Photos: Tweet Mirror comes to aid of UK shoppers

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Tweet Mirror, Tweet Mirror on the wall, who is the fairest tweeter of them all?

Having heard about a magical Tweet Mirror that can somehow help indecisive shoppers choose outfits more quickly, the powers at silicon.com Towers dispatched reporter Shelley Portet to find out what the fuss was all about.

London's Westfield shopping centre is running a trial of the UK's first Tweet Mirror - a full-length video touchscreen with built-in camera that sends a photo of you in your outfit to Twitter, Facebook or your email address.

Published: April 4, 2011 -- 12:34 GMT (05:34 PDT)
Photo by: Emma Bayly/silicon.com

Caption by: Shelley Portet
To use the Tweet Mirror, shoppers must first create an account with a personalised username and password. Photos taken using the camera attached to the mirror are then stored in the account.

Published: April 4, 2011 -- 12:34 GMT (05:34 PDT)
Photo by: Emma Bayly/silicon.com

Caption by: Shelley Portet
From their personalised account, shoppers can choose which images they want to post direct to Twitter or Facebook.

Published: April 4, 2011 -- 12:34 GMT (05:34 PDT)
Photo by: Emma Bayly/silicon.com

Caption by: Shelley Portet
To share the photos with their followers, shoppers have to retweet the twitpic from the Tweet Mirror Twitter account.

Tweets are composed via a touchscreen Qwerty keyboard.

Published: April 4, 2011 -- 12:34 GMT (05:34 PDT)
Photo by: Emma Bayly/silicon.com

Caption by: Shelley Portet
Since twitpics are first sent to the Tweet Mirror account, every picture posted to Twitter can be viewed by anyone, not just your Twitter followers.

As if posing in front of your fellow shoppers wasn't embarrassing enough…

Published: April 4, 2011 -- 12:34 GMT (05:34 PDT)
Photo by: Emma Bayly/silicon.com

Caption by: Shelley Portet
Nedap, the Dutch company behind Tweet Mirror, hopes retailers will use the mirror to take advantage of the growing popularity of social networks.

Each photo taken using the Tweet Mirror has the retailer's logo on it and retailers can choose to include a message with information about promotions or new products.

Published: April 4, 2011 -- 12:34 GMT (05:34 PDT)
Photo by: Emma Bayly/silicon.com

Caption by: Shelley Portet
According to Nedap, the Tweet Mirror provides a bridge between shopping in stores and shopping online as users can also send the pictures to their email address for future reference.

The email sent from the Tweet Mirror can be customised by retailers to provide links to their website, meaning indecisive shoppers can choose to order online something they tried on in the store earlier - with a photo reminder of how the item looked.

Published: April 4, 2011 -- 12:34 GMT (05:34 PDT)
Photo by: Emma Bayly/silicon.com

Caption by: Shelley Portet
Tweet Mirrors are located in stores across Europe, including outlets in Germany and Holland - where the Tweet Mirror was first introduced.

Wouter Kolk, CEO of Dutch fashion house WE Fashion, said in a statement: "Visitors really enjoy taking photos of themselves and asking for their friends' opinions. We know the mirror is very popular among our younger target groups in particular."

Although there are no permanent Tweet Mirrors in the UK, a Nedap spokesman told silicon.com the company is currently in talks with several big UK retailers.

Published: April 4, 2011 -- 12:34 GMT (05:34 PDT)
Photo by: Emma Bayly/silicon.com

Caption by: Shelley Portet