This isn’t exactly mobile news, but it is related as I’ve no doubts it will soon come to a smartphone near you.
Hearst Magazines Digital Media is teaming up with metaio (developer of augmented reality browser junaio) to launch online shopping application on Seventeen.com. The Flash-based service is designed as a “virtual dressing room” allowing users to virtually try before they buy.
JCPenney is an exclusive sponsor of the service, hinting us they prepare for the great “Back to School” shopping season.
Here’s how it works:
- The application detects the shopper in front of his or her webcam at home,
- The shopper selects the piece of clothing,
- The application overlays the selected piece of clothing to see its style, and
- Users can then link to jcp.com to purchase their selections or send to friends via email or Facebook.
Now imaging this technology in a mobile phone. Some parts of it like image recognition are already there and I assume today’s CPUs running at 1GHz have the processing power needed for such tasks. Can’t wait, I really can’t. 🙂