I will be a little surprised if at least some of this idea isn't baked.

A display which clothes the image of the person on it in particular selected clothes. I recognise the difficulty of doing this in real time in a realistic way, so i would suggest two alternatives. One is for there to be four full-length images of the person clothed fairly realistically, the other for a real-time version which is less realistic due to short processing time. This would have several uses:

* It would allow a customer to choose clothes online given their own measurements. For instance, they could choose different clothes sizes and mix and match with what they already have or other possible purchases. This is the bit i expect to be baked but don't know what to Google.

* When getting dressed, it would be possible to try on several outfits at the press of a button rather than having to put things on and take them off. For this purpose, i imagine some kind of XML-type clothing description language which allows the system to "understand" how they work. Mere images taken previously wouldn't work because of the likes of bad hair days.

* One could be presented as clothed formally when actually clothed casually or as dressed when one is in fact naked in some circumstances, for instance on a webcam or through an apparently glass-fronted door. Hence one could, for example, "answer" the door without getting dressed and the door would present an avatar to someone delivering a package, which could be delivered through a large slot and signed for virtually. This could be a feature of an entryphone.

* It would allow one to present oneself online to different cultures with different dress codes, so for example it would build bridges between Westerners and Arab countries.

* Some kind of software could parse the description of what one proposes to wear and indicate the kind of image it projects, for instance clashing colours, "you're not going out in that!", level of formality and so forth.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 19 2009

Science fiction of course has this baked... current reality though... [+] on general principles. Can it work the other way 'round if you're vidphoning a nudist colony ?
-- FlyingToaster, Feb 19 2009


Yes, fine, sounds straightforward. Some of it, i think, is bakeable right now, quite crudely.
-- nineteenthly, Feb 19 2009


Like it! (I'm taking bets that most in favour of this idea are of the less fair sex.)
-- placid_turmoil, Feb 19 2009



random, halfbakery