Production of made to order clothing

• US 7,346,421 B2
• Filed: 10/30/2001
• Issued: 03/18/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 10/30/2000
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Douelou N.V.
• Original Assignee: Douelou N.V.
• Inventors: Bijvoet, Michel
• Primary Examiner(s): Welch; Gary L.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Durham; Nathan E
• Application Number:
  US10/415,036
• Publication Number:
  US 20040078285A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,331 Days
• Field of Search: 700/130, 700/131, 700/132, 700/133, 700/134, 700/135, 700/136, 700/137, 700/155, 702/155, 702/166, 702/167, 705/1, 705/26, 707/4
• US Class Current: 700/132
• 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 generating a design of made to order clothing, comprising a controller operatively connected to an input means, the input means being adapted to provide to the controller with a plurality of body measurement input variables and a further input variable personal to a particular customer and the controller being adapted to process the input variables to predict a set of at least estimated body measurements, the set of estimated body measurements being predicted from one or more of the input variables, the arrangement further comprising means for deriving clothing pattern data from the estimated body measurements, wherein the further input variable is a representation of the age of the customer, and wherein the controller includes means to generate the estimated body measurements based on a non-linear relationship of the age.

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

3. An arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the estimated body measurements include at least one of chest circumference, waist circumference, arm circumference, wrist circumference, shoulder length, arm length and back length.

4. An arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the controller for estimating the estimated body measurements on the basis of a plurality of the input variables includes means for accessing a set of predictor rules.

5. A arrangement according to claim 4, wherein the controller includes means for applying the predictor rules to the input variables and for generating at least one estimated body measurement in accordance with the predictor rules.

6. An arrangement according to claim 5, wherein the means for applying the predictor rules includes means for applying a regression technique.

7. An arrangement according to claim 6, wherein the means for applying a regression technique comprises means for applying a multiple linear regression technique.

8. An arrangement according to claim 5, wherein means for applying the predictor rules includes means for changing the predictor rules between a first and a second application thereof to reflect at feast one of a change in the sample overtime, in target markets or in a geographical area.

9. An arrangement according to claim 5, wherein the means for applying the set of predictor rules includes means for generating the predictor rules in accordance with one of each time a design is requested and each time a reference database of sample body measurements is changed.

10. An arrangement according to claim 4, wherein the predictor rules are derived from a database of body measurements of a population sample, the sample preferably being composed of at least twenty times more cases than there are variables to be entered and body dimensions to be predicted.

11. An arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the made to order clothing includes one of a shirt, a blouse, a jacket, and a pair of trousers and in the case of trousers the body measurement input variables include one or more of foot size, shoe size, inside leg and seam size.

12. An arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the made to order clothing further includes a jacket, and optionally a waist coat, in combination with the trousers.

13. An arrangement according to claim 1, further comprising means for receiving a command relating to a structure of at least a portion of the clothing and the arrangement further comprises means for displaying a predicted or simulated finished piece of the clothing and means for changing the command after displaying the predicted or simulated finished piece of the clothing.

14. An arrangement according to claim 13, wherein the structure is at least one of a type of material, a colour, a shape, a fit, a collar design, a cuff design and a sleeve design.

15. An arrangement according to claim 1, wherein the input means includes means for receiving interactive responses from at feast 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.

16. An arrangement according to claim 1, further comprising a clothing manufacturing facility, the facility having means to receive from the controller the pattern data and to produce the made to order clothing therefrom.

17. An arrangement according to claim 16, further comprising a billing and distribution arrangement for billing customers and shipping to them the made to order clothing.

18. An arrangement according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying to a customer a virtual representation of the made to order clothing.

19. Arrangement according to claim 18, wherein the means for displaying displays the virtual representation in three dimensions further comprising means for changing the viewing angle of the virtual representation so as to show what the clothing might look like from different viewing angles.

20. An arrangement according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying to a customer a representation of a virtual person representative of a body shape in accordance with the estimated body measurements, the representation being of the virtual person wearing a piece of the made to order clothing in accordance with the pattern data, the virtual person being displayed in three dimensions (3-D), further comprising means for changing the viewing angle of the virtual person so as to demonstrate what the clothing might look like in use.

21. An arrangement according to claim 20, wherein the means for displaying includes means for displaying the representation in a plurality of different poses and backgrounds.

22. An arrangement according to claim 20, wherein the means for displaying includes means for displaying the virtual person wearing clothing in addition to the made to order clothing, the additional clothing being at least a choice of trousers.

23. An arrangement for generating a design of made to order clothing, comprising a controller operatively connected to an input means, the input means being adapted to provide to the controller with a plurality of body measurement input variables and a further input variable personal to a particular customer and the controller being adapted to process the input variables to predict a set of at least estimated body measurements, the set of estimated body measurements being predicted from one or more of the input variables, the arrangement further comprising means for deriving clothing pattern data from the estimated body measurements, wherein the further input variable is a representation of the age of the customer, and wherein the input variables comprise only the age, weight, height and collar size of the customer.