• The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon is engaged in an effort to learn more about its customers’ bodies, and is “inviting people to an office in New York to measure small changes in size and shape over the course of 20 weeks.”
The participants are being rewarded with Amazon gift cards, but the company hopes to be rewarded with a better understanding of “how bodies change shape over time” that eventually can be converted into algorithms and, eventually, commercial applications.
The story notes that “accurately predicting how a pair of jeans or a suit will fit is a Holy Grail for retail. Technology to model a human body and how clothing will look on it has a wide range of applications, from being able to prevent returns of ill-fitting garments to on-demand printing and production.
“Startups and research teams have sprung up around the world to tackle the problem. Amazon acquired Body Labs last year, but it has been an important issue for company executives for years, according to people familiar with the matter.”
The participants are being rewarded with Amazon gift cards, but the company hopes to be rewarded with a better understanding of “how bodies change shape over time” that eventually can be converted into algorithms and, eventually, commercial applications.
The story notes that “accurately predicting how a pair of jeans or a suit will fit is a Holy Grail for retail. Technology to model a human body and how clothing will look on it has a wide range of applications, from being able to prevent returns of ill-fitting garments to on-demand printing and production.
“Startups and research teams have sprung up around the world to tackle the problem. Amazon acquired Body Labs last year, but it has been an important issue for company executives for years, according to people familiar with the matter.”
- KC's View:
