Demo: Fitting Reality tries a new virtual dressing room on for size

Fitting Reality is working to bring new standards and practices to virtual fitting rooms, and today it is launching Virtual Interactive Podium (VIPodium), a new augmented reality fitting room.

“The attempt of replacing retail shopping with the virtual world is not new,” says Fitting Reality CEO Inga Nakhmanson. “The previous attempts were limited to an entertaining and fun-providing function. This is important,  but we believe those technologies also offer retailers a behind-the-scenes benefit.”

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The VIPodium offers an in-store and at-home augmented reality shopping system that detects the physical outlines of a person and fits the garment to his or her body. Customers can see themselves onscreen with a 3D copy of a garment and can then share outfits with their social networks for real-time feedback.

Nakhmanson compares VIPodium to existing search engines, which are designed to help people access information with just a few clicks. The goal of VIPodium is to assist shoppers by providing access to an unlimited number of garments. VIPodium helps shoppers sort through millions of garments with just a few clicks. Then they can try them on.

Competitors include Zugara (a Demo company in 2010) and FaceCake. Fitting Reality distinguishes the VIPodium product by offering a 360-degree view of virtual garments, a 3D interface to sort through garments, social sharing tools and a “Brand Communication” tool that enables apparel retailers to get detailed information on the wants and the needs of shoppers on an aggregate and individual level.

Founded in 2011 and biased in Moscow, Russia, VIPodium has 20 employees and three owners: Inga Nakhmanson, co-founder and CEO; Boris Onikul, co-founder; and Lev Razumovsky, co-founder. They have received less than $100,000 in funding to date.

VIPodium is one of 80 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Fall 2011 event taking place this week in Silicon Valley. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

Top photo: Fitting Reality CEO Inga Nakhmanson onstage at Demo Fall 2011. Photo courtesy Demo Conference/Flickr.