Application of interactive genetic algorithm to fashion design

In general, computer-aided design support systems have got an approach of t raditional artificial intelligence, which statistically analyzes data such as the behavior of designer, to extract formal design behavior. This approa ch, however, can neither deal with continuous change of fashion nor reflect personal taste well, as it just depends on large amount of collected data. To overcome this sort of problem interactive genetic algorithm (IGA) has b een recently proposed, as a new trend of evolutionary computation. IGA uses human's response as fitness value when the fitness function cannot be expl icitly defined. This enables IGA to be applied to artistic domains, and we propose a fashion design aid system using it. Unlike the previous works tha t attempt to model the dress design by several spline curves, the proposed system is based on a new encoding scheme that practically describes a dress with three parts: body and neck, sleeve, and skirt. By incorporating the d omain-specific knowledge into the genotype, we could develop a more realist ic design aid system for women's dress. We have implemented the system with OpenGL and VRML to enhance the system interface. The experiments with seve ral human subjects show that the IGA approach to dress design aid system is promising. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.