HCI Lecture HW3

Enhancing human abilities in the age of Augmented Reality

1/ Ideate :

-> Create and sketch and present at least three ideas.

Fashion:

The first idea that I thought about is a the ability to try on clothes without physically doing it.

For people that are too lazy to go shopping, for those who hate waiting in line for ages to try on items or those that want to be able to see how the clothes look on them when shopping online this could be game changer.

You'll juste have to stand in front of a mirror, and swipe to see the different clothing items on you.

The application is able to detect the shape of the body, and perfectly place the clothes. It could also suggest the size that might fit best depending on the information given by the user beforehand (weight, height, distance form the mirror, size of the mirror, etc).

Food:

Did you ever wonder what was your dish really made of ? What's are the ingredients of that sauce you really love ? or simply how many calories are there in your food ?

This application would allow the user to instantly have access to all sorts of information by simply taking a picture with a phone or maybe by using a headset if they become mainstream in the future.

GPS:

The last idea is a GPS that gives you all of the information necessary when walking down the street such as the name of street (instead of looking everywhere to find the street name sign), the direction to get to your destination (instead of constantly looking at your phone) , the type of place that you pass in front of (whether it's a store, a restaurant, a monument etc...) as well as the rating, some comments and the price range.

This tool could help people navigate without having to look at their screens but by having access to real time information. It helps them gain a lot of time and energy especially when they're visiting a country abroad.

2/ Prototype :

-> Build a prototype that is good enough to have a first user exposure

I wanted to prototype the first idea, the one that gives the user the ability to try clothes on. In order to do so, I asked my roommate to change her outfit a couple of times and to do as if she was swiping.

I was standing behind her, with an angle that allows me to film the mirror without filming her (because it was more difficult to only modify the video on the mirror)

Then with Adobe PremierePro, I just put the videos of her different outfits one after the other to act as if she was trying on some clothes with the help of the mirror (I'm definitely not good at using the software but I think that the idea of the application is clear).

3/ Use the prototype for evaluation :

-> Ask at least one person to interact with your prototype. Observe and discuss with this person what their opinion is towards your concept and interaction. Critically reflect.

When I asked my roommate to try this "technology" she was very excited and loved the idea. In her opinion, this invention could be a game changer for online shopping and she would definitely invest in one. It's easy to use and very practical especially now that online shopping is growing exponentially.

But, we both think that the tech behind it doesn't seem very easy to implement for now. The mirror has to be able to precisely detect the movement of the person, maybe display some information for the user to easily interact with it and most of all it should be able to correctly position the piece of clothing no matter what the user is already wearing.

She also asked me if the users will have to buy a connected mirror or will it be sold as an accessory to add to a mirror that they already posses.

I think that at the beginning, it would be easier to implement this on one type of mirror to have the perfect accuracy. But, if the product works, it would be interesting to sell a small box that would have the movement tracker (or maybe voice recognition instead of swiping to change the outfit) and an integrated projector that the user will simply have to attach to a mirror.

Then I decided to look online for similar tech and I found the MemoMi mirror. It's was introduced in 2014 by its founder and CEO Salvador Nissi Vilcovsky and it's designed for in-store clothes shopping (in public areas not in the fitting rooms). It starts by creating an avatar for the user in order to change the pattern or the colour of the outfit or to add accessories.

The main goal of this invention is to give the customers a more personal shopping experience, since they can capture and save the images that are displayed by the mirror and share them in order to have recommendations.

The MemoMi mirror obviously has the necessary tech that could be used for my prototype. But, it doesn't serve the same purpose since it's only made for shopping in-store. Moreover, I feel that creating an avatar of the user isn't satisfying and the results that you get on an avatar and on a real person aren't the same.

I'm sure that in the near future, such mixed reality technologies will become a must and that companies will have the necessary resources to make it as accessible as a mobile phone or a laptop.