Electronics company Flower Robotics Inc. has developed Palette, a mechanized female mannequin that can copy the movements of models and pose for passing customers.
Designer Tatsuya Matsui said that, “Mannequins have been static, but this will pose for the nearest person by sensing his or her position. It makes the product the mannequin wears look more attractive, increasing consumers’ appetite to buy.â€
But selling clothes isn’t the mannequin’s only job. The use of motion-capture technology to mimic the movements of supermodels will inevitably draw people to Palette, as will the ability to pose for individual customers. But she (perhaps inevitably) also has more covert capabilities.
It is planned to program the mannequin to judge the age and sex of passing shoppers, and also identify the bags they are carrying. This information will then be passed on to the store for marketing purposes.
When it goes on sale later this year, two models will be available. One with a whole body except legs, and another with just an upper torso to display jewelry. Matsui however hopes to eventually produce a mannequin with legs, plus male and child models. All of them presumably equipped with marketing technology.
