At the Cebit trade show recently held, German retail giant Metro AG gave shoppers a peek into the future of department stores. They showed a prototype of a smart changing room, which enables shoppers to see what various pieces of clothing look like on a person without actually having to put them on.

The system used RFID tags to identify items of clothing, and when placed near a large display, sensors read the tags and show an image of a model wearing an outfit made up of those items.

While the system currently only shows clothes on models, future versions will scan the shopper’s body and display exactly what the outfit will look like on the shopper.

I envision using the system to sift through multiple possibilities, and then finally trying on just the few that I’ve narrowed down, just to be sure it really looks the way I expect it to. I can’t wait for this smart gadget to become a reality.