FitBot robot mannequin gets bodacious

Va-va voom! The FitBot just got busty.

The shape-shifting robot mannequin, previously only available with a male physique, now comes in female form too. Score one for robot gender equality.

The robot is part of a virtual fitting room service for online retailers created by Estonian start-up Fits.me. Customers shopping for clothes at a participating site enter their measurements online (height, chest, arm length, torso, and so on), then see photos of a real-life mannequin shaped just like them (only headless) "trying on" items in various sizes and styles.

To be clear, shoppers are not watching the robot try on clothes in real time. When a retailer signs up for the service, Fits.me snaps pictures of the bot trying on the garb in the shop's inventory and stores those photos in an online database that shoppers access later. (Watch the vid below for a safe-for-work demonstration of the naked lady FitBot trying on clothing.)

The FitBot aims to tackle online fashion retail's biggest hurdles--the lack of a fitting room and resulting hassle of having to return ill-fitting clothes. Instead of just eyeballing clothes online and guessing which size would work best, shoppers can get a more accurate sense of whether a garment will look fab or get them nominated for "What Not to Wear."

Created using scientific algorithms based on 3D human body scans, the female FitBot robot was more complex to model than its male counterpart due to female shape and size variations, Fits.me said. It adds that the female FitBot can adjust to hundreds of thousands of female body shapes--or 85 percent of woman who shop online today.

The female FitBot mannequin will do her thing at British retailer Hawes & Curtis, where the male FitBot mannequin is already expanding and contracting its metallic frame and has helped H&C increase sales to new customers by 57 percent, according to the company.