Virtual Mannequins

It seems that 3M has been making the rounds of some trade shows in Europe with a Virtual Mannequin product that they are pushing for retail environments.  

Basically it’s a pre-recorded video of someone delivering a brand message that’s then rear projected onto an acrylic screen that’s been die-cut to the exact silhouette of the person. The result is somewhat similar to a hologram or volumetric display. Because of the inherent characteristics it’s best viewed from head on (since it’s a flat screen) but when viewed from the front it’s brighter and crisper than a hologram could be. 

Now, there is nothing particularly groundbreaking about this technology in 2009.  Rear projection onto a film, though improving and finding new uses for several years at least, has been possible in this way for a while. The film that 3M makes and uses for the mannequin, called Vikuiti, they have been pushing for a couple of years. In fact, even the application of using the technique to create a virtual person has been done by 3M and others a bunch of times. There’s even been one in the Mall of America:

So the real innovation this year is all in the marketing. 3M seems to recognize that interactive technologies in stores is poised for growth, so offering a simple product that could be easily purchased and deployed would certainly be smart marketing. 

Although I think it remains to be seen how turnkey a process 3M will make available for a Virtual Mannequin product. There’s still a requirement to match the hardware to the software, because in order to work properly all the video needs to be shot so that the actor’s silhouette doesn’t move, and then the projection surface needs to be cut to match. Then there are the environmental issues when setting it up in-store. 

Of course, my other issue with the Virtual Mannequin, is that it’s not actually interactive in any way. Virtual, yes. Eye-catching, yes. But once you get past the “gee whiz” factor, it’s basically just a looping video. That’s what we call observation. 

However, the whole reason I’m writing this post, is that a virtual mannequin could fairly easily be made interactive, in a number of ways. Of course the easiest, but least satisfying, would be to use a motion sensor to trigger some action (like start playing the video) when people approach. In a trade show environment, or even through affinity programs, that sort of interaction could be personalized by giving people unique RFID tags. 

Another posibility would be to also utilize a touch overlay film on the screen, which could turn the front of the mannequin into a touchscreen. In that way people could maybe interact with something the mannequin was holding, allowing people to make things happen, for instance make a different outfit appear on the mannequin. 

And if you want to get really intense, you could utilize some voice recognition to allow people to have some simple conversations with the mannequin. Now that would be cool.

posted by josiah at 9:00 AM