British researchers have come up with a new body-scanning device that gives accurate measurements and could boost online clothes shopping.
Shoppers are still nervous about ordering clothes online because they often do not fit and, some say, there will never be a substitute for trying something on - one reason why the boom in online retail has not had the same impact on clothing as on music, books and electronics retailing.
In the U.S., for instance, the consultancy Com-Score estimated that only 14 per cent of online spending was to purchase clothes and accessories in the year to June.
The new scanner is being developed by the London College of Fashion, video imaging researchers at the University of Surrey and the company Body-metrics.
The company already has in-store scanners that use motion sensors from Microsoft's Kinect gaming device in Bloomingdale's in the U.S., and other stores in Britain and Germany.
Some firms, including Berlin-based Upcloud, are already offering home scanners that use a webcam, but the British developers say their system is able to measure in unprecedented detail.
Philip Delamore from the London College of Fashion estimates that 30 to 60 per cent of clothes bought online are returned.
"It's common for online shoppers to order two or three different sizes of the same item of clothing at the same time as they're unsure which one will fit best," he said.
With the new system, a shopper inputs his or her height as a reference and can then take a single full-length picture with a webcam or smartphone from which all their other measurements are calculated.
It uses the measurements combined with a person's overall proportions to build a 3-D image.
