My Dream App

Thanks for everyone who voted for me. I forgot to say that. I really appreciated all the comments and support. It made this a very enjoyable experience.

As for the whole digg/voting shenanigans… I’m surprised that people are getting so offended when I expected things like this to happen anyway. Maybe the people who entered these contests forget that the rest of the world is out there, and that this isn’t a “members only” type of voting process.

I think people voting a gazillion times for themselves is improper. That’s just plain cheating. It’s not up to MDA to discriminate against voters and only allow certain “types” of voters in based on personality and what types of forums they read. There’s some legal issues with that. If you use and respect sites like Digg, then you would know what type of people read the site and post on it. Don’t act surprised thas all. Chillax… especially if you are not an actual contestant.

These might be a bit painful to look at. But here are some ROUGH ROUGH sketches that I did at work in 20 minutes with some explanations. (I am still at work btw)

So if you guys want to see actual mockups, you’ll have to vote me in to the next round!!!

Below is what shows up when you click “Model View”:

Below is what would show up when you switch to “Closet View”:

To see larger versions, feel free to go on this post and clicking the ilnks:
http://mydreamapp.com/forums/viewtopic.php?id=1064

Thanks to Russell Heistuman for his willingness to help me make something in photoshop! Vote for him!

One way I envisioned it would be that:
1. Let’s say your model (yourself) has already been isighted in with you wearing things that are fitting and not too bulky.

Then there’s a “Make Template” feature. Where you basically “mask” your surroundings and just get this outline of your body.

The app would then split your “body outline” into “top” and “bottom” and save that as 2 different stencils.

So next time you want to input a piece of clothing, you’ll bring out your “top” stencil and then just hold your clothing up so that it matches somewhat to the stencil you have already prepared. That way the location of the shirt will always be in the right place and you can even use the stencil to crop your shirts so that it would fit your virtual self.

Hope this makes sense.

ANOTHER IDEA

Another thing, by the judges’ comments, if it’s too hard to fit clothes onto a model, how about if your iSight is constantly on and your clothes are floating in your GUI (using the template method above) and you just stand at a far enough distance so that you just stand behind your clothes without actually having to fit them onto a model?

Or just take a picture of yourself at a distance every time you want to use it and then walk up to your computer and pick the outfits from there.

WHAT DO YOU GUYS THINK?!

I’m really surprised that I passed some of the other app ideas and at the same time grateful. I feel like my idea covers the breadth of what the app contest was initially about (from the rules):

“A) Innovation and Creativity of the Idea; B) Use of OS X and Leopard technologies; C) Feasibility of Development; and D) Mass-Market Appeal (collectively, the “Criteria”).”

Although many might think that “mass-market” is not covered by my app, but seeing as I made it through already shows there is definitely interest.

This is from Brent Simmons -
Were I part of the target audience I’m sure this would sound like total fun. There is the potential for lots of eye candy and fun iSight stuff.
My biggest concern is that the target audience may be too small to make it worthwhile. You have to not only be into clothes in a big way but also have a ton of time to take pictures of your clothes via iSight. I just don’t know how many people have that kind of time and also have the extra money to spend on software.

My app is still in the running! Thanks for those who voted and proving there is interest!

From judge Cabel Sasser:
For a long time I’ve actually been wondering how to make software that appeals to a broader range of Mac customers. It’s something we at Panic haven’t figured out yet… It seems like a giant untapped market, one that is understandably tough to tap because we’re all just making the apps that we want, and, let’s face it, we’re all just a bunch of dumb guy-nerds. iStyleIt — which I suggest you could very safely rename to just “Style”, ditch the dreaded “i” and becoming catchier in the process — could potentially unlock a whole new audience of shareware customers. Or, it could only sell about 10 copies. Still, I’d love to see someone give it a shot, and a “virtual closet” that applies a bit of Delicious Logic and makes for a very specialized, very cool database, sounds like a great place to start to reach those potential new customers.

Thanks! Unfortunately, StyleIt and iStyle were taken. I guess I never thought of “Style”. Always good to get another suggestion on the names.

The last three judges I was very pleased to hear from and sum up some of the reasons why this could be a killer app!

Martin Ott - That’s a new approach for using your iSight :-) Taking pictures of your clothes for your virtual wardrobe. Then take a picture of yourself and try different outfits and styles in your virtual dressing room. It’s probably not only for women. I might even use it :-) The dressing room could be a real challenge to code depending on what approach you’ll take. A more realistic 3D kind of approach might be very difficult. I would probably try a more playful and somewhat abstract approach, overlaying the various pieces just like you do when you hold a shirt or pants in front of you to see whether they fit or can be combined. I like the idea because it’s something new and not the usual stuff. It uses the Mac as a tool to create and share outfits and keeps a connection to the real world.
=)

David Watanabe - Macs are becoming fashionable, so the next logical step is to make Mac users themselves more fashion conscious. This is hand’s down my favorite one - fun, playful, and actually very useful. Jason Harris is a stylin’ fella, so I could see this turning out well.

I’m biased, but I loved this comment the most haha.

Nicholas Jitkoff - I hate to admit it, but I’ve probably spent more time dressing up Sims than worrying about my own wardrobe. Initially, a database of one’s clothes seemed like a silly idea, but when given the ability to discuss outfits with friends and try out new stuff, it becomes sort of fun. It will take a special kind of person to take the time to put their information in, but iStyleIt could lead to some interesting conversations with friends and help avoid major fashion faux pas.
Honored!!!

Thanks to all the voters and judges again!

As for how the clothes come out of the closet onto a model in quick fashion, I just imagined them sliding in and out of the screen like a horizontal slot machine where each bottom/top slides in and out as if all the clothing were on wheels.

Jackets can be drag and drop.

But there’s also a way to look at them and sort them using drag and drop in a closet that can be one of those turnstyle or dry-cleaner’s like closests that can be sorted at the click of a button by color, style, kind, season, last worn etc.

Also, you can pull up the virtual mirror so that you can see yourself or a model in 2 or 3 outfits AT THE SAME TIME. I think that would be one of the huge benefits of having a virtual closet in the first place.

I think a possible way of inputting your clothing is
- Holding up your clothes to the screen
or
- I imagined holding your clothing up against a green screen-like type of background where you could use somehow pull a Photoshop-like “magnetic lasso” to grab the clothing and then do a zoom-in zoom-out thing to fit it onto your model.
or
- Also, I think if the new iChat can put background on someone’s chat screen maybe the inverse can be done with clothing. However, I have no idea how that’s done.

I think the judges’ comments have been fair. I’m just glad the judges gave me some good advice and both the positive and negative all made sense to me.