DISTRIBUTED MATCHING SYSTEM FOR COMPARING GARMENT INFORMATION AND BUYER INFORMATION EMBEDDED IN OBJECT METADATA AT DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING LOCATIONS
An online garment selection and acquisition system comprises at least a server computer system that receives requests from client computer systems and/or client devices and responds to those requests, wherein the server computer system is configured to be able to access a database system for reading data therefrom in order to provide matching of garments and consumers according to a set of computer-readable rules and an application that applies those rules. The application can execute in a distributed manner, such as where the garment data is embedded in images or objects that are presented to the consumer (or consumer representative), such as being shown as web pages, and the application executes at a computer presenting the web page and/or the consumer computer.
1 . An online garment selection and acquisition system comprising at least a server computer system that receives requests from client computer systems and/or client devices and responds to those requests, wherein the server computer system is configured to be able to access a database system for reading data therefrom, online garment selection and acquisition system comprising:
a database system that includes a database server and a database for an inventory of garments, wherein the database includes a plurality of type parameters for garments in the inventory and at least at least one fit, shape, preference or style parameter, and wherein the database is distributed over a plurality of database servers;
a network interconnecting the plurality of database servers to the client computer systems and/or devices;
program code for generating metadata for garments to be embedded in images of the garments;
program code for obtaining consumer data including one or more of consumer body shape, consumer proportion, consumer preferences;
program code for filtering the collection of garments according to one or more of consumer preference, consumer size, consumer measurements, consumer shape and parameters of the garments in the database to form a personalized selection of garments; and
program code for generating a presentation of at least one image of a garment to allow for a consumer or consumer representative using the client computer systems and/or client devices to select and/or acquire the garment, wherein the image includes metadata usable for the program code for filtering.
2 . The online garment selection and acquisition system of claim 1 , wherein the database of garments comprises clothing, shoes, accessories and/or other fashion items that can be grouped into outfits.
3 . The online garment selection and acquisition system of claim 1 , wherein the client computer systems comprise one or more of in-store kiosks, home computers, general purpose computers, handheld devices, laptop computers, cellular telephones, PDAs, and/or netbook computers.
4 . The online garment selection and acquisition system of claim 1 , wherein the program code for filtering is program code for filtering based on calculations that estimate a degree to which a garment or accessory might fit or flatter the consumer, given the characterization of the garment or accessory and given the consumer body shape, measurements and/or fit preferences.
5 . The online garment selection and acquisition system of claim 1 , further comprising a display device as part of the client computer systems, wherein the display device is configured to display the generated presentation and the client system is configured to accept navigation commands from the consumer or consumer representative and to accept input commands from the consumer or consumer representative that signal selection requests.