RJTA Vol. 9 No. 1 2005 74 A Virtual Clothing System for Retail and Design Bernhard Spanlang 1 , Tzvetomir Vassilev 2 , Jonathan Walters 3 and Bernard F. Buxton 1 1 Dept. of Computer Science, University College London, UK, {b.spanlang, b.buxton}@cs.ucl.ac.uk 2 Department of Informatics, University of Rousse, Bulgaria, t.vassilev@ecs.ru.acad.bg 3 Contact through Bodymetrics Ltd. UK. ABSTRACT In this paper we describe a virtual clothing system for retail and design, created for Bodymetrics Ltd., at their request. In the retail setup we installed the system at Selfridges, a well known department store in London. To our knowledge this is a world first installation of a fully automatic virtual try-on system. Sizing and body landmark information is extracted from 3D scanner data in a fully automatic process and customers can try-on garments from a database on their virtual selves within seconds. The system uses very fast numerical methods and collision detection mechanisms that harness the capabilities of graphics hardware for cloth body collision detection and response. Fabric property measurements from a Kawabata evaluation system are mapped onto our cloth model to ensure appropriate virtual drape behaviour. The information required in order to simulate particular garments is provided in a format tailored to the computational requirements for defining the garment pieces, seaming, partitioning on the body, cloth reflectance and patterning, and location of accessories such as buttons, etc. Based on the realistic visual feedback customers are able to decide whether to buy or not. The whole process in which a customer is scanned, registered to the system, and virtually tries on ten different garments in different sizes takes less than ten minutes. The acceptance of the system is shown by the high interest and demand, the willingness of customers to pay for the service, and an increased sale of items available in the virtual garment database. The system was also designed to be usable over the Internet and has been made freely available. We show that the same system in combination with global illumination for near photo-realistic augmented reality is also of interest for garment designers. Keywords: virtual try-on, cloth simulation, body scanning, textile properties, global illumination, electronic garment exchange. 1. Introduction The aim of this work was to build a system for virtual try-on of garments for retail and design. The system allows customers to browse and try garments on their 3D scan and gives sufficient visual feedback to decide whether to buy or not. In the process important body landmarks and a large number of size measurements are extracted from the customers' body scan in a completely automatic way. The fully automatic virtual clothing system uses very fast numerical methods and collision detection mechanisms that harness the capabilities of graphics hardware for cloth body collision detection and response. By these means, we are able to virtually dress a customer completely automatically with a chosen garment within 1 to 2 seconds on a state of the art PC. By using photographs of the real garment as an approximation of a garment's inhomogeneous reflectance we are able to produce very realistic images of a dressed customer. Fabric property measurements from a Kawabata Evaluation System (KES) (Kawabata, 1980) are mapped onto our cloth model to ensure appropriate virtual drape behaviour. The system has advantages over a conventional changing room and mirror in that customers can view themselves from any distance and angle and try on different garments within seconds. The system is built on Internet-based technology and customers can view their body from their home PC over a secure link and try on new garments added to the system's central database. We have also integrated the system with a global illumination system which allows a garment designer to create near photo-realistic images of a customer in a new garment design, naturally illuminated at a location of choice. A client may