Enhancing customers’ knowledge and decision making using augmented reality

Augmented reality has seen massive success in recent years as it provides an opportunity for a seamless and rich user interaction with the real world. Recent studies have shown augmented and virtual reality can play a significant role in the future of retail. Innovations can help customers make good choices and can improve their confidence and satisfaction in their purchasing decisions. It also reduces the physical interaction between customers and store especially during lockdowns (i.e. during pandemics such as COVID-19). This paper presents ARiel, an augmented reality application for mobile commerce (m-commerce), enabling customers to turn catalogued items into 3D animated models. It was developed using Google’s ARCore platform. Customers can try on products such as jewellery or watches using their mobile phones without being physically present in the retail shop. Data about their purchasing decisions are logged in a database. We describe the process of designing and implementing ARiel and the outcome of an evaluation using Nielsen’s ten usability heuristics. We also outline our plan for future work

Layer-by-layer gelatin/chitosan polyelectrolyte coated nanoparticles on Ti implants for prevention of implant-associated infections

Gelatin nanoparticles (Gb-NP) and layer-by-layer (LBL) coated NPs were developed to modify a Ti substrate surface to prevent implant-associated infections. Vancomycin (Van) was loaded into these materials to obtain GbV-NP and LBL-GbV-NP. The size of the GbV-NP (277.4±1.4 nm) was smaller than that of LBL-GbV-NP (710.2±4.6 nm) but both had a spherical shape. These coated materials showed no cytotoxicity and facilitated better cell proliferation by osteoblast-like cells compared to the bare Ti. This was probably due to the roughness of the coated NP that enhanced cell attachement to the surface. Both coated materials showed antibacterial activity against S. aureus. The release of Van from GbV-NP was higher from LBL-GbV-NP and this corresponded to their antibacterial activity. Furthermore the release profile of Van showed a sustained release. Thus both materials should be able to prolong the protection of implant-associated infections to the bone