A number of retail brands and companies have begun to use augmented reality (AR) in various ways, from advertising to product demonstration. A number of analysts have predicted that AR will begin to change the retail landscape. Perhaps in recognition of this, PayPal have filed a patents for an AR shopping experience.
The recently approved patent is titled ‘Augmented Reality View of Product Instructions’. As reported by CNBC, the description portrays a customer using AR smartglasses linked to PayPal, which allow customers to purchase items by simply viewing a product and then selecting from a menu.
For example, a customer could be out and about and sees something like a lamp or pair of shoes, that they would like to buy. By simply looking at the item and selecting ‘Buy now’ the customer would be able to select and buy the requested product and have it delivered to their home, entirely from within the AR environment.
“In a system for presenting augmented reality views of product instructions a method may include receiving a request from a client device, the request including image data,” PayPal writes in the patent. “The method may further include identifying an object in the image data and generating an augmented reality view of the identified object. The method may further include transmitting the augmented reality view to the client device.”
Though currently entirely theoretical, the idea behind the patent is to compress the online shopping process into something that might be even simpler and easier than Amazon’s famous ‘One-click ordering’ process.
Research shows that PayPal is behind over 60% of online transactions in the world, and in 2017 reported over $13 billion (USD) in revenue. Technology such as that suggested in the patent could drive even more transactions towards PayPal.
For future coverage on AR technology is being utilised, keep checking back with VRFocus.
via Mint VR