VRAR in service with digital retail

“I created OASIS because I felt uncomfortable in the real world. Didn't know how to get along with people. I've been afraid all my life. Until I realized that the end was near. It was only then that I realized that while reality can be brutal and scary, it remains the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real. Understand?". “Yes,” I replied, “I think I understand.” "Good," he winked. Then don't repeat my mistake. Don't lock yourself up here."
Ernest Kline.

1. Introduction

There comes a time when the humanities, just like business, exist in such close symbiosis with the world of information technology that linguists begin to write code, and programmers, administrators and engineers begin to engage in digital marketing and sales. And sooner or later this symbiosis will absorb all currently known technologies. Today I propose to talk about how VR and AR tools have become powerful weapons in the digital retail arsenal.

But first, I think it would be reasonable to make sure that we understand all the concepts in the same language.

2. Terms and Definitions.

The definition of digital retail will be the most unambiguous. These are all sales and transactions made using digital commerce or by offering services and goods using the digital space. Probably, almost everyone reading this article at least once ordered goods from China or the USA, so this is digital retail.
Reality is more difficult. Over time, the concept of virtual reality (virtual reality - hereinafter referred to as VR) or artificial reality has changed. Now, VR is a world created entirely by technical means, transmitted to a person by influencing his senses: touch, smell, sight, hearing, etc. With the growth of the level of technology, reality began to model not only the environment, but also the reactions to the user's interaction with reality.
Augmented reality (augmented realit - hereinafter referred to as AR), in turn, is the result of introducing any other data into the data perception field, influencing certain sense organs in order to supplement information about the environment. Everyone probably likes to turn on some track in the headphones during a long walk that matches the mood. So the music in this case complements the audio information contained in reality.
That is, with the virtualization of reality, a new space is created, and with the addition, imaginary objects are added to reality.

3. When did you start changing reality?

Any advanced technology differs little from magic, we all remember, right? So people began to “conjure” in the direction of VR and AR more than 100 years before the launch of the first computer. The progenitor of all virtual reality glasses was Charles Winston's stereoscopic glasses of the 1837 model. Two identical flat images were placed in the device at different angles, and the human brain perceived this as a three-dimensional static picture.
Time passed and 120 years later, Sensorama was created - a device that allows you to see a dynamic three-dimensional image.

Then the industry moved forward and literally in 50 years mobile platforms, mobile glasses and helmets, controllers and special programs that were written to simulate reality appeared.
It wasn't until the 2010s that VR was widely talked about in the gaming industry. Before that, there were also games, but not so common. The main users of this technology in the middle of the XNUMXth century were the guys from NASA, who trained astronauts, arranged exams for knowledge of manned and unmanned modules, etc.
Unfortunately, augmented reality does not have such a speed of technology development and visual objects seem ridiculous and strongly "cartoonish".

4. Digital retail and VRAR. Background, cases, ways of development.

Okay, back to 2019. Technologies are marching widely, capturing different areas, including retail. Sometimes a seemingly simple business venture can lead to big financial problems.
Consider an example, you are the owner of a furniture store, you have a warehouse outside the city, to which suppliers bring finished furniture. To start a business, you decide to open several points of sale. But it is expensive to bring copies of the sold pieces of furniture to each point, and renting large rooms is also not exactly cheap, especially at the start. But in a small office, you can offer a person in the catalog to select the samples they are interested in, and then load a pre-prepared scale model into AR glasses, drive with the client to his house or office and “try on” a wardrobe or sofa to a real room. It's interesting and it's the future. I agree that 100% of buyers will not be able to agree with such ideas, because many people want to “see with their hands”.
Those. as prerequisites on the part of business, unfortunately, one can name not so much a thirst for technology as a desire to save money. And if we are not talking about a closet, but, for example, about a ready-made interior solution or repair, then apply wallpaper textures to the walls, arrange furniture from the catalog, choose carpets and look after curtains without leaving home ... it's interesting, right?
Looking for a dress but don't have time to try it on? Does your car need a new body kit? All of these can be selected using the technologies mentioned above. However, while the range of goods sold using AR is limited. It is difficult and probably impossible to sell food products, raw materials for production and much more with a change in reality.
However, digital retail is not only goods, but, as I said earlier, services. When choosing a tour of interesting places, it would be interesting to see these places before buying tickets, and if the buyer is a person with advanced requirements (disabilities), then virtual reality can sometimes be the only way to see the Chinese Wall or Victoria Falls. After all, this is the sale of a service, which means retail. The service is provided by means of high technologies, which means retail is digital.

5. Development?

Of course, there is development in these technologies in terms of sales. This development from the technology side looks like MixedReality, when imaginary objects will be indistinguishable from real ones, and from the business side - the development of new sales methods.
The future is not far off when to visit the store you will only need to pick up a virtual reality helmet and put on tactile gloves on your hands. The room will immediately change and you will find yourself in the middle of the counters and virtual buyers scurrying back and forth.
What do you think, will we build the Oasis after all? (ps This is an easter egg)

Source: habr.com