Amazon Offers Gift Cards in Exchange for Body Scans

Project is for internal research only, those who sign up are told
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted May 23, 2019 6:03 PM CDT
Have a Digital Body Scan, Get an Amazon Gift Card
   (Getty/NatalyaBurova)

Amazon is enlisting participants for an image study in New York. In exchange for undergoing a 30-minute digital 3D scan of their bodies, Mashable reports, volunteers receive a $25 gift card. Photos, 3D scans, and videos of study participants, both clothed and in "form-fitting" swimwear, are taken, per the signup page—as are height and weight measurements. Amazon says the data is for internal product research only. The research is being conducted through Body Labs, a 3D imaging company bought by Amazon.

Body Labs says its AI technology can create a realistic 3D model of a person's body from an image, right down to the wrinkles, and can add motion to the models to show how fabrics move. The startup mostly was working with clothing brands before Amazon bought it in 2017, per Mashable. The company is a spinoff of a professor's effort to help Virginia state police solve a slaying in 2002; the project was able to determine the killer's height and other information. Amazon's scanning project runs through June 30, the Verge reports. (Amazon's facial recognition software has hit bumps.)

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