The ability to bring the advantages of real life retail to online shopping is a big challenge. Any attempt to fix this problem is a worthy project. Great idea.

"think ajax" - That didn't clarify things for me as much as i think you thought it would clarify things for me.

I'd focus on having photos taken SPECIFICALLY for this web app. Or webcam feed which is analyzed as head is rotated. A 3D model could be built from that. Oh not EASILY... but it could be done. THEN you've got good data for showing what glasses will look like on someone's head.

"Think AJAX"

lol

That did nothing for me either :) People, people, people.... AJAX is a set of techniques to make some of the communications on a page happen behind the scenes. The A is for Asynchronous, referring to the fact that communication can occur independent of the page loading (i.e it won't slow the page from loading and information can be sent and received without reloading the page)

You still need something to actually communicate with. The thing you talk to will supply your data.... In this case it would probably be some type of beefy server that can do a lot of image processing/modeling in a short time frame.

AJAX is just the connection medium to this computing resource.

Saying "Think AJAX" is like saying:

Let's produce a high performance sports car that gets better gas mileage than a Civic (think roads)

In this case, yes a road is involved somewhere in the equation, but does not imply a solution....

Alright alright, well let's not be tech language grammar queens - his point is obviously just that somehow, advance programming can achieve the goal here.

Yeah, webcam-into-3d-model of my big 'ol head is one way to go, but I bet you could also do some (extensive) camera/lens calculations and make a specific set of instructions for 3 or 4 different positions. i.e. - center your head in front of the monitor, 12 inches from camera, looking straight ahead - snap, then look at this dot in the corner of the screen - snap, etc etc. Create a set of 3 or 4 standard positions, and with distance from cam standardized, size calculations could be made and the 'glasses' popped on your virtual mug.

Sounds like a really great idea actually. Does seem to be a lot of calculating involved but hey, somebody can do it I'm sure (not me!).

Maybe you even go to a special photo booth somewhere to have the standardized shots taken, including full body (why limit it to eyewear?), with good lighting and all, and sign up for the service. So the business would actually be the web service, and the business would also need to 'virtualize' the products (eyeglasses, pants, shirts etc) of as many producers as they possibly can (which will keep growing), and then the result is just a little browser app, so when you're looking anywhere online at clothes, glasses, etc - if it's in the database a little button pops up that says 'try on!'.

I have an add-on for firefox called cooliris that, when installed, when you mouse over any image online, it will automatically show you the full size version of that image in a little pseudo-pop-up thing. Maybe it could work like that.

That would be awesome.

nice.

i like your idea. Thats one of my problems too especially in attempting to order on line.

Nice idea, but they not only have to look good on you but also to fit smoothly on your head.
Tommy

The measurements of the 3D model will need to be fairly precise. A very small difference in size can make a pair of glasses look good or goofy, or it can make them fit correctly or painfully.

I doubt you'd be successful if you require the user to go to a special booth for photos because they might as well go to an eyeglass shop. You might be able to provide printable templates that should be held up next to the head for the photographs which would provide enough scaling for accurate measurements. Doing a frontal view with good measurements and overlaying glasses would be fairly straightforward. Doing a full 3D model that would allow accurate fitting would be significantly more challenging.

Doublelibra has added much to this initial idea in my opinion. I have ordering clothing, footwear etc online just because I never get what I think I am getting size wise. A full body scan could solve this problem - however would probably have to be done with no or minimal clothing. Not sure how many people would be willing to have this done.

interesting...i like where you are heading!

"Alright alright, well let's not be tech language grammar queens"

lol :) Ok, I'll not be such a technology snob :)

Can anyone who has worked with digital modeling tell us a little more about the process? What type of programs or algorithms exist right now to transform a series of photos into a digital model? How fast can the process be done and on what type of system?

There are systems which will take binocular photos (two photos from slightly different angles, mimicing the binocular vision you get from having two eyes) and translate those into a 3D model by interpreting the depth cues. I've seen this demonstrated pretty well with architectural models. I don't know if the accuracy is high enough to get a 3D model of a head that was precise enough to fit glasses.

In short, the tech is there and you'd just need quite high-quality images with good in-photo size cues in order to build a 3D model. This might be too much for the home user to manage with a webcam, but maybe not.

I realize that last comment was really ambivalent and not very informative. I didn't mean to be quite that useless. I think this is a situation where the basic technology is well known, but you'd be pushing the limits of its current accuracy. Obviously some of the medical imaging is very precise, but it's starting from very specialized images. You'd need more research than I have handy at the moment to see what the limits are with more conventional images.

It seems like measuring your head should solve the size issue. Why not just have a picture of you and then be able to overlay pictures of glasses and you could see what you look like with them on. This could then be expanded to other types of clothing if you wanted.

I'm not sure why you'd need a fancy algorithm to decide which ones will look best. Just let me virtually try them on.

techguy: I was assuming that was what he was going for, just visually representing the glasses on the head. But getting an accurate measurement of the head is non-trivial. You need more than just a hat size measurement. You need accurate measurements of all the features relative to one another. You could do it with a photo as I mentioned in my first comment.

I don't think the technology is available for this to be possible. You would need very high quality cameras that can take high resolution pictures to be analyzed by your program. You would need at least 4 different head shots (front, right, left, back sides of the head) so then you could create a 3-D model. You may not need the back of the head but I think that could increase the accuracy of the model.

Your best bet would be to ask users to go into an eyeglass shop get the their measurements and prescription taken to upload on the site for discount glasses. You could provide the discount by minimizing the overhead involved with current glasses shops. Then the user's preferences are set and they can order glasses whenever they need them, just be sure to remind them to keep their prescriptions accurate.