Intel Labs and the Fashion Research Institute (FRI) have entered into a new research collaboration that will help fashion designers make more efficient usage of virtual worlds.
The Fashion Research Institute is providing visual content to aid Intel’s 3D Internet research, while Intel supplies the technology. Shenlei Winker, CEO of FRI, explains in his blog that “this collaboration is currently scheduled to run for a year, during which time FRI will provide increasingly complex, highly detailed, large scale (beautiful) designs which will be showcased in Science Sim with hosting and hardware provided by Intel Corporation.”
FRI is interested in virtual worlds because the fashion industry, which uses soft consumer goods, does not use 3D computer aided design tools used in the durable goods industry. Designing clothing and fashion accessories, real-life 3D objects, are more accurately displayed with 3D sketches rather than 2D sketches. The advantage of using a 3D environment, such as a virtual world, in design concepts will reduce errors when replicating, manufacturing, and producing the design.
Furthermore, fashion designers and manufacturers can greatly reduce environmental waste as well as time by designing and re-creating prototypes in virtual worlds. One example is that designs can be reviewed simultaneously by designers and manufactures on different sides of the globe.