloomingdale's, said the Bodymetrics system might be helpful. Roseveare, a personal shopper who buys clothes for clients, noted that women's' jeans are particularly difficult to shop for because there are numerous brands and each has a different fit.
"It's impossible to keep up," she said.
Some of Roseveare's customers tried a similar system that was in some Levi's stores, but that was used to order custom-made jeans that often took weeks to ship. What's compelling about the Bodymetrics system is that it produces "instant results," she said.
"Everyone wants instant gratification," she said.
For much of the past decade, clothing retailers have been exploring ways of using technology to help consumers more easily find clothes that match their size and tastes. LBi, for instance, developed a system involving a touch-screen mirror that allowed customers at one of Macy's New York stores to try on virtual clothes. A company called Me-Ality has developed a body scanner, one of which is in use at Santa Clara's Westfield Valley Fair mall, that determines consumers sizes even when they are fully clothed.
Bodymetrics itself developed a body-scanning system for high-end British retailer Selfridges. But that system, which used lasers and complex equipment, was too costly to roll out to other stores, Goonatilake said.
None of these systems has yet caught on with consumers or retailers, said Sucharita Mulpuru, a retail industry analyst for Forrester, a market research firm. The systems have typically been expensive, take up valuable space in stores and aren't always accurate, she said. And because customers are unfamiliar with the technology, they are likely to need a lot of assistance, which retailers haven't always provided.
And it's often unclear what problem systems such as Bodymetrics' are trying to solve, Mulpuru said. A retailer might do just as well as the Bodymetrics system by simply asking customers their size, age and the brands of clothes they like, and checking their own data about what those customers have bought in the past, she said.
"If the ultimate goal is to make relevant recommendations to customers, there are far cheaper ways to do that that are incredibly effective," she said.
Still, the Bodymetrics system could prove popular with customers, especially if it is focused more on recommending kinds of clothes rather than guaranteeing a precise fit, she said.
"It's bringing a little bit of theater in the stores," Mulpuru said. "It's making it something that people should get excited about."
Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285. Follow him at Twitter.com/troywolv.
Finding the right fit
Jeans shoppers at Bloomingdale's may save time finding the right pair by stepping into a new high-tech contraption inside the store.
What it is: A booth designed to scan women's bodies to glean their precise size and shape.
Where it is: Inside the premium denim section at the Bloomingdale's in Stanford Shopping Center in Palo Alto.
How it works: The system is built around 16 Microsoft Kinect 3-D camera systems that determine size and shape through a combination of visible and infrared light sensors. Software designed by Bodymetrics, the company that created the system, puts the images together to form highly accurate 3-D images of women's bodies.
How long it takes: The scan itself takes less than 10 seconds, but requires customers to first strip down to their underwear or skintight clothing in the booth, which has a privacy curtain.
What it costs: The scan is free. The jeans, of course, are not.