Patent Application
20220327783
This invention relates to virtual shopping, and in particular, virtually fitting an item of clothing on the 3D view of the virtual shopper before purchasing the item of clothing online.
Shopping online for clothing items is popular and often times the only option available, especially during restricted access to public shopping centers and clothing stores during situations such as the during the COVID pandemic. Because shopping for clothing items typically requires an online shopper physically trying on the selected clothing item to ensure a proper fit, the online shopper often ends up ordering clothing items to try on at home only to return the items after receiving them because of poor fit. Such a cycle of ordering online, shipping to the customer, and the customer returning the item to the online shop warehouse to exchange for the correct clothing item size is a time-consuming cycle that is frustrating to the shopper, all while the online seller incurs unnecessary added shipping and restocking costs that are eventually passed on to the shopper as price increases.
For at least the above reasons, there exists a need to for a method wherein clothing items are fitted “virtually” or “digitally” by the online store before being physically shipped to the shopper.
Accordingly, embodiments of the invention comprise methods for virtual fitting selected clothing items while shopping online. Additional objectives and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments thereof that proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
The detailed description is set forth with reference to the accompanying figures. In the figures, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the figure in which the reference number first appears. The use of the same reference numbers in different figures indicates similar or identical items or features.
References in the following detailed description of the invention to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” mean that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the invention. The appearance of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in this detailed description are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.
Described herein are methods for virtually fitting a piece of clothing or other item when shopping or selecting an item online. In the following description, for the purpose of explanation, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. It will be apparent, however, to one skilled in the art that the invention can be practiced with different specific details. In other instances, structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the invention.
In one embodiment of the invention, the online shopper prepares and has access to a three dimensional (3D) volumetric scan of a body, typically their body, but it is understood that embodiments may involve a scan of a family member, friend, customer, client, or even a scan of an animal, such as a pet cat or dog, and statements with references hereinafter to “their body” are likewise applicable to a 3D volumetric scan of a body, whether the online shopper's body or another body. The shopper prepares a 3D volumetric scan of their body using any suitable means to generate a digital data set or point cloud that is representative of a three dimensional image of their body such as by using one of the multiple 3D volumetric scan methods described herein.
In a first 3D volumetric scan method, the shopper may use their own Smartphone that is equipped with a light detection and ranging (LiDAR) 3D scanning camera. Current Smartphones are equipped with such a LiDAR 3D scanning camera that performs, for example, facial recognition to unlock access to the Smartphone by the owner. In order to generate a 3D scan of their body, the shopper may simply position their Smartphone on a stable platform or a tripod and stand in front of the Smartphone LiDAR camera at a recommended distance (for better estimation of the shopper's height and size), while wearing well- or close-fitting garments, then spin (or rotate) 360 degrees while raising their arms to shoulder level. Depending on the field of view (FOV) of the Smartphone LiDAR camera, the shopper may need to ensure the distance to the Smartphone LiDAR camera is far enough to capture the height of their body in the scan.
In another 3D volumetric scan method, the shopper uses a LiDAR 3D scanning camera to prepare a 3D volumetric scan of their body. Such cameras may be owned or leased for the express purpose of preparing a 3D volumetric scan for consumers. In order to achieve the 3D scanning of their body, the shopper positions the LiDAR 3D scanning camera on a stable platform or a tripod, then stands in front of the LiDAR 3D scanning camera at the recommended distance, while wearing well- or close-fitting garments, then spins (or rotates) around 360 degrees while raising their arms to shoulder level. Depending on the field of view (FOV) of the LiDAR scanning camera, the shopper may need to ensure the distance to the LiDAR scanning camera is far enough to capture the height of their body in the scan.
In a yet further embodiment, a 3D volumetric scan method may involve the shopper using a LiDAR 3D scanning booth that has been made available by, for instance, shopping centers or specialty stores to prepare a 3D volumetric scan of their body.
The LiDAR 3D scanning booth may be equipped with multiple LiDAR 3D scanning cameras 105 positioned vertically to ensure a large vertical FOV it is sufficient to cover the height of a person, for example six feet to seven feet in the vertical FOV. The LiDAR 3D scanning booth may be equipped with platform 110. The shopper being scanned initially stands on platform 110 which rotates 360 degrees to allow the LiDAR scanning camera array to capture a full 3D body scan. The LiDAR 3D scanning booth standing platform 110 preferably rotates slowly after the person to be scanned stands on it in order to achieve a 360 degree 3D scan of the person.
In a yet further embodiment, the 3D scanning apparatus may be a passive 3D scanning system that uses multiple cameras positioned to capture images from a multiplicity of views. These types of passive 3D scanning systems may be referred to as light field 3D scanning systems. The 3D scanning booth described in this embodiment may be equipped with such light field 3D scanning cameras instead of, or cooperating with, one or more LiDAR 3D scanning cameras.
In any of the previously described embodiments, whether a LiDAR or a light field 3D scan of the shopper is generated, the resultant 3D body scan data set may be compressed using an appropriate 3D scan compression technique or algorithm, then stored in a permanent store, such as non-volatile memory store on a computing device managed by the shopper, or a server managed by the online store, or in cloud storage, with access to such stored 3D scan data set provided to the shopper via a computing platform available to the shopper for online shopping, for example, their Smartphone or a wearable display device. The compressed 3D body scan of the shopper is a “virtual mannequin” maintained in a data store or database that the shopper uploads to the online store, as may be needed depending on where the “virtual mannequin” database is stored, when shopping and wishes to virtually fit selected clothing items before the selected clothing item is purchased and shipped to a convenient or designated location for the shopper.
In a further embodiment of this invention, the online shop maintains or otherwise has access to a database of the clothing items offered on their online store. The database provides three dimensional (3D) information about the clothing items, and as such, is referred to herein as a 3D database of the clothing items. The 3D information about the clothing items may too be obtained in the same manner as the 3D representation of a shopper's body by performing a 3D volumetric scan of the clothing item, or the dimensions may be manually configured or entered for various sizes of items of clothing. In any case, such a 3D database may be prepared by the manufacturer(s) of the clothing items to fit standard or predetermined body sizes. The online store may maintain or otherwise provide access to such a 3D database of each of the clothing items offered for sale, and in particular, a 3D database for each available size (e.g., small, medium, large, extra-large, etc.) for each of the clothing items offered for sale. The online store may also maintain or have access to 3D computer generated image (CGI) capabilities capable of digitally fitting the offered clothing items in the clothing items' 3D database on a virtual mannequin represented in the virtual mannequin 3D database and then generate a 3D view derived from the 3D database of the virtual mannequin fitted with one or more of the offered clothing items it sells online. This 3D view of the virtual mannequin digitally fitted with one or more of the offered clothing items sold online may also be stored in a database for later retrieval and viewing.
A 2D-selected perspective of such a 3D view of the virtual mannequin fitted with one or more of the offered clothing items sold online may be viewable using standard computer 2D perspective viewing software tools such as SolidWorks, for example. Such 3D viewing tools allow a viewer-selected perspective of the 3D view of the virtual mannequin fitted with one or more of the offered clothing items sold online to be displayed on a standard 2D viewing screen.
In a further embodiment of the invention, a 3D view of the virtual mannequin that has been fitted with the offered clothing items may be preprocessed into two stereoscopic viewing perspectives that can be viewed as a 3D-selected perspective on standard 3D viewing stereoscopic displays, 3D viewing stereoscopic head mounted displays (HMD), or wearable display devices such a near eye augmented reality display device.
In an exemplary wearable display device, achieving wearability is accomplished by using a micro-LED based light modulation device as the display element as described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/531,625, filed Nov. 19, 2021 the contents of each of which is fully incorporated herein by reference. A non-limiting example of such a device is a CMOS/III-V integrated 3D micro-LED array emissive device referred to as a “Quantum Photonic Imager2” display or “QPI®” display. QPI® is a registered trademark of Ostendo Technologies, Inc., Applicant of the instant application. This class of emissive micro-scale pixel (i.e., micropixel) array imager device is disclosed in, for instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,623,560, 7,767,479, 7,829,902, 8,049,231, 8,243,770, 8,567,960, and 8,098,265, the contents of each of which is fully incorporated herein by reference. The disclosed QPI display devices desirably feature high brightness, very fast multi-color light intensity and spatial modulation capabilities all in a very small device size that includes all required image processing control circuitry. The solid state light- (SSL) emitting pixels of these disclosed devices may be either a light emitting diode (LED) or laser diode (LD), or both, whose on-off state is controlled by control circuitry contained within a CMOS controller chip (or device) upon which the emissive micro-scale pixel array of the QPI display imager is bonded and electronically coupled. The size of the pixels comprising the QPI displays may be in the range of approximately 5-20 microns with a typical chip-level emissive surface area being in the range of approximately 15-150 square millimeters. The pixels of the above emissive micro-scale pixel array display devices are individually addressable spatially, chromatically and temporally through the drive circuitry of its CMOS controller chip. The brightness of the light generated by such imager devices can reach multiple 100,000 s cd/m2 at reasonably low power consumption. The micro-LED based light modulation device integrates the optical coupling as well as the needed display graphics processing of the wearable display in a volumetrically efficient single semiconductor device or chip that can also be efficiently integrated volumetrically onto the edge of the wearable display relay and magnification optics or lenses, thereby expanding the view box
The latter embodiment involving a wearable stereoscopic display for viewing the 3D view of the virtual mannequin fitted with the offered clothing items is more effective because it allows available built-in sensor capabilities typically included in such wearable displays, such as a gesture sensor and head and eyes tracking sensors, to be used to prompt the viewer-selected perspective of the 3D virtual mannequin fitted with the offered clothing items. An exemplary wearable display device comprising such capabilities is described in U.S. Pat. No. 11,106,273, and in US pending application Ser. No. 17/552,332, filed Dec. 15, 2021, the contents of each of which is fully incorporated herein by reference.
In yet a further embodiment of this invention, the 3D viewing database of the virtual mannequin fitted with the offered clothing items is compressed before being uploaded to the shopper computing platform that provides the computing resources for the wearable stereoscopic display.
In yet a further embodiment of the invention, the 3D viewing database of the virtual mannequin fitted with the offered clothing items is compressed after being first rendered in a selected perspective that is uploaded from the shopper computing platform. Such a selected perspective of the virtual mannequin fitted with the offered clothing items may be prompted by input from the stereoscopic wearable display built-in gesture, head and eye tracking sensors.
In a further embodiment of the invention, the 3D viewing database of the virtual mannequin fitted with the offered clothing items is converted into a light field multi-view format, then compressed before being downloaded by the online store to a computing platform accessible to the shopper. An advantage of converting the 3D viewing database of the virtual mannequin fitted with the offered clothing items into multi-view light field format is that such a format allows the shopper to view the downloaded 3D database from any of multiple 3D perspectives that are focused at the shopper's selection.
Further with reference to
On the screen of the shopper-accessible computing platform, the shopper then views at 325 and examines the 3D images received (uploaded) from the online shop processing center of the selected clothing item that has been fitted on their virtual mannequin and makes a purchase decision based on appreciating the viewed virtual mannequin fitted with the selected clothing item in a similar way the shopper makes buy decisions based on viewing themselves in the mirror while trying on the selected clothing items at the brick and mortar clothing store.
The virtual mannequin methods described in the above embodiments enable shoppers to conveniently and confidently shop online for clothing items with peace of mind that the clothing items they selected will properly fit and look as they expected. With the virtual mannequin fitting methods described in the previous embodiments, clothing items selected while shopping online are much more likely meet the shoppers' expectations and substantially reduce item returns that tend to discourage online shopping for clothing items. The associated reduced return shipping costs in turn benefit the consuming public and reduce greenhouse emissions, making the entire shopping online for clothing items much more appealing and efficient.
The virtual mannequin methods described in the previous embodiments can also be used in shopping online for items besides clothing items and beneficially applied to goods or items presented in an image online or on a computer device where a viewer or user desires to understand or view the form and fit of a first item or element on or with respect to a digitized 3D representation of second item or element of a known set of dimensions.
Although the subject matter has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the subject matter is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example embodiments.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/172,581 filed Apr. 10, 2021, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 63172581 | Apr 2021 | US |
