In early October, the giant Amazon bought Body Labs, a start-up specialized in the creation of 3D mannequins. The transaction is estimated to be worth between 42 and 60 million euros.
Body Labs: what's in it for Amazon?
The Body Labs startup, founded in 2013, is based on a scanning technology developed by Michael Black, a computer science professor. This technique now makes it possible to create particularly realistic copies of the human body.
By collecting a multitude of data from different analyses of the human body, Michael Black was able to develop an artificial intelligence capable of predicting and defining with precision the body measurements of a person from a simple photo. Body Labs is based on a pre-made 3D mesh of the body which is then customized.
Mixing the physical and digital world to facilitate the act of buying on the web
Body Labs revolutionizes 3D with the SOMA API that accurately predicts and measures the shape of the user's body: a simple photo of your body is uploaded, and you are projected into an augmented reality environment where you can virtually try on clothes before finalizing your order.
It seems thatAmazon, which has been supporting the advent of 3D printing for several years now, has seen new opportunities in Body Labs: in particular, the possibility of boosting sales of its textile products by allowing Internet users totry before they buy. This revolutionary tool would remove one of the brakes on the purchase of textile products on the web and at the same time reduce returns and refunds (problems faced by many textile e-commerce sites, and which currently represent at Amazon ⅓ of clothing orders).
