Friday 4 November 2011

Gold Fabric

A Swiss team at EMPA institute has developed a gold-coated fiber!


The pure gold is affixed to silk and 'the thread can be woven into a beautiful, surprisingly durable and washable 24 carat fabric' Randolph Jonsson

Bodymetrics Pods

A 3D body scanner that helps you find the clothes that will fit perfectly.

The first Body Mapping scanner is now available at a New Look store in London's Westfield Stratford City shopping mall.
http://www.gizmag.com/bodymetrics-body-mapping-for-clothes-fitting/20270/

The Psychology of Shops

Ever wondered why it's so impossible to walk into a shop and easily find what you're looking for, without being distracted by all the items for sale?
Well it's because that's exactly what the store wants to happen. They want you to have to go all the way round the shop, just to find and pay for what you originally set out to get.
Ikea is a prime example of this, and for the first time ever I have recently experienced the maze for myself.
This is a route one shopper took in Ikea.

Thursday 3 November 2011

Robotic Mannequins

Could robots be the next way to display clothes?
Image from the film irobots

"I can see robots playing a significant role in displaying clothes, and how they might hang and “fall” on a human" Mike Halman, http://www.gizmag.com/dropop-the-eager-robotic-mannequin/13596/

D+ropop is the eco friendly cost effective cardboard elegant Japanese robot

I can see that mannequins in the window of stores which are moving and show what the clothes look like in motion could be very interesting, and would create much more diverese window displays.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

GOOGLE MAPS - STORE VIEW

Google Maps' Street View is soon going to give us a glimpse of inside the shops and businesses that as of now we've only been able to see the outside of when strolling down the street on Google Maps.

"Google Business Photos are essentially interior Street View shots, allowing you to get a 360-degree view of a store or restaurant. Google has been photographing businesses since last year, but they're just now putting the results online. Businesses from Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and Washington, D.C. are included, and it'll presumably grow from there." Adam Frucci, http://dvice.com/archives/2011/10/google-maps-to.php

Things like this just prove how exciting technology is. Who knows, soon we'll be able to check out our favourite stores on the British high street before we actually visit them. Maybe one day we'll be able to walk around a store from our own homes picking things off shelves that take our fancy, a slightly more real online shopping experience.