Overview and Exploitation of Haptic Tele-Weight Device in Virtual Shopping Stores

In view of the problem of e-commerce scams and the absence of haptic interaction, this research aims to introduce and create a tele-weight device for e-commerce shopping in smart cities. The objective is to use the proposed prototype to provide a brief overview of the possible technological advancements. When the tele-weight device is affixed over the head-mounted display, it allows the user to feel the item’s weight while shopping in the virtual store. Addressing the problem of having no physical interaction between the user (player) and a series game scene in virtual reality (VR) headsets, this research approach focuses on creating a prototype device that has two parts, a sending part and a receiving part. The sending part measures the weight of the object and transmits it over the cellular network to the receiver side. The virtual store user at the receiving side can thus realize the weight of the ordered object. The findings from this work include a visual display of the item’s weight to the virtual store e-commerce user. By introducing sustainability, this haptic technology-assisted technique can help the customer realize the weight of an object and thus have a better immersive experience. In the device, the load cell measures the weight of the object and amplifies it using the HX711 amplifier. However, some delay in the demonstration of the weight was observed during experimentation, and this indirectly altered the performance of the system. One set of the device is sited at the virtual store user premises while the sending end of the device is positioned at the warehouse. The sending end hardware includes an Arduino Uno device, an HX711 amplifier chip to amplify the weight from the load cell, and a cellular module (Sim900A chip-based) to transmit the weight in the form of an encoded message. The receiving end hardware includes a cellular module and an actuator involving a motor gear arrangement to demonstrate the weight of the object. Combining the fields of e-commerce, embedded systems, VR, and haptic sensing, this research can help create a more secure marketplace to attain a higher level of customer satisfaction.

Do Augmented and Virtual Reality Technologies Increase Consumers’ Purchase Intentions? The Role of Cognitive Elaboration and Shopping Goals

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the “virtual try-on” technology (AR) and the “3D virtual store” (VR) incorporated in an apparel retail website on purchase intentions. This study highlights the mediating role of cognitive elaboration in the process through which these technologies influence purchase intentions, and examines the way consumers’ shopping goals (searching vs. browsing) interact with the website technology and influence their responses. The two experiments demonstrated that, for browsers, the website with VR was more effective in increasing purchase intentions than were the website with AR or a regular website with no technology, while for searchers, both the website with AR and the website with VR were more effective than was a regular website. In addition, cognitive elaboration mediated the interaction between a technology and a shopping goal on purchase intentions for browsers, while such a mediating effect was not found in searchers.