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Ralph Lauren starts testing interactive fitting rooms in NYC
Ralph Lauren isn't afraid to experiment with new tech. Last year, the brand introduced a smart shirt for athletes, designed to measure performance with conductive silver threads and other tracking sensors. To add to this, Ralph Lauren's announced it will begin testing interactive fitting rooms at its Polo flagship store in New York City. These smart mirrors, created by a startup called Oak Labs, are capable of recognizing a customer's clothing pieces via RFID (radio-frequency identification) tags and displaying these on a large touchscreen. Once that happens, you can request different sizes and colors of items in your possession, which are then brought over to you by a Polo associate. From there you're able to keep trying on different looks or simply check out -- and if you don't speak English, there's support for Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Portuguese.
Macy's fights online shopping with a tablet in fitting rooms
The internet changed the way people shop, and Macy's is well aware of this. In an effort to compete with successful online retailers like Amazon, Macy's wants to rethink the shopping experience for its customers. According to a Bloomberg report, the retailer has started testing smartphones and tablets to upgrade dressing rooms in the women's athletic and swimsuit departments. These devices, provided by the company for use in-store, let people request and try on different items without having to go out of the room and get those themselves. Once a customer finds something they like, the delivery arrives via chute. Yes, a chute.
Rob Pardo learns from his daughter
Gamasutra has a few Father's Day week tidbits up about game designers who are also fathers, and how that affects their work. One of their interviews today is with Rob Pardo, who is VP of Game Design with Blizzard. He talks about how he plays with his daughter, who apparently plays a mean 54 warlock. Maybe that's why they're overpowered? I'm joking, I'm joking!Seriously, he says that watching his 5-year-old daughter play lets him in on what's "fundamentally fun" about the game-- he and his team may be working hard to tune raid encounters, but when he sees that his daughter is jumping around buildings or trying on outfits, he's inspired to put a little more flavor into those seemingly mundane experiences as well (I'm a huge fan of putting on items in the dressing room, so I know right where she's coming from on that one). WoW has always been a game that balances the hardcore with the casual very well (in the early and mid-game, if not in the endgame), and apparently the way Rob Pardo makes that happen is by playing with his daughter. Neat.[ via Wonderland ]
VoIP and RFID party down in Japanese dressing rooms
Full points for effective buzzword usage here: Japanese department chain Mitsokoshi is implementing a new system in their dressing rooms that allows patrons to scan RFID-tagged items and then use a VoIP phone to check inventory and call for other items to be brought. The whole system is tied into Mitsokoshi's Point Of Sale system to have real-time info on inventory, and since most of the system is based on Cisco phones the installation costs about $700-800, instead of $20,000-25,000 for a similar setup based on touchscreen kiosks. When an RFID-equipped clothing item is scanned, different sizes, colors and similar product show up for selection on the 5.6-inch touchscreen of the phone, and picking up the phone to call for help is a bit more discreet than shouting out your ever expanding waist size over the dressing room wall. The setup is being provided by Litescape, who claims to be already demonstrating to US retailers such as Abercrombie, Home Depot, the Gap and Virgin Mega -- so maybe we won't have to be too far behind Japan in this regard. Go USA.[Via RFID in Japan]
