To stand out in today’s oversaturated market, brands must create a shopping experience that is intuitive, personalized, and fun. When it comes to eyewear, creating a virtual try-on is the best way to get there.

Cosium’s virtual eyewear try-on gives power to the customer. With a simple webcam, they can explore glasses and discover their perfect fit anytime, anywhere.

Creating a virtual eyewear try-on

Cosium has been a trusted provider of clinical and retail software for optical and audiology professionals since 2003. Today, their software supports more than 14,000 businesses in 26 countries.

As a company focused on innovation, Cosium was one of the early adopters of AR in the industry. Already in 2016, Cosium was set on creating an omnichannel eyewear shopping experience that would meet evolving customer needs and expectations.

To get there, they envisioned a realistic and intuitive virtual eyewear try-on solution.

While looking for the right technology to power the try-on, FaceTrack immediately stood out as the only widely compatible face-tracking solution.

“The robustness of the tracking and its multiplatform nature make visage|SDK the ideal choice when building products that will scale over time, both in complexity and in supported platforms.”

– Duane Bekaert, Software Engineer at Cosium

FaceTrack works on all major platforms and embedded systems, including HTML5, and doesn’t rely on any third-party plugins. It’s quick and lightweight and works with any standard camera. This ensures a great user experience for everyone, regardless of their browser and device.

Furthermore, FaceTrack does not require any form of calibration. It automatically detects and tracks faces. Users can start exploring products immediately without any unnecessary steps or wait times.

For each detected face, visage|SDK tracks 99 facial points in real time and creates a precise 3D head model. That is why the glasses always fit the face perfectly, even if the customer’s head is moving.

Glasses are adjusted to their real-life dimensions based on interpupillary distance (IPD). The software automatically uses the average IPD value of 65 mm. However, users can also enter their specific IPD and enjoy the most accurate virtual representation of the desired frames.

Reliable face-tracking performance and flexibility helped Cosium create Virtual Try-on and Frame Advisor – an extraordinary AR experience for both web and point-of-sale systems.

Personalizing the eyewear shopping experience

Cosium’s Virtual Try-On and Frame Advisor turns customers’ screens into virtual mirrors. They can try on an unlimited number of glasses with any standard camera.

As soon as a customer is detected, realistic 3D frames are instantly positioned on their face. Reliable face tracking allows them to explore the fit from various angles as if they were in front of a real mirror. Customers can also visualize various lens options, such as lenses with anti-reflective coating, photochromic lenses, and more.

Such a personalized and interactive experience makes product browsing easy and fun, and brings customers closer to making a purchase.

Although it was initially designed to boost online sales, the virtual try-on can also be used at the point of sale, supported by professional staff.

While shopping on-site, the customers get to explore even those products that may currently be out-of-stock at that location. It also speeds up the try-on process – there’s no need to take glasses off the racks; all it takes to try them on is a single click.

As more and more customers shop online, virtual try-on solutions are becoming a crucial/decisive step in the buying journey. From realistic AR that delights customers to valuable insights that help businesses thrive, virtual try-on offers unlimited potential for brands that want to stand out on the market.

“Besides providing the most visibly important aspect of the virtual try-on experience, visage|SDK also allows us to analyze the end users to offer recommendation services. In the future, we plan to leverage the liveness aspects of visage|SDK, deepen user analysis processes, improve our rendering capabilities, and target more verticals through native apps.”

– Duane Bekaert, Software Engineer at Cosium

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