4 ms·

so when am I going to be able to walk into a shop, go into a change room, strip to my underwear, and get a 3D laser scan of my body, that then gets used by clot

by plg 13y ago

so when am I going to be able to walk into a shop, go into a change room, strip to my underwear, and get a 3D laser scan of my body, that then gets used by clothing companies X Y and Z (of my choosing) to custom-cut clothing that fits me precisely? It's not that the technology doesn't exist yet, it does. Is the bottleneck at the factories? Too expensive to incorporate/replace existing mass production equipment? Whoever jumps first, is going to have a huge 1st mover advantage.

falcolas 13y ago
It seems like the technology does exist, but it would still require a bit of manual intervention in the sewing step. For example, a cnc fabric cutter could cut all the panels out of stock kept on site, and a person could then sew the panels together into an actual outfit. Would require quite a bit of initial outlay for the materials (less if the pattern on the material is printed on-site), and the hourly wages of a sewer on site, but I think it would certainly be doable.
- portmanteaufu 13y ago
  This is the first time I've ever seen the written word "sewer" in reference to "one who sews" rather than "a sewage system". Perfectly correct of course, I just had to re-read that sentence!
gbaygon 13y ago
Who would own the data? let's say that your body measures and proportions gets linked to your credit card number, this data could be used to target advertising to you in websites where you have used the same credit card. If you are overweight it could show ads of gyms/treatments/diet-food; not that there is anything wrong with that, BUT think about the new industry that opens up for penis enlargenment spammers. Living the joke behind, I think is worth to think about the implications if/when something like this gets implemented.
- pavel_lishin 13y ago
  > If you are overweight it could show ads of gyms/treatments/diet-food; I have a feeling that the data would be more likely to be peddled to McDonald's than 24 Hour Fitness.
  - nooneelse 13y ago
    When will I be able to pay Google and other ad-sources to weight the targeting algorithms toward the virtues I want, not just the virtues and vices others can profit from? When are my ethics going to be allowed a seat at the negotiating table for purchases of my attention?
    - pavel_lishin 13y ago
      > When will I be able to pay Google and other ad-sources... When you have enough money to pay them more than the brands and retailers who are buying their ad services.
      - nooneelse 13y ago
        What is the going CPM rate for an extremely low CTR user base these days? Between what little I know of that and my browsing rate, seems to me like I could set a purchasing limit of $100/year for bidding on my own eyes, probably win enough to almost never see anything but my own small/short "be a good person" reminder/ad on any of the Google ad networks that do CPM bidding, and still not hit the limit each year.
  - lgas 13y ago
    I think it's more likely that it would be peddled to both but McDonald's has deeper pockets, so the effect would be the same.
- DanielStraight 13y ago
  Truly bizarre that given all the TSA-hate on HN this is the top comment. We (society) all too often get exactly what we ask for. We don't want pervasive surveillance, but we want Google glass and Google web history and personalized search. We don't want full body scanners, but we want perfectly-fitting clothing based on full body scans. Is it really hard to predict that these technologies are going to be used inappropriately?
rz2k 13y ago
Brooks Brothers calls theirs "Digital Tailoring", but apparently it is from an industry-sponsored company [TC]², and first offered by Levi's. If anything being sponsored by its industry, like a technology standards authority, should make it less likely to make exclusive agreements. However, some of the examples I've seen of the clothes include issues that a tailor would have fixed, like a roll between your neck and shoulders. Maybe it works like a Flowbee does for haircuts, and it just applies a consistent offset from your body, rather than understanding which areas should be close fitting or loose. That the descriptions talk about precision to fractions of a millimeter makes it sound naive about what matters to a skilled tailor. However, it doesn't sound like there is anything preventing multiple users from using the same measurements, whether they make suits, jeans, undergarments, or wetsuits.
saosebastiao 13y ago
The cut is only one aspect of fit. There is also stitching, fiber orientation, and stretch. Most people can't articulate what they like and do not like about a fit, let alone choose fabrics and stitch types that they like for different body locations and clothing purposes. This is the reason top quality bespoke tailors make orders of magnitude more money than the guy down the street. Production is also a problem. Small Batch production is typically 5-10x more expensive than the long lead time Large Batch production. Individual production can be up to 100x more expensive. The cut isn't the problem; a master tailor might allocate 5-10% of the 10-30 hours of making a bespoke suit to matters of cut. Cut is also one of the few areas where small batch manufacturers have cost parity with large batch manufacturers. Assembly is what makes custom production so difficult. Even with super-precision robotics, dexterity is a huge problem. Most large batch manufacturers only automate 5-10% of the total stitches for a garment...the rest is done by high-dexterity human hands. Its a hard problem. A more solvable problem would be to drastically expand the number of possible size options, and use state of the art supply chain techniques to bring them to cost parity with larger companies and their smaller size selections. I'd be interested in doing quite that if I found the right co-founder...but that itself is a problem of its own :)
nooneelse 13y ago
While it is scanning me, can it also go ahead send a copy of the skin coloring to a dermatologist so they can diff it against the last scan or whatever, so as to check for anything I should be worried about?

by plg 13y ago

falcolas 13y ago

It seems like the technology does exist, but it would still require a bit of manual intervention in the sewing step. For example, a cnc fabric cutter could cut all the panels out of stock kept on site, and a person could then sew the panels together into an actual outfit. Would require quite a bit of initial outlay for the materials (less if the pattern on the material is printed on-site), and the hourly wages of a sewer on site, but I think it would certainly be doable.

portmanteaufu 13y ago
This is the first time I've ever seen the written word "sewer" in reference to "one who sews" rather than "a sewage system". Perfectly correct of course, I just had to re-read that sentence!

gbaygon 13y ago

Who would own the data? let's say that your body measures and proportions gets linked to your credit card number, this data could be used to target advertising to you in websites where you have used the same credit card. If you are overweight it could show ads of gyms/treatments/diet-food; not that there is anything wrong with that, BUT think about the new industry that opens up for penis enlargenment spammers. Living the joke behind, I think is worth to think about the implications if/when something like this gets implemented.

pavel_lishin 13y ago
> If you are overweight it could show ads of gyms/treatments/diet-food; I have a feeling that the data would be more likely to be peddled to McDonald's than 24 Hour Fitness.
- nooneelse 13y ago
  When will I be able to pay Google and other ad-sources to weight the targeting algorithms toward the virtues I want, not just the virtues and vices others can profit from? When are my ethics going to be allowed a seat at the negotiating table for purchases of my attention?
  - pavel_lishin 13y ago
    > When will I be able to pay Google and other ad-sources... When you have enough money to pay them more than the brands and retailers who are buying their ad services.
    - nooneelse 13y ago
      What is the going CPM rate for an extremely low CTR user base these days? Between what little I know of that and my browsing rate, seems to me like I could set a purchasing limit of $100/year for bidding on my own eyes, probably win enough to almost never see anything but my own small/short "be a good person" reminder/ad on any of the Google ad networks that do CPM bidding, and still not hit the limit each year.
- lgas 13y ago
  I think it's more likely that it would be peddled to both but McDonald's has deeper pockets, so the effect would be the same.
DanielStraight 13y ago
Truly bizarre that given all the TSA-hate on HN this is the top comment. We (society) all too often get exactly what we ask for. We don't want pervasive surveillance, but we want Google glass and Google web history and personalized search. We don't want full body scanners, but we want perfectly-fitting clothing based on full body scans. Is it really hard to predict that these technologies are going to be used inappropriately?

rz2k 13y ago

Brooks Brothers calls theirs "Digital Tailoring", but apparently it is from an industry-sponsored company [TC]², and first offered by Levi's. If anything being sponsored by its industry, like a technology standards authority, should make it less likely to make exclusive agreements. However, some of the examples I've seen of the clothes include issues that a tailor would have fixed, like a roll between your neck and shoulders. Maybe it works like a Flowbee does for haircuts, and it just applies a consistent offset from your body, rather than understanding which areas should be close fitting or loose. That the descriptions talk about precision to fractions of a millimeter makes it sound naive about what matters to a skilled tailor. However, it doesn't sound like there is anything preventing multiple users from using the same measurements, whether they make suits, jeans, undergarments, or wetsuits.

saosebastiao 13y ago

The cut is only one aspect of fit. There is also stitching, fiber orientation, and stretch. Most people can't articulate what they like and do not like about a fit, let alone choose fabrics and stitch types that they like for different body locations and clothing purposes. This is the reason top quality bespoke tailors make orders of magnitude more money than the guy down the street. Production is also a problem. Small Batch production is typically 5-10x more expensive than the long lead time Large Batch production. Individual production can be up to 100x more expensive. The cut isn't the problem; a master tailor might allocate 5-10% of the 10-30 hours of making a bespoke suit to matters of cut. Cut is also one of the few areas where small batch manufacturers have cost parity with large batch manufacturers. Assembly is what makes custom production so difficult. Even with super-precision robotics, dexterity is a huge problem. Most large batch manufacturers only automate 5-10% of the total stitches for a garment...the rest is done by high-dexterity human hands. Its a hard problem. A more solvable problem would be to drastically expand the number of possible size options, and use state of the art supply chain techniques to bring them to cost parity with larger companies and their smaller size selections. I'd be interested in doing quite that if I found the right co-founder...but that itself is a problem of its own :)

nooneelse 13y ago

While it is scanning me, can it also go ahead send a copy of the skin coloring to a dermatologist so they can diff it against the last scan or whatever, so as to check for anything I should be worried about?