Lenovo $150K winner AR app: Trying on clothes, shoes virtually

Lenovo awards a Chinese startup (“Big Footprint”) the $150,000 first-place prize in an augmented reality hackathon for an app that uses AR to help fit customers for clothing and shoes via a smartphone.

The news comes as Lenovo steps up exploration of both AR and virtual reality. An AR smartphone is in development and Lenovo is stepping up AR as well as VR investments, an exec said in China.

Lenovo is scheduled to introduce the Phab2 Pro, an AR phone equipped with Google “Tango” technology next month.

While engineers at Lenovo’s operations in Morrisville have spearheaded the phab (bigger than a smartphone, smaller than a table) device, a look at possible applications was generated at the AR “Tango Hackathon” this week in China. Lenovo put on the event as part of its $500 million startup fund known as Lenovo Accelerator.

VIDEO: Watch how Tango works at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UW-hlcpOSQ

Dajiaoguai, or Big Footprint, took home the first prize for the app.

China Daily says the app “can scan the body and feet of a person and quickly generate a model that can try on clothes and shoes in the virtual world.”

Lenovo has talked at length about how the Tango technology has the potential to, for example, help home owners select furniture and place it “virtually” in a room.

Cindy Liang, the general manager of the Lenovo Accelerator, told China Daily that Lenovo believes AR and VR will be the next big wave in computing.

“They will have wide applications not only in daily life but in industrial scenarios,” she said.

Liang also said Lenovo has an AR smartphone in development that will be introduced next year.

Other developments include AR-equipped “smart glasses” and tablets.