Production of made to order clothing

• US 20040078285A1
• Filed: 10/24/2003
• Published: 04/22/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Douelou N.V.
• Original Assignee: Douelou N.V.
• Inventors: Bijvoet, Michel
• Granted Patent: US 7,346,421 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/26
• CPC Class Codes: A41H 1/00 Measuring aids or methods
• CPC Class Codes: A41H 3/007 Methods of drafting or marking-out patterns using computers computer-aided design G06F30/00

Abstract

An arrangement for the production of made to order clothing (18), comprising a controller (14) operatively connected (12) to an input means (10), said input means (10) being adapted to provide to said controller (14) input variables A, W, H, C personal to a particular customer and said controller (14) being adapted to process said input variables A, W, H, C to predict a set of at least estimated body measurements, each of which body measurements is derived from one or more of said input variables A, W, H, C and is used to derive clothing pattern data, one said input variable being representative of the age A of said customer.

Claims

1. ) An arrangement for the production of made to order clothing, comprising a controller operatively connected to an input means, said input means being adapted to provide to said controller a plurality of body measurement input variables and a further input variable personal to a particular customer and said controller being adapted to process said input variables to predict a set of at least estimated body measurements each of which estimated body measurements being derived from one or more of said input variables and is used to derive clothing pattern data, characterised in that said further input variable is a representation of the age of said customer.

2. ) An arrangement according to claim 1, characterised in that the estimated body measurements are derived based on a non-linear relationship of the age.

3. ) An arrangement according to claim 1, or 2 characterised by said input variables further including an input of one or more of the weight, height, collar size, sleeve length and waist of said customer.

4. ) An arrangement according to any previous claim 1, characterised in that said estimated body measurements include at least one of chest circumference, waist circumference, arm circumference, wrist circumference, shoulder length, arm length and back length.

5. ) An arrangement according to any preceding claim, characterised in that said estimated body measurements are predicted by reference of a plurality of said input variables to a set of predictor rules which are applied in association with said controller.

6. ) A arrangement according to claim 5, characterised in that said predictor rules are applied to said input variables and generate said estimated body measurements for use in the place of said unknown body measurements.

7. ) An arrangement according to claim 5 or claim 6, characterised in that said predictor rules include the application of a regression technique, preferably a multiple linear regression technique.

8. ) An arrangement according to any one of claims 5 to 7, characterised in that said predictor rules are derived from a database of body measurements of a population sample, said sample preferably being composed of at least twenty times more cases than there are variables to be entered and body dimensions to be predicted.

9. ) An arrangement according to claim 8, characterised in that said predictor rules are changeable between at least two applications thereof, so as for example to reflect changes in said sample over time, between target markets or between geographical areas.

10. ) An arrangement according to any one of claims 5 to 9, characterised in that a said set of predictor rules are generated each time an order is placed or each time a reference database of sample body measurements is changed.

11. ) An arrangement according to any preceding claim, characterised in that said made to order clothing includes a shirt.

12. ) An arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 10, characterised in that said made to order clothing includes a blouse or jacket.

13. ) An arrangement according to any preceding claim, characterised in that said made to order clothing includes a pair of trousers and said body measurement input variables include one or more of foot size, shoe size, inside leg and seam size.

14. ) An arrangement according to claim 13, characterised in that said made to order clothing further includes a jacket, and optionally a waist coat, in combination with said trousers so as for example to form a suit.

15. ) An arrangement according to any preceding claim, characterised in that said customer inputs a command with regard to the structure of at least a portion of said clothing, such as for example a type of material, colour, shape or fit, collar, cuff or sleeve design, said command preferably being changeable by said customer on review of a predicted or simulated finished piece of said clothing.

16. ) An arrangement according to any preceding claim, characterised in that said input means includes an input stage performed using at least one of a wide area network (WAN), a local area network (LAN), a mobile telecommunications network, an internet ordering process and an interactive mail order process, performed for example interactively by said customer in response to supplier prompts.

17. ) An arrangement according to any preceding claim, further characterised by a clothing manufacturing facility, adapted to receive from said controller said pattern data and to produce said made to order clothing therefrom.

18. ) An arrangement according to any preceding claim, further characterised by a billing and distribution arrangement for billing customers and shipping to them said made to order clothing.

19. ) An arrangement according to any preceding claim, characterised in that said customer is provided with a virtual representation of said made to order clothing, said virtual representation preferably being displayed in three dimensions and preferably being movable so as to show what said clothing might look like from different angles or points of view.

20. ) An arrangement according to any preceding claim, characterised in that said customer is provided with a representation of a virtual person, preferably representative of their body shape in accordance with said estimated body measurements, wearing a piece of said made to order clothing in accordance with said pattern data, said virtual person preferably being presented in three dimensions (3-D) and preferably being moveable so as to demonstrate by way of review what said clothing might look like in use.

21. ) An arrangement according to claim 19 or claim 20, characterised in that said representation is available to said customer in a plurality of different poses and backgrounds, such as for example simulations of posing or moving in urban and countryside environments, preferably with the possibility of additional virtual figures being present therein.

22. ) An arrangement according to any one of claims 19 to 21, characterised in that said representation is available to said customer wearing clothing in addition to said made to order clothing, such as for example, in a case where said made to order clothing comprises a shirt, said additional clothing comprising a choice of trousers, whereby said customer can assess said made to order clothing in a variety of combinations and styles in overall dress.

23. ) An arrangement according to any previous claim, characterised in that said input variables comprise only the age, weight, height and collar size of said customer.

24. ) An information carrier, such as a CD-ROM, on which is encoded at least one program to enable implementation of an arrangement according to any preceding claim, a said program comprising for example at least one of a web-site interface, a database of clothing options or dimension information, a web browser, an ordering/billing system and an imaging program for enabling the display of an image of said made to order clothing.

25. ) A method of producing made to order clothing, including:

a) inputting into a controller a plurality of body measurement input variables personal to a particular customer and a further input variable comprising a representation of the age of said customer,

b) processing said input variables; and

c) predicting a set of at least estimated body measurements from said processing, each of which estimated body measurements is derived from one or more of said input variables and

d) deriving clothing pattern data from said estimated body measurements.