ARShopping: In-Store Shopping Decision Support Through Augmented Reality and Immersive Visualization

Abstract: Online shopping gives customers boundless options to choose from, backed by extensive product details and customer reviews, all from the comfort of home; yet, no amount of detailed, online information can outweigh the instant gratification and hands-on understanding of a product that is provided by physical stores. However, making purchasing decisions in physical stores can be challenging due to a large number of similar alternatives and limited accessibility of the relevant product information (e.g., features, ratings, and reviews). In this work, we present ARShopping: a web-based prototype to visually communicate detailed product information from an online setting on portable smart devices (e.g., phones, tablets, glasses), within the physical space at the point of purchase. This prototype uses augmented reality (AR) to identify products and display detailed information to help consumers make purchasing decisions that fulfill their needs while decreasing the decision-making time. In particular, we use a data fusion algorithm to improve the precision of the product detection; we then integrate AR visualizations into the scene to facilitate comparisons across multiple products and features. We designed our prototype based on interviews with 14 participants to better understand the utility and ease of use of the prototype.