MIRRORcle

Inspiration:

As avid apparel shoppers, one problem we often face is having to queue for fitting rooms multiple times because of the limit to the number of pieces of clothing we can try on each time. Taking a closer look at the problem, we found out that this is a problem that many consumers face and it is something that compromises customer experience. People are deterred from making purchases because of the long waiting time in stores.

What it does

MIRRORcle is a smart mirror that uses augmented reality to improve the customer experience at brick and mortar apparel stores.

MIRRORcle detects the clothing the customer is trying and gives them the option to see how the other colours and designs of the same piece of clothing that are available in the store would suit them. It also gives them the option to see how the clothing that they are wearing looks like in various lighting conditions. They are able to take photos and videos, enabling them to playback and see their outfit from various angles. Customers are also able to see recommended styles based on the current outfit, reviews of the clothing and leave an audio feedback.

How we built it

With the power of an IoT device like a Raspberry Pie 3, a screen, mirror, camera and IR touch filter to enable touch functionalities, we can utilise computer vision and AR to detect the clothing the customer is wearing and enable them to change the color and design of the clothing in real time.

Challenges we ran into

Initially, we were aware that there are existing companies that produces AR smart mirrors using the overlay technology. We knew that the overlay technology which simply overlays an image of a piece of clothes on consumers often does not fit customers well so we wanted to create a smart mirror that provides better results by requiring customers to try on at least one piece of clothing. However, after working on our idea, we realized that there are companies doing this too. However, we overcame it by differentiating ourselves from them through various competitive advantages. For example, companies using similar advanced technology as us typically do not provide a personalized experience through recommendations of clothes that the customers might be interested in based on the type of clothes they have tried. They also do not provide filters to show customers how the clothes would look on the customers under different lighting conditions.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

How our team grouped together despite our differences and contribute to each other, professionally and personally. Despite us being stressed at various times, we were able to complement each other and help each other through our ideas, technical skills and creativeness.

What we learned

Ideation is fun. We had difficulties coming up with new ideas initially but by adopting an open mindset to voice out any ideas we had, we were able to have fun and uncover new areas of innovation Ask questions. As all of us come from diverse backgrounds, marketing, analytics, engineering, we all had knowledge in different areas and by asking questions, we are able to learn from one another. As the saying goes, the only dumb questions are the ones you don’t ask.

What's next for MIRRORcle

Future plans to scale would be to fine-tune the features that users and businesses find most useful. This could include the addition of a help button, inventory details etc. We believe that with the current state of technology, MIRRORcle has the features that are most functional for actual implementation to create an impact. However, as augmented reality becomes more realistic, MIRRORcle can expand into allowing users to compare between different designs instead of just colours.