Company Offers a High-Tech Way to Get Clothes to Fit - ' Safety concerns '
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Intellifit maintains that its technology is completely safe, but concedes that some retailers—including Lane Bryant—discourage or prevent the scanning of someone who is pregnant or who has a pacemaker.
Gribbin dismisses those retailers’ concerns as just legal protection.
"Our technology is not X-ray. We use low-power radio waves, very similar to cell phones, expect that our radio waves are one-thousandth the power of a cell phone," Gribbin said, adding that "a cell phone is generally next to your head, and we're about 2 feet away from you."
Today, the system's results can only be seen on the computer printouts, but Intellifit plans to have those available to scanned consumers on their Web site in about two weeks, Gribbin said.
After the consumer is scanned, the data is saved in an XML file, and a wireless modem uploads those XML files to a Dell server at Intellifit headquarters once every 24 hours.
The final uploaded XML file is only one or two kilobits, which is a lot less than the original 200,000 data-point 3-D hologram that typically needs about 80 MB of space.
That's how the consumer's measurements are collected. To gather the precise sizing for various garments from many apparel companies, client manufacturers send Intellifit their product specification sheets on garments.
"Every brand has its own fit specification. A 10 from Jones is not the same as a 10 from Liz," Gribbin said.
The only place where there is still margin for error is what the industry dubs sewing tolerances, which can run a half-inch in either direction.
"We're 90 percent (accurate) about the sizes and the styles and the brands that will fit you best."
Gribbin pledges that the identity of consumers will never be revealed, but information will be released in an anonymous, aggregated manner to retail and manufacturing clients.
"They might want a report for women between 35 and 40 years of age in a plus size in certain ZIP codes," he said, and Intellifit would provide tons of sizing specs from its database of matching consumers.
Retail editor Evan Schuman can be reached at Evan_Schuman@ziffdavis.com
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