Get ready for a game-changing update from Google! The tech giant has just announced that it’s adding virtual try-ons to Search, making buying clothes online easier than ever before.
Unlike other brands that superimpose digital versions of outfits on virtual avatars, Google is using generative AI to produce highly detailed portrayals of clothing on real models with different body shapes and sizes. This means that shoppers in the U.S. can now see how clothes will look on real people before making a purchase.
“Our new generative AI model can take just one clothing image and accurately reflect how it would drape, fold, cling, stretch, and form wrinkles and shadows on a diverse set of real models in various poses. We selected people ranging in sizes XXS-4XL representing different skin tones, body shapes, ethnicities and hair types,” said Lilian Rincon, senior director of product management at Google.
So, how is generative AI enabling virtual try-ons?
Google’s new diffusion-based AI model uses a process called diffusion to train the model by adding extra pixels to an image until it becomes unrecognizable and then reversing (or denoising) it until the original image is reconstructed in perfect quality. The model learns from this and gradually starts generating new, high-quality images from random, noised images.
The model was trained on images of people representing different body shapes, sizes, etc. from Google’s Shopping Graph, a comprehensive dataset of products and sellers. Using this data and the diffusion technique, the model learned to render outfits on the images of different people standing in different poses, whether sideways or forward.
Whenever a user exploring an outfit on Search hits the try-on button, they can select a model with a similar body shape and size and see how the outfit would fit them. The garment and model image chosen act as the input data.
It’s important to note that the try-on feature works only for women’s tops from brands across Google at the moment. However, as the training data grows and the model expands, it will cover more brands and items. Google says virtual try-on for men will launch later this year.
