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Below is our recent interview with SuMin Nam, Global Marketing Manager of FXGear:
Q: Could you provide our readers with a brief introduction to FXGear?
A: FXGear Inc. is founded in 2004 by computer graphics experts and is an augmented reality and virtual reality technology focused company. FXGear has its roots in VFX software which we first started commercializing the cloth simulation software called Qualoth in the early days of company’s establishment.
As we started, we supplied the software to the major Hollywood animation studios and in 2010, as the demand for graphics expanded from computer to mobile device, we developed graphics engine to run a various interactive simulation in real-time with a minimum power that could run in a mobile device. And from 2015 with all the accelerated original technology we have, we expanded our business area to augmented and virtual reality technology and launched NOON VR, the mobile-based virtual reality solution (headset and application), and FXMirror, the virtual fitting solution. FYI, we have won the 2018 CES Innovation honoree awards in augmented and virtual reality category for NOON VR.
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Q: You’ve recently introduced ‘FXMirror,’ the next-generation virtual fitting solution using an avatar; could you tell us something more?
A: FXMirror is, an augmented-reality based technology, a digital mirror, where a customer can stand in front of, which instantly measures shopper’s body size without having to wear a cumbersome change of clothes before making a purchase decision. Also, customers can be exposed to multiple brands at once and explore through a variety of new outfits in a short period of time. A QR code to access to the item’s detail page is provided, so a customer can easily purchase or gather information in just a few steps.
FXMirror uses our unique proprietary technology to measure the customer’s body size and reflects a customer’s appearance to show the 3D garment on top of their visuals in real-time.
One of the most important key features for a virtual fitting solution to succeed is to have a simple process of making a garment into a 3D clothes; due to the mass production of 3D clothes must be possible. Many other virtual fitting companies use Maya software to create 3D clothes one-by-one, however, we have developed our own cloth authoring tool system called CAT which assists anyone to create 3D clothes quickly and easily. Just a front and back photo of the cloth is needed and within just 5-10 minutes 3D cloth is created, which allows mass production of 3D clothes at low cost.
The avatar feature recently added to FXMirror allows a customer to try 3D clothes using an interactive, personalized avatar that instantly creates in real-time; instead of wearing 3D apparel fitted onto their actual appearance reflected in the digital mirror.
Q: How is the new version different from the old one?
A: The biggest difference between avatar mode and a real mode is first, the way virtual clothing projects on the user is different. As the real mode uses AR technology to project virtual clothing onto the customer, the virtual clothing projects onto the clothing which is worn by the customer. However, the avatar mode uses MR (mix-reality) technology, where it creates a virtual avatar of the customer immediately in real-time and renders virtual clothing onto the avatar; therefore, the customer can check his/her appearance without interruption from the actual clothing the customer is wearing.
The avatar feature utilizes live motion tracking to read facial expressions and generates the personalized avatar that mimics customer’s action in real-time. Furthermore, the customer can try out a variety of different, trendy hairstyles on the avatar. (Hairstyles are constantly updated).
Q: Can you talk briefly about FXMake-up, the virtual make up solution?
A: FXMake-up is based on realistic 3D rendering technology, the microscopic characteristics of color cosmetics are analyzed and accurately expressed by 3D shading when applied to the skin. It tracks 68 kinds of elements that capture facial features such as eyebrows, nose, lips, and face outlines and reliably recognize and catches facial movements at various angles, even in the dark lighting.
In addition, glossy, matte, glitter and other various textures and thicknesses can be expressed according to the movement of the face and the surface curvature. Plus, depending on the make-up style, color, saturation, brightness, contrast and vignette effects can be adjusted so that a more delicate virtual makeup is possible.
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Q: What’s next for FXGear? Do you have plans to grow, expand or diversify?
A: Our virtual fitting solution technology is expected to become an essential solution for unmanned shops, growing rapidly in China, which is predicted to change the way we shop in the future. The virtual fitting solution doesn’t require space to stock the garments nor the fitting rooms to try on the clothes. So once the technology is proven for the unattended shops, it will ultimately be applied to both offline and online stores and there will be a paradigm shift in the e-commerce platform.
In terms of technical development of FXMirror, we are constantly developing to have the latest state-of-art technology in virtual fittings and and to alert you with upcoming updates, the size simulation and diverse in avatar’s skin color will soon be introduced.
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