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Case Study

AR Smart Mirror

Real-time interactive AR virtual try-on system designed for retail fashion.

The Problem

In-store clothing fitting is slow, creates long queues in fitting rooms, and increases garment wear. Retailers need an instant, hygienic, and engaging digital mirror that lets shoppers visualize outfits without undressing.

My Role

Built solo with AI-assisted development — computer vision pipeline design, MediaPipe pose detection integration, Canvas AR overlay engine, FastAPI backend services, Docker multi-container topology, and Cloudflare Zero Trust ingress.

Highlights

  • Sub-30ms real-time body tracking and landmark extraction using MediaPipe Pose
  • Dynamic Canvas AR garment warping and affine transformation for realistic clothing drape
  • FastAPI backend with PostgreSQL catalog and Redis session pub/sub synchronization
  • Mobile controller pairing allowing customers to browse catalogs and trigger try-ons from their smartphones
  • Production-grade Docker Compose architecture with Nginx reverse proxy and Cloudflare Tunnel

Stack

Python 3.11FastAPIMediaPipeHTML5 CanvasPostgreSQL 15Redis 7DockerNginx

Constraints

  • Hard real-time latency target (<33ms per frame / 30 FPS) to avoid motion sickness and visual lag.
  • Zero customer biometric persistence — video feeds must process in memory without saving raw footage to disk.
  • Compatibility with standard consumer hardware (e.g. RTX 3060) without requiring specialized depth cameras.

System Architecture

Capture & Client
Webcam Feed
MediaPipe Pose (Client A)
Mobile Controller (Client B)
Edge & Ingress
Cloudflare Tunnel
Nginx Reverse Proxy
SSL Termination
Application Services
FastAPI Gateway (:8000)
Garment Overlay Service
WebSocket Pub/Sub
Data & Storage
PostgreSQL 15 (Catalog/Users)
Redis 7 (Session Sync)
Local Volume Storage
Telemetry
Prometheus
Grafana Monitoring (:3000)

Key Trade-offs

The decisions worth defending — what I chose, what I turned down, and why.

Pose tracking execution model

Chose

Client-side MediaPipe Pose on Canvas API with GPU acceleration

Rejected

Server-side video streaming and frame-by-frame inference

Server inference introduces network jitter, high bandwidth overhead, and privacy concerns streaming raw camera feeds over the network.

Garment deformation approach

Chose

Real-time 2D affine mesh deformation keyed to skeletal anchor landmarks

Rejected

Full 3D physics-based volumetric cloth simulation

3D cloth simulation cannot sustain 30+ FPS on edge kiosk hardware; 2D mesh triangulation provides fluid response with low computational cost.

Remote store interconnect

Chose

Cloudflare Tunnel over outbound HTTPS

Rejected

Direct port forwarding and dynamic DNS on store routers

Retail store Wi-Fi and ISP firewalls prevent inbound port forwarding; Cloudflare Tunnels punch through NAT securely without public IPs.

What I'd Do Differently

An honest retrospective — the stuff I'd change with more time, more users, or a second pass.

  1. 1Implement WebGPU shaders for cloth lighting and shadow blending to improve realism under dynamic store lighting.
  2. 2Add an offline fallback queue for store analytics so telemetry buffers locally during internet interruptions.
  3. 3Optimize landmark smoothing filters (OneEuro filter) to eliminate micro-jitter when shoppers stand at edge distances.

Computer Vision & Pose Tracking Shell

Benchmark the real-time AR try-on pipeline (status, camera init, pose detect, mesh align -shirt, latency bench).

icelegends-interactive-shell ~ [armirror]
History: ↑ / ↓
cv-engine@ar-mirror:~/pipeline$

Technical Deep-Dive

Architecture, specifications, and implementation details.

AR Smart Mirror — Project Documentation

#Overview

Real-time Augmented Reality try-on system for retail clothing stores. Customers see themselves wearing any garment — instantly, without undressing.

#Stack

  • Frontend: HTML5 · CSS3 · Vanilla JS · Canvas API · MediaPipe Pose
  • Backend: Python 3.11 · FastAPI · Docker Desktop · Docker Compose
  • Database: PostgreSQL 15 · Redis 7
  • Infrastructure: Nginx · Cloudflare Tunnel · Grafana · Prometheus

#Product

AR Smart Mirror — B2B white-label AR try-on system for clothing stores across Romania.

#Developer

Popa Matei — Ice Legends Enterprises alexmatei2330@gmail.com — +40 730 155 075

#Target Clients

Any clothing store in Romania: LPP Group (Reserved, Cropp, House, Mohito, Sinsay) Inditex (Zara, Pull&Bear, Bershka, Stradivarius) H&M Group · Nike · Adidas · Intersport · C&A · Takko

#Document Index

FileDescription
01_SPEC_MasterFull system specification
02_API_ContractsREST API endpoint definitions
03_System_ArchitectureArchitecture diagrams and layer overview
04_PostgreSQL_Schema.sqlDatabase DDL — tables, indexes, constraints
05_Docker_Compose_Configdocker-compose.yml and service definitions
06_Cloudflare_Tunnel_SetupRemote access via any WiFi
07_Frontend_ArchitectureHTML/JS/Canvas/MediaPipe structure
08_MediaPipe_IntegrationPose detection implementation details
09_Garment_Processing_PipelineHow garments are overlaid in real time
10_Security_ModelJWT, rate limiting, Cloudflare Zero Trust
11_Performance_BenchmarksSLAs, targets, optimization strategies
12_Development_Roadmap14-week phased delivery plan
13_Cost_AnalysisHardware tiers, software costs, ROI
14_Production_RunbooksDay-to-day operational procedures
15_Disaster_Recovery_PlaybookFailure scenarios and recovery steps
16_Staff_Operations_GuideStore staff daily guide
17_Customer_User_GuideIn-store customer instructions
18_V1.0_Release_NotesFirst release changelog
ci/Shell scripts: health-check, release-gate, DB restore

#Quick Start

git clone https://github.com/yourname/ar-mirror.git
cd ar-mirror
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d
# Open: http://localhost
~ End of Document ~