New Interactive Video Service Lets Users Try On Glasses in Real Time via Webcam

Glasses Direct, a UK-based online retailer of prescription glasses, has launched an interactive video service that it bills as allowing visitors to its site to "try glasses on live in real time using your Webcam." Dubbed "Video Mirror," the service requires users to download a 55.4Mb application to their desktop (note: the app, which can be downloaded at glassesdirect.co.uk/video-mirror, currently supports Windows XP and Vista). It then enables them to see real-time video of themselves wearing the glasses they are interested in (according to Glasses Direct, the service currently allows users to try on a selection of the company's most popular frames), more or less as if they were looking in a mirror in a bricks-and-mortar glasses store.

The service is based on technology for superimposing 3D objects onto photos and video that was developed by a French company called FittingBox, which claims to have a technology partnership in place with Microsoft.