The BBC reports that a British company has developed a 'smart' changing room that tells clothes shoppers what not to wear.

The QinetiQ system uses 3D digital cameras which not only take pictures but also record precise measurements from more than 1,000 points on an object.

Installed in a changing room, an array of about six cameras would feed data to a computer running software that matches particular styles to individual body shapes.

The inventors say it could provide advice like "your bum looks too big in this" - or words to that effect.

QinetiQ, formerly the Defence Evaluation Research Agency, developed the system as a spin off from work on weapon range finders and is now in talks with leading clothes retailers.

Spokesman Douglas Millard said, much like What Not To Wear style gurus Trinny and Susannah, it could advise which clothes suit your body and which are unflattering.

Mr Millard said: "You can can choose to ignore the information if you want, but it could be of help to those of us with hopeless fashion sense."

One big attraction of the system is its cheapness. If mass produced, the cameras could cost as little as £30 each.

In contrast, existing laser scanning equipment that does a similar job costs more than £20,000. It is also bulky, slow, and only able to manage objects of limited size.

QinetiQ says another possible application could be security and access control - looking for minute details that distinguish a person's facial features. It could even tell the difference between a pair of "identical" twins.

Technology tells us which colours do not suit us, which cars we should avoid, men and women we should not be dating,  which foods aren't good for us, which animals we should have as pets, which objects we should not have around us ...

What next .... 

The air we breathe, the water we drink, communities we belong to, where we should work ?

What happened to decisions based on good old-fashioned mirrors, spontaneity, intuition, sensory perception, feelings & sentiment?

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