Although there are many personal products that one might want to have customized or made as a one-of-a kind product tailored to a particular user, a key one of these personal products is eyewear. While the invention will be described in connection with creating producing and delivering custom eyewear, it will be appreciated that the subject invention involves the creation, production and delivering of a wide variety of products that relate to the anatomical or physical characteristics of the user as well as the users preferences for particular product. That having been said, it will be appreciated that describing the invention in terms of the creation, production and delivery of eyewear carries a large number of similarities to the creation, production and delivering of a wide variety of products customized to the features and desires of the user. What follows therefore describes invention in terms of eyewear, it being understood that the invention is not so limited.
Purchasing eyewear, while a necessity for many people, presents many challenges for consumers. For traditional in-store purchases, consumers are faced with limited in-store selection, which often requires visiting multiple stores. Yet users must explore an unmanageable array of options to find a compromise between fit, style, color, shape, price, etc. Eyewear is most commonly mass-produced, with a particular style available in one or two generic colors and sizes. Users faces are unique enough that a face can be used as a primary form of identification, yet they must choose between products made for a generic faces that are not their own. It is very difficult for users to find the one perfect pair of glasses for their unique taste, facial anatomy, and needs. They also often have difficulty visualizing what they try on because they need an optical prescription in the first place.
Recent entrants have explored the online marketplace for eyewear in an attempt to address some of these issues. However, none of the commercially available eyewear selection systems attempt to provide a completely unique one-up, from-scratch product that is customized to the user's anatomical features, as well as the user's likes and dislikes. There is therefore a need to provide a user with a completely customizable one up product that does not rely on only off-the-shelf previously designed mass-produced or stock components. The underlying form, size, shape, or other properties of the key components must be customized to provide a truly unique and custom product for the user. Once having been able to obtain the user's image data, it is then desirable to analyze and make critical measurements of the user's face, determine user preference, and on-demand manufacture a custom piece of eyewear.
It is of course desirable for the process to be as automatic as possible and be one that returns to the user the most perfect one-of-a-kind piece of eyewear that he or she has ever seen. If this can be done in a relatively swift fashion, the user is provided with a quick unique piece of eyewear is that manufactured on demand.
More particularly, the online market is rapidly growing, though there still persist numerous problems for consumers. Consumers have poor ability to try-on glasses while shopping online. Online sites have more selection than in stores, but often the consumer is faced with endless pages of glasses from which to choose. The quality of the glasses is often unknown, and consumers are even more concerned about their new glasses fitting correctly and being comfortable since they cannot physically hold or see them until they purchase.
A clear need exists for a shopping experience that enables a unique made-to-order product with high quality materials and design, at a price that users believe is fair and affordable for a made from scratch unique one up item, and an easier and more custom experience to creating and purchasing the perfect product for the individual, in this case a pair of glasses.
The concept of virtually trying on articles of clothing, including eyewear, has been discussed in the prior art for a number of years. All of the below listed patents relate to preview systems, but none relate to providing a from scratch product, relying instead on prefabricated components for a particular item.
For instance, Spackova in U.S. Pat. No. 4,539,585 describes a computer system to view articles of clothing on a person in an image. Mori, U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,260, and Ninomiya, et. al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,641, describe computer systems to virtually overlay eyewear on a person in an image. Jordan, U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,570, describes a system requiring a user to visit a store to virtually try on glasses with a realistic rendering of how their eyes will appear behind the glasses. Norton, U.S. Pat. No. 5,592,248, describes various methods of overlaying virtual images of eyewear on an image of a person's face to preview the appearance. Faye, U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,201, describes a system for users to virtually try on a variety of eyeglasses on their personal computer by connecting to an online store, selecting a subset of eyewear based on user preferences and sizes, and allowing user to purchase the frames. Gao, U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,650, describes another system for capturing an image and displaying eyewear superimposed on the user's image, including scaling of the image and detection of pupils to center the frames. Saigo, U.S. Pat. No. 6,142,628, describes another try-on system that also includes lens selection and display of lens shape in addition to frames. Waupotitsh, U.S. Pat. No. 7,016,824, describes an eyewear preview system that used a 3D face model provided by the user to overlay eyewear models on. Abitbol, U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,127, describes an eyewear try-on system that requires a wide-view camera to obtain a 3D model. Foley, U.S. Pat. No. 6,535,223, describes a system to determine pupillary distance based on an image of a person's face including an object of a known scale, as well as superimposing preview eyewear and allowing orders to be placed.
All of the previously described prior art explore various ways of previewing eyewear superimposed over an image of a person, but they are not on-demand systems that create, assemble and deliver a unique one-of-a-kind product from scratch. Nor do they permit previewing new custom eyewear that has not previously been mass-produced. Nor do they use the user-specific information to make eyewear better for the user. In short, they do not customize, adapt, modify, implement, or create new products such as eyewear using an on-demand system providing one-of-a-kind products from scratch. Moreover, all of the above techniques rely on previewing eyewear superimposed on the image of a person.
On the other hand, Fujie, U.S. Pat. No. 5,576,778, describes a system to design eyewear based on facial dimensions of a person. It is noted that Fujie is limited to controlling various anchor points on a Bezier curve that is extracted from facial image data to achieve a design. However, the specification of these anchor points or the control thereof by an individual is technical and difficult, made more so because these points are controlled using the user's words to control shape. Moreover, Fujie is limited to specifically sending polar coordinates based on Bezier curves to machine tools. This is much too complicated for a user, and the user's words alone may not be suitable as the only control.
Soatto, U.S. Pat. No. 6,944,327, describes a system to customize eyewear based on preview images of the user's face. However, Soatto does not take into account automatically-generated user preferences. Soatto does not describe an on-demand end-to-end process and does not describe a full system that can actually manufacture eyewear. Moreover, the Soatto method is limited to specific cameras, only a frontal face image and using a method to generate a two dimensional template of the face for sizing. Limiting the preview to only a front image prevents sizing information that is critical around the temples for ensuring a good preview and comfort for the user. Moreover, most computer systems do not have multi-lens cameras conveniently available. Note, adjustment is done only through control points while maintaining a constant perimeter rim size, which is of limited application—different users will surely require different sizes. It will be appreciated that methods describing a 3D model of the face require two or more cameras not normally available to most users.
Izumitani, U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,418, describes a system to make eyewear to order based on image previews superimposed over the user's face. However this patent only discusses changing lens shape, frame types, frame parts, and colors. It does not explain changing frame shape, but only replacing parts or changing a frame style from rimless to rimmed, which is very limiting when one wants to more fully customize eyewear. Moreover this patent does not describe automatic algorithms that size a frame to a user's face or aid in the selection of the best frames. Instead it uses a manual system like a custom order catalogue with many interchangeable parts to choose from, which could be overwhelming or too complicated for an eyewear consumer. Additionally, the preview system described only shows front and side portraits of the user with eyewear, with no interactive views, 3D views, or video, and it does not measure the dimensions of a face automatically. Further, a user is required to assist or enter information to obtain proper measurements. Finally, while the patent describes the manufacturing of eyewear, it does not clearly describe how made-to-order eyewear could actually be produced.
Warden, U.S. Pat. No. 7,845,797, describes a method for manufacturing custom eyewear that uses a front and side image in a system with multiple cameras and lighting sources. The method requires the capture of images with and without eyewear worn on the user's face before it determines the best lens position. This method is quite limited, as it requires that the user already physically possesses the eyewear he desires, and it assumes the user simply wishes to refine the lens placement in a subsequent pair of frames. In short, this is not an on-demand end-to-end system that starts from scratch to then create, design, assemble and deliver the custom product.
To satisfy the needs of a typical consumer, an easy-to-use method and system that can provide a confident and enjoyable shopping experience are necessary. The system must be capable of working with the computer hardware and image capturing equipment available to typical consumer, which limits the minimum hardware to a single-lens digital camera, stand alone or embedded in a computer system, without depth or distance-measuring capability. The embodiments of this invention describe both systems to use single camera hardware and also systems that benefit from multi-camera or depth camera technology, in the event these technologies become more pervasive in a form used by consumers or in the event that a computer system is installed in a retail or office location.
The prior art describes technologies that are designed mostly for the aesthetic preview of the eyewear on a user. A need for a more quantitative analysis exists to enable a better experience, custom fit, custom style, automated adjustment and recommendations, and the overall ability to make an eyewear design fit with each user's unique anatomy and taste.
Often pupillary distance is the only measurement taken to ensure the proper fit of eyewear, and that measurement alone is not sufficient to ensure a proper physical fitting of custom eyewear. More information is especially needed for advanced optics, such as progressive or digitally-compensated or freeform lenses. But regardless of the type and quantity of facial measurements needed to craft custom eyewear, the user should not be required to manually measure them. Most target users are not technologically savvy beyond following easy prompts in a web browser. A consumer needs an experience that is easier than picking and choosing parts and pieces or custom drawing every detail, especially when using only 2-D images, as the prior art has described. The method and system must enable easy customization, including automation of sizing and styles if the user desires automated recommendations. An average user should be able to obtain any eyewear design they desire and an excellent fit by having a design custom-fitted to his face, seeing a preview in a “what you see is what you get” display, and being able to make changes and see the effect on his face and fit.
Finally, the method and system must result in a manufacturable product, such that it can be produced and sold at a reasonable cost to the user with an acceptable delivery time. It will be appreciated that a great preview system is not useful if the product being previewed is not ultimately manufacturable at a cost and in a time frame that is satisfactory to the user ordering the product.
Thus there is a compelling need for a method and system to allow greater and more personalized customization of lenses and frames, more accurate modeling and preview, more automated or assisted eyewear selection and customization, more detailed measurements, and methods to produce customized eyewear efficiently and economically to fulfill users' orders.