Some people love going shopping, some people hate it. For whatever reason, some people find it easier to use the internet to shop, but internet shopping comes with certain shortcomings. You can’t pick up and closely examine a product, or check a clothing size. A new Kickstarter project is seeking to use virtual reality (VR) to improve the online shopping experience.
Simply titled ‘Virtual Reality Shopping’ the application would allow users to walk through a virtual department store, able to examine, pick up and feel the items on sale using a combination of haptic data gloves and a specialised VR headset. Project creator Jamie England eventually wants to place cameras in stores that let customers do a virtual walk through of a store in real-time. England works in the grocery industry, and is confident of getting stores on board with the project.
The project is seeking $50,000 (USD) of funding, with the Kickstarter due to end of 16th September, 2017. There is only one main funding tier, that of $500 which gets the backer a copy of the first version of the software and the custom VR goggles. The project creator has stated that if a large pledge amount comes in, they may consider partnerships. Further information can be found on the Kickstarter page.
If funding is successful, delivery of the product is estimated to begin sometime in August, 2018. Project creator England says that challenges to the project include lack of delivery drivers and potential lack of support from the grocery industry, though remains confident that the future of commerce is in VR. There is no indication on if the software is currently in development, however, or what phase the software and VR headset for this project has reached.
VRFocus will bring you further updates on this project and other VR-related Kickstarter projects.