WO2011111025A2

WO2011111025A2 - Method for demonstrating an item of clothing

Info

Publication number: WO2011111025A2
Application number: PCT/IB2011/051021
Authority: WO
Inventors: Heikki Haldre; Paul PÄLLIN; Peeter ILUMÄE
Original assignee: Massi Miliano OÜ
Priority date: 2010-03-10
Filing date: 2011-03-10
Publication date: 2011-09-15
Also published as: WO2011111025A3; EE201000070A

Abstract

A method for demonstrating an item of clothing to a user in a computer system, comprising receiving user body measurements and user's selection of the item of the clothing and presenting on a computer screen an image of the item of clothing, calculating a location of a user's body part from user body measurements and indicating the location of the body part with a graphical symbol in relation to the item of clothing shown in said first image. In preferred embodiment, the item of clothing is shown on a mannequin which size is adjusted according to users body measurements, the body part is hand and the graphical symbol is a horizontal line or an image of the body part.

Description

METHOD FOR DEMONSTRATING AN ITEM OF CLOTHING

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to the devices and methods for demonstrating items of clothing to the user, more specifically to the methods that enable to visualize the user's height, location of the waistline, neck thickness and limb (arm, leg) length in an image such as photo, series of photos or a video clip featuring the real item of clothing in a computer system.

BACKGROUND ART

WO20081 13367 discloses a computer-controlled mannequin for facilitating the demonstration of items of clothing as well as a method for demonstrating items of clothing at Internet stores wherein the user of the store is displayed photos or video clips of items of clothing in different sizes placed on a computer-controlled virtual mannequin that has been adjusted to the user's measurements.

This embodiment has the following shortcoming. To make the embodiment function in real time, the images, such as photos or video clips featuring the body sizes and shapes of all potential users must be made beforehand for all the items of clothing sold at the Internet store. As long as some human measurements, for example, the arm length does not correlate sufficiently with the measurements of one's torso, it is necessary to make photos or video clips with several arm lengths for each version of torso measurements to demonstrate the fitting sleeve length of an item of clothing. As a result, the total number of photos or video clips required is several times as big. The same applies to the neck thickness, location of the waistline, elbows, knees, length of the legs, etc., making the total number of images impractically large.

The object of the invention is to provide a method for visualising the measurements that do not correlate sufficiently with the measurements of the torso, e.g. the arm length, on an item of clothing placed on a mannequin that would not require making photos or video clips of the item of clothing corresponding to different arm lengths.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The objective of the invention is achieved with a method for demonstrating an item of clothing to a user in a computer system, comprising the steps of receiving user body measurements and user's selection of the item of the clothing and presenting on a computer screen an image of the item of clothing, calculating a location of a user's body part from user body measurements and indicating the location of the body part with a graphical symbol in relation to the item of clothing shown in said first image. The image of the clothing is preferably a photo the item of clothing on a real mannequin having the measurements of the user. The location of a body part is determined on said first image based on the measurement(s) (here and hereinafter, the singular is used interchangeably with the plural) entered by the user. The body part concerned may be one's hand or foot, knees, neck or waistline. The body measurement may be the arm length that is measured either traditionally starting from the outward end of a shoulder, the seventh cervical vertebra, centre of the neck or the transition between the neck and a shoulder. The body measurement may be the torso length, chest measurement, neck measurement or any other measurement that directly or indirectly defines the location of the body part in relation to the item of clothing. The location of the body part may be indicated by an appropriate graphical symbol, e.g., a point, a horizontal line for a hand or foot, knees or waistline,, a vertical line, a set of lines, a crossfire, a drawing of the body part, a two dimensional realistic image of the body part, a three dimensional image of the body part or a photo of the body part, e.g., a hand or a foot (or a glove or a shoe correspondingly).

The method is suitable for use with a image, series of images such as photos as well as a video recording.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 shows ways of demonstrating a location of a hand and waistline. Fig. 1 A shows the ways of demonstrating a hand while Fig. 1 B shows the variant for demonstrating a hand and the location of the waistline and Fig. 1 C shows a situation where the neck and waistline have been displayed with a warning or recommendation.

Fig 2A and Fig 2B show a practical implementation based on superimposed layers of images. Fig. 3 shows a flow diagram for determining the parameters required for practicing the method of the invention.

Fig. 4 shows a flow diagram for the method of the invention.

EXAMPLES OF THE EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION In the first illustrative embodiment of the invention, the body part is a hand, the location of which is determined based on the user's arm length. Fig. 1 A shows the ways of demonstrating a hand. An item of clothing 1 is placed on a mannequin 2 which is adjustable in size and shape. A first image 3 (indicated with a dotted line) has been taken thereof to be shown to the user (e.g. on the screen of a personal computer or any other appropriate device). The location of the hand 4 on the vertical axis is calculated on the basis of the arm length entered by the user and the location of the item of clothing in said first image. The location of the hand is indicated with the horizontal line 5. The location of the hand may be shown also with a realistic image of the hand, for example, by means of the image 6. A measuring tape 7 may be added for demonstrating the sleeve length.

The line or an image (such as photo) of the hand is displayed in a separate layer superimposed on a image or video clip. For example, the web browser shows an image of the item of clothing on the mannequin and another image with a transparent background and a horizontal line designating the correct location of the wrist is shown over said image (see Fig 1 D). The location of the horizontal line depends on the user's arm length, and an appropriate algorithm is used in order to calculate the location. An advantage of the embodiment lies in its simplicity, since it is only the location of the horizontal line on the vertical axis that needs to be accurately determined. If an image of a hand, e.g., a photo or a computer-generated image of a hand is shown instead of the line, it is preferable to display the image of the hand under the image of the item of clothing and to provide the image of the item of clothing with a transparent background. In this case, both vertical and horizontal coordinates of the hand need to be accurately determined and, for the sake of authenticity, the hand must be modelled as a three-dimensional object. Instead of a mannequin, the items of clothing may be shown on models. If items of clothing are demonstrated on models, their arms/hands are deleted in the photo or video to make it possible to demonstrate the location of the user's hand as described above. In principle, the same method may be used even if the items of clothing are shown on a hanger or just laid down on a flat ground such as on a table.

To show the location of the hand properly, the arm length must be properly determined. The arm length can be measured by several methods. Preferably, the arm length is measured from the seventh vertebra - to the outward end of a shoulder - to the elbow - to the wrist, as unlike the length measured from the outward end of a shoulder - to the elbow - to the wrist, this measurement includes the shoulder width. For example, if a narrow-shouldered person wears a large shirt, the sleeve seam of the shirt falls below the outward end of the shoulder and the cuff of the sleeve is also lowered by the same distance. If the arm length is measured starting from the seventh cervical vertebra, centre of the neck or the transition between the neck and a shoulder, the location of the wrist depends on the person's shoulder width - in the case of a broad-shouldered person with the given arm length, the wrist is higher on the vertical axis than that of a narrow- shouldered person. To make sure that the location of the wrist visualized in the image in relation to the image of the item of clothing corresponds to the actual body shape shown in the image and that of the person whose arm length has been entered, the person's shoulder width must be taken into account when determining the vertical coordinates for the image of the wrist-line or hand.

According to one method (see Fig. 3), the maximum value Amax and minimum value Amin of the arm length are first determined for the body size from a statistical database and expressed in an appropriate length unit (cm, inch, etc) to demonstrate the location of the hand. Also, the location of the hand Bmax and Bmin, expressed as the distance (e.g. in pixels) from the upper edge of the image, for a real person with a maximum arm length and minimum arm length whom the given item of clothing fits by the size of the torso is determined for each torso size. Next, the location of the hand is determined, taking into account the user's arm length A by the following formula:

Y= Bmin + ((Bmax - Bmin)(A - Amin)/(Amax-Amin))+C, wherein Y is the vertical coordinate of the line (in pixels, from the upper edge of the image) and C is the coefficient that takes into account the location of the item of clothing in the first image.

Thus, if the maximum arm length is 43 inches and the minimum arm length is 20 inches and the user's arm length is 30 inches and the location corresponding to the maximum arm length is 250 pixels from the upper edge of the image and the location corresponding to the minimum arm length is 200 pixels from the upper edge of the image, the location of the hand is at a distance of 222 pixels.

Two accurately superimposed images (e.g., photos) are used for demonstrating the item of clothing and the location of the hand (see Fig 2A and Fig 2B). The bottom layer 14 includes an image of the item of clothing on a correctly sized mannequin. The upper layer 15 that has a transparent background shows the location of the hand, e.g. indicated by a horizontal line 5 on Fig 2A, or the image of the hand 6 on Fig 2B.

The location of the hand may be determined also by the formula Y= K^*(A - S) + C1 , wherein Y is the vertical coordinate (e.g. expressed in pixels from the upper edge of the first image), K is the scaling constant that determines how many pixels in the image correspond to the length unit in reality, A is the arm length entered by the user, S is the user's shoulder length and C1 is the constant that takes into account the location of the item of clothing in the first image (denoting, for example, the distance of the outward end of a shoulder from the upper edge of the image in pixels).

Since the shoulder length is not easy to measure, the chest measurement and its correlation with the shoulder length may be taken into account instead. In this case, the location of the hand is determined by the formula Y= K^*(A - f(Ch)) + C1 , wherein Y is the vertical coordinate (e.g. expressed in pixels from the upper edge of the image), K is the scaling constant that determines how many pixels in the first image correspond to the length unit in reality, A is the arm length entered by the user, Ch is the chest measurement, f is the function that characterizes the correlation between the chest measurement and shoulder length, and C1 is the constant that takes into account the location of the item of clothing in the first image.

To make it easier to evaluate the fit of an item of clothing that has sleeves, the process may involve displaying a warning if the sleeves of the selected item of clothing are too long or too short for the user with the entered arm length. If the sleeve length minus arm length minus traditional length allowance is smaller than the standard error allowed for a sleeve that is shorter than the ideal, a corresponding warning 13 is displayed, e.g. "the sleeve is too short". If the sleeve length minus arm length minus traditional length allowance is bigger than the standard error allowed for a sleeve that is longer than the ideal, a different warning is displayed, e.g. "the sleeve is too long". If none of the conditions is met, no warning is displayed or an appropriate text is displayed, e.g. "the sleeve has the right length".

Similarly, the user is shown warnings (see Fig. 1 C, box 1 1 ) to evaluate the fitness of a collar, i.e. the neck measurement entered by the user is compared with the collar measurement of the item of clothing in the selected size.

To give a more specific idea, the user is displayed the numerical value of the sleeve length in length units (centimetres or inches) and the numerical value of the arm length in length units. The user has a chance to compare the values. The numerical value of the sleeve length is obtained from a drawing of the item of clothing or by measuring the real item of clothing.

To simplify the user interface, the additional information about the sleeve length may be displayed in a separate layer which is shown when the user moves the mouse onto the line indicating the location of the wrist or a warning about the sleeve length.

The method may be used for visualizing the user's waistline (see Fig. 1 B and 1 C). This eliminates the need to make images of the item of clothing on all users with different heights. By visualizing the waistline, the user can evaluate the fit of the length of the item of clothing. The location of the waistline may be shown also by a horizontal line (see 8 in drawings Fig. 1 B and 1 C). If the item is too long or too short (i.e. the waistline is misplaced in relation to the item), a corresponding warning or recommendation may be displayed (see 12 in Fig. 1 C). The vertical coordinate for the location of the waistline may be determined by the formula Y1 = K^*T + C1 , wherein K is the scaling constant that determines how many pixels in the image correspond to the length unit in reality, T is the user's torso length and C1 is the constant that takes into account the location of the item of clothing in the first image.

Since the torso length is complicated to measure, the height and body type and their correlation with the torso length may be taken into account instead. In this case, the vertical coordinate for the location of the waistline is determined by the formula Y1 = K^*f (L, BT) + C1 , wherein K is the scaling constant that determines how many pixels in the image correspond to the length unit in reality, L is the user's overall height, BT is the user's body type and C1 is the constant that takes into account the location of the item of clothing in the first image.

The image of the mannequin may be supplemented with parts missing on the mannequin, for example, with the neck and head (9 and 10 in Fig 1 B, respectively), by means of additional image layers. Stereo images, producing 3D effect, can be used for even more realistic experience. Moreover, the image may feature recommendations or warnings; for example, about the correspondence of the neck thickness and collar measurement (see 1 1 in Fig. 1 C).

In preferred embodiments, the item of clothing shown to the user has the size as determined by the user measurements (e.g., L). However, in principle, an item with a different size (e.g., M) can be shown. In this case, a coefficient representing the difference between the right size and the size to be shown (M and L) is calculated from the difference of these sizes and then this coefficient is included in the formula of calculating the correct location of a body part. The present method is suitable for use also for demonstrating the leg/foot length, as well as the location of knees, elbows, and so on. The method is suitable for use with photos, series of photos as well as video recordings.

Claims

1 . A method for demonstrating an item of clothing to a user in a computer system, comprising receiving user body measurements and user's selection of the item of the clothing and presenting on a computer screen an image of the item of clothing, characterised in that the method further comprising the steps of calculating a location of a user's body part from user body measurements and indicating the location of the body part with a graphical symbol in relation to the item of clothing shown in said first image.

2. The method according to claim 1 , characterised in that the first image shows the item of clothing on a mannequin adjusted to a size determined by the user body measurements.

3. The method according to claims 1 to 2, characterised in that the body part is a hand, a foot, a neck, a knee, an elbow or a waistline.

4. The method according to claims 3 to 4, characterised in that the graphical symbol for indicating the location of the body part is a point, a horizontal line, a vertical line, a set of lines, a crossfire, a drawing of the body part, a two dimensional realistic image of the body part, a three dimensional image of the body part or a photo of the body part.

5. The method according to claims 1 to 2, characterised in that the body part is hand and a location of the hand is determined by an arm length measured from the seventh cervical vertebra, centre of the neck or the transition between the neck and a shoulder.

6. The method according to claim 5, characterised in that the location of the hand is shown with a horizontal line.

7. The method according to claims 5 to 6, characterised in that the location of the hand is shown with a realistic three-dimensional image of the hand.

8. The method according to claims 5 to 7, characterised in that the arm length is indicated by a scale corresponding to the arm length.

9. The method according to claims 5 to 8, characterised in that the user is displayed the numerical values of a sleeve length and the arm length of the item of clothing wherein the sleeve length of the item of clothing is measured on the real item of clothing or by the image of the item of clothing.

10. The method according to claims 5 to 9, characterised in that the location of the horizontal line designating the location of the hand is determined by the formula Y= Bmin + ((Bmax - Bmin)(A - Amin)/(Amax-Amin))+C1 , wherein Y is the vertical coordinate of the line, Bmin is the location of the hand corresponding to the minimum arm length, Bmax is the location of the hand corresponding to the maximum arm length, Amax is the statistically determined maximum arm length, Amin is the statistically determined minimum arm length, A is the arm length entered by the user and C1 is the constant that takes into account the location of the item of clothing in the first image.

1 1 . The method according to claims 5 to 9, characterised in that the location of the horizontal line designating the location of the hand is determined by the formula Y= K^*(A - S) + C1 , wherein K is the scaling constant that determines how many pixels in the picture correspond to the length unit in reality, A is the arm length entered by the user, S is the user's shoulder length and C1 is the constant that takes into account the location of the item of clothing in the first image.

12. The method according to claims 5 to 9, characterised in that the location of the horizontal line designating the location of the hand is determined by the formula Y= K^*(A - f(Ch)) + C1 , wherein K is the scaling constant that determines how many pixels in the picture correspond to the length unit in reality, A is the arm length entered by the user, Ch is the chest measurement, f is the function that characterises the correlation between the chest measurement and shoulder length, and C1 is the constant that takes into account the location of the item of clothing in the first image.

13. The method according to claims 5 to 12, characterised in that the sleeve length of the item of clothing selected by the user is compared with the user's arm length and if the user's arm length is too small or too big compared to the sleeve length of the item of clothing, a corresponding warning is displayed.

14. The method according to claim 3, characterised in that a location of the waistline is determined by the formula Y1 = K^*T + C1 , wherein K is the scaling constant that determines how many pixels in the image correspond to the length unit in reality, T is the torso length entered by the user and C1 is the constant that takes into account the location of the item of clothing in the first image.

15. The method according to claim 3, characterised in that the location of the waistline is determined by the formula Y1 = K^*f (L, BT) + C1 , wherein K is the scaling constant that determines how many pixels in the image correspond to the length unit in reality, BT is the user's body type, L is the user's height and C1 is the constant that takes into account the location of the item of clothing in the first image.

16. The method according to claims 1 to 15, characterised in that a second image with a transparent background and the indicated location of the body part is formed for demonstrating the location of the body part and the user is shown the first and second image as superimposed on each other.

17. The method according to claims 1 to 15, characterised in that the background of the first image is turned transparent and the first image is shown as superimposed on the second image.