You can easily access Amazon’s product reviews on a smartphone. But what if the same reviews could automatically pop up from your hands as you walk through a retail store?
The idea may sound weird, but it’s actually the basis for a patent Amazon recently received in the US. The concept proposes using augmented reality effects (like in Pokemon Go) via smartphones, smart glasses and even smart contact lenses to render and display the virtual product reviews on your limbs.
The idea to display AR-based advertising isn’t new. However, the patent shows Amazon is at least tinkering with the concept as a way to help customers make purchases at a physical store. The filing imagines a scenario where a person is wearing a pair of augmented reality glasses while visiting a brick and mortar store. As the user moves around, the AR glasses could overlay a list of all the products available in a retail aisle.
(Credit: Amazon)
However, Amazon’s patent says this approach can be problematic. Imagine a bunch of brand names popping up in your AR glasses. Suddenly, your view would get crowded with floating distractions, diverting you away from the real product items on the store aisles.
(Credit: Amazon)
The other issue is what if the user wants to access more details about a certain product, such as the customer reviews? The AR glasses could display a floating button or interface in your field of view. But the moment you try to touch it, your hands and fingers will simply pass through it, making you lose a sense of realism.
“It can be difficult for devices to determine when a gesture is moving to the top item on the list versus attempting to scroll down on the list,” the patent adds. “One approach would be to have the user make different gestures for the different intended actions, but the need for the user to learn a multitude of different gestures can degrade the overall user experience.”
So to solve all the problems, Amazon proposes anchoring the AR effects to a physical object on you at all times: Your limbs. The AR glasses could easily display the product names and customer reviews over your hands and palms, without crowding out the rest of the view.
(Credit: Amazon)
If you want to access a certain item, you could then press the specific area of your limb where the option is displayed. “The meeting of physical and virtual provides tactile feedback, which gives an engaging experience for the user, and the use of the user's own body provides a convenient way to interact with virtual elements,” the patent says, later adding: “The user can also move the hand closer or further away as needed to increase or decrease the size of the content displayed.”
The same approach could also make accessing more information easy via simple hand gestures. For instance, a product’s name, how many stars it received, and its price could be shown on the back side of a user’s hand. When the hand is rotated to the right, the AR effects would render a new view, which will expand the customers’ comments on the product.
“The AR content can be projected to conform to the surface, similar to how a tattoo might appear, or at least to wrap around the surface like a sleeve,” the patent goes on to add. “A user might be able to select or configure aspects of the appearance, such as a size, color, or font of the content as projected.”
The technology makes sense when you take into account Amazon’s expanding presence in the retail and grocery space. An AR-powered experience would certainly set its stores apart from the competition.
That all said, AR and smart glasses have yet to take off, so we’re still likely years —if not decades— away from the company’s patent materializing in the real world. Amazon originally filed the patent back in 2018, and last week the US Patent and Trademark Office granted it.
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