For those who are on the lookout for what’s next in ticking and fabric, artificial intelligence might be useful in predicting trends, according to a Nov. 13, 2017, article on CNNMoney.com.

Ranjitha Kuman, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her team are using algorithms to identify and follow fashion trendsetters on Twitter.

“We’re now tracking these influencers and the content they post to model microtrends and predict their lifetime,” she says.

Over at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Kavita Bala, a professor in the computer science department, also is analyzing social media platforms, looking for fashion trends. “For example, her team can plot how often people are wearing a certain clothing item over time for a particular city in the world,” the article says.

Technology is not just for tracking trends. Early adopters of virtual or augmented reality are changing the way people shop—especially in the e-commerce realm.

Obsess, a startup based in New York, builds virtual reality shopping platforms so customers don’t have to go into a store to shop.

Obsess partnered with Vera Bradley last summer and rolled out VR experiences in 10 stores. “While wearing a Google Daydream VR headset, shoppers can move a bed around in VR, and see Vera Bradley comforters, quilts and pillows up close in a virtual store,” the article says.

“If you think about e-commerce, every brand and every product essentially looks the same online,” says Neha Singh, Obsess founder and chief executive officer. They are shown as “white background product shots, and that doesn’t encapsulate what the brand is about. We are building the technology that will enable any brand and retailer to create discovery-based shopping experiences.”

  artificial intelligence, bed, bedding, cnn money, fabric, mattress, sleep, ticking, trends