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“Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) have developed technology to digitally capture clothing on moving people, turn it into a 3D digital form, and dress virtual avatars with it. This new technology makes virtual clothing try-on practical. You see a brilliant dress on Michelle Obama and wonder what it would look like on you? Imagine trying it on and seeing how the fabric moves and how it fits before buying. This technology could make this possible by dressing your virtual avatar. Traditional virtual clothing try-on involves getting the 2D clothing pattern from the manufacturer, sizing this to a body, and simulating how the clothing drapes on the body. The new technique replaces garment simulation with garment capture. Capturing and transferring existing garments to new people greatly simplifies the process of virtual try-on. “Our approach is to scan a person wearing the garment, separate the clothing from the person, and then rendering it on top of a new person”— says Dr. Gerard Pons-Moll, research scientist at MPI-IS and principal investigator of the project. “This process captures all the detail present in real clothing, including how it moves, which is hard to replicate with simulation,” says Pons-Moll. The ClothCap (ClothCapture) results exceed the realism of existing approaches (Figure 1).”

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