[ibimage==34933==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-center]
It might sound useful, fascinating, horrific, or a composite of the three: there’s an app that allows you to map your body in 3D on your smartphone. It’s called Nettelo, and it hopes to play an instrumental role in the fashion, fitness, and tech industries.
The process is relatively simple: a user takes two pictures of herself using the app on her iPhone: the first standing in a frontal pose with arms outstretched at a 45-degree angle, the second from the side (adhering to a somewhat extensive list of specifications). Based on the bodily proportions in these photos, Nettelo generates and stores in the cloud a 3D image of her body (think of a more accurately built, minimally clothed Sims character) which she can view, zoom in on, and rotate from any angle.
In addition to the multi-angled view, Nettelo provides bodily measurements (waist, bust, inseam) and sizing advice designed to give a user more sartorial accuracy. The app also includes a fitness tracking tool, in which a user looking to gain weight, lose weight, or otherwise change her bodily composition can set measurement goals, see how her body has changed, and compare her current body to the one she aspires to have. Should they feel so intrepid, users can also share their body images with friends and medical professionals.
Founder Yuri Kizimovich said the app was created to capitalize on the commercial potential of 3D technology. “Building on 3D consumer digital information products and services will impact...how we buy products in fashion, fitness, health and other industries. The centerpiece of these products [is] our body, as these products are made to be worn and/or function on our body.”
[ibimage==34935==Original==none==self==ibimage_align-center]
Though it’s a B2C app, Kizimovich asserts that Nettelo is a potential asset for businesses. By giving users a more accurate physical sense of their bodies and the products with which they can adorn them, he holds, Nettelo provides an opportunity for clothing, fitness, and tech companies to customize their products.
“[Nettelo] is a catalyst enabling business: making and selling wearable products, the ability to offer highly-customized products, knowing one’s customers uniquely and being able to advertise more relevantly,” he said. “Our mobile app is free now, but we think we may introduce an app with more specialized features, specifically targeting small businesses. We intend to target the clothing industry: especially e-commerce and the fast growing made to measure sector, digital health that’s part of wearable customized products, and of course fitness.”
To date, Nettelo employs seven, with a French subsidiary supplementing its LA headquarters. The startup has raised approximately $1 million in seed funding, with plans to raise a Series A round in the near future.
