2D Virtual Trial Room using Augmented Reality

Real Time Virtual Trial Room application using Augmented Reality is used in any shopping centers, malls, shops.Itallows a user to try on virtual clothes. Trying clothes in a malls are usually time consuming. Our aim is to build an interactive and highly realistic virtual system where the customers can choose many different clothes and proceed to simulate on users. Here, this paper gives user friendly interface which auto-detect human face and merge the chosen clothes on the users by using webcam as an input device and displays on the screen. Our motivation is to increase time efficiency and improve the accessibility of clothes try on by creating virtual dressing room environment

Virtual 3D Environments: Implementations of 3D Environments for Virtual Tours and Online Communication

Virtual tours can be found over the web in many different scenarios: touring a campus, displaying consumer products, documenting a trip. These tours provide information using images, movies and sound to provide users with navigation in such a way that they user feels they are experiencing the information in real time. These tours are usually driven by mouse clicks, whether it is clicking on an image gallery, movie gallery or panning around a panoramic image. While virtual tours are interactive in those examples, there is a lack of interaction be tween the users viewing the tour. Online communication has become a substitution for the tradition interaction between people due to its ease of accessibility. These range from customizable avatars and custom messages to real time movement within an environment. This gives the user the ability to make a virtual persona; a way to experience a realistic interaction online. I will try to create a virtual tour that expands on previous virtual tour concepts and provide users with a virtual representation of an environment with different forms of interaction and communication. My thesis is an exploration in designing a completely web based interactive tour with the purpose of teaching the user about the Computer Graphics Design program at the Rochester Institute of Technology while providing the user with a virtual re-creation of the program’s computer lab in hopes of bringing a more interactive approach to virtual tours. Divided into 3 sections, this thesis provides the user the option to choose their avatar, chat with other users and explore the program’s lab to learn about the program

Cooperation of a museum institution and students in creating virtual exhibitions using the MOVIO tool

MOVIO is one of the creative tools from AthenaPlus network. Its purpose is to facilitate the creation of virtual exhibitions. MOVIO is very similar to other content management systems (CMS) but it focuses more on creating interactive multimedia page contents, such as digital photo galleries and exhibitions, games, interactive timelines, and digital storytellers. MOVIO tool provides and also shows how its different options can be easily and efficiently used by users who do not have any specific IT knowledge such as advanced programming or web design techniques, to create and show different types of virtual exhibitions. Virtual exhibition “For Better or Worse… / Wedding Fashion from 1865 till Present” is a virtual extension of a physical exhibition held in the Museum of Arts and Crafts in Zagreb. Virtual exhibition catalogue was developed using the Timeline tool as a page type which proved to be very effective in presenting the exhibition conceptualized chronologically. The Timeline allows easy browsing through virtual objects within the timeframe we have previously determined. The other virtual exhibition, “Herman Bollé – Builder of the Croatian Capital” is also a virtual extension of the real exhibition held in the Museum of Arts and Crafts. Using the MOVIO tool and information from the catalogue of the real exhibition, the virtual exhibition was made making the most MOVIO options. The FFZG team used the following page types Home Page, Page, Google Map, Storyteller and Timeline. Furthermore, Bolle’s virtual exhibition has a unique content as compared to other exhibitions. It is an interactive game (among few simple puzzle and memory games) made in the Unity game engine which allows players to try to place many of Bollé’s architecture designs and buildings on the appropriate location on the map. Tools like MOVIO show that technology has evolved and has become simplified for end users so that they can easily create virtual exhibitions production of which was complex or costly several years ago

Embodiment in 3D virtual retail environments: exploring perceptions of the virtual shopping experience

The customer can now easily create, and customize, their own personal three dimensional (3D) virtual bodies in a variety of virtual environments; could you, by becoming a virtual body, actually enhance your online shopping and buying experiences or, would this potentially inhibit the pure visceral pleasure of retail therapy? "Second Life allows you to be a celebrity in your own lunchtime, .…you can design the body you've always wanted, and indulge your fashionista fetish for very little money. You can be the most attractive, best-dressed version of yourself you can imagine." This paper investigates online shopping in Second Life, through the experience of being avatars. We will discuss the possibilities of using avatars as brand new consumer identities for personalised and customised fashion shopping within the 3D multi user virtual environment, and question the influences and effects of these developments on the traditional high street shopping trip. The hyper un-realistic and non-sensory interface of online shopping for clothes has been hotly debated over the last decade; through the media, the industry and most importantly by the buying public. The customer’s inability to try on and experience the product has been the main inhibitor to shopping on-line, and the high levels of product returns in home shopping dramatically reflect this reality. Faster broadband connections and improved 2D web sites are making clothes shopping on the web more accessible, and for important customer groups, such as young professional females, and plus-size teenagers, virtual 3D technologies offer freedom of choice in any location. Retailers are now confidently providing different shopping experiences by combining 2D and 3D interactive visualisation technologies with advanced marketing techniques, to create virtual retail environments that attempt to actualise the true essence of shopping; by browsing, socialising, trying-on before buying and, in a new twist, leaving the store proudly wearing the item just purchased. American Apparel, Bershka, L’Oreal, Calvin Klein, Reebok, Sears, Nike and Adidas are pioneering virtual mega stores, and all offer newly innovative, and alternative shopping experiences inside 3D multi user virtual environments. An experiential and exploratory approach will be used to investigate fashion brands, and their virtual 3D stores in Second Life. As 3D avatars, we will record a range of customer perceptions and attempt to map their shopping patterns in this massively popular virtual world. The qualitative data gathered will inform discussions about the value of the virtual shopping experience for the customer and the retailer. Conclusions will also question the possibility of using avatars in a virtual shopping environment to acquire accurate body specifications for better fit and the collection of personal details for use in the future development of alternative shopping experiences

An observational study of children interacting with an augmented story book

We present findings of an observational study investigating how young children interact with augmented reality story books. Children aged between 6 and 7 read and interacted with one of two story books aimed at early literacy education. The books pages were augmented using animated virtual 3D characters, sound, and interactive tasks. Introducing novel media to young children requires system and story designers to consider not only technological issues but also questions arising from story design and the design of interactive sequences. We discuss findings of our study and implications regarding the implementation of augmented story books

The Impact of Experiential Augmented Reality Applications on Fashion Purchase Intention

Utilizing the stimulus-organism-response (SOR) model, the purpose of this study is to examine the effects of augmented reality (AR) (specifically augmentation) on consumers’ affective and behavioral response and to assess whether consumers’ hedonic motivation for shopping moderates this relationship. An experiment using the manipulation of AR and no AR was conducted with 162 participants aged between 18 and 35. Participants were recruited through snowball sampling and randomly assigned to the control or stimulus group. The hypothesized associations were analyzed using linear regression with bootstrapping. The paper demonstrates the benefit of using an experiential AR retail application (app) to positively impact purchase intention. The results show this effect is mediated by positive affective response. Furthermore, hedonic shopping motivation moderates the relationship between augmentation and the positive affective response. Because of the chosen research approach, the results may lack generalizability to other forms of augmentation. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to test the proposed model using different types of AR stimuli. Furthermore, replication of the study with other populations would increase the generalizability of the findings. Results of this study provide a valuable reference for retailers of the benefits of using AR when attempting to optimize experiential value in online environments. The study contributes to experiential retail and consumer purchase behavior research by deepening the conceptualization of the impact of experiential technologies, more specifically AR apps, by considering the role of hedonic shopping motivations.Peer reviewe

A proposed framework of an interactive semi-virtual environment for enhanced education of children with autism spectrum disorders

Education of people with special needs has recently been considered as a key element in the field of medical education. Recent development in the area of information and communication technologies may enable development of collaborative interactive environments which facilitate early stage education and provide specialists with robust tools indicating the person's autism spectrum disorder level. Towards the goal of establishing an enhanced learning environment for children with autism this paper attempts to provide a framework of a semi-controlled real-world environment used for the daily education of an autistic person according to the scenarios selected by the specialists. The proposed framework employs both real-world objects and virtual environments equipped with humanoids able to provide emotional feedback and to demonstrate empathy. Potential examples and usage scenarios for such environments are also described