Augmented-Reality-Assisted Comparison of Physical Products

Abstract

Augmented reality technology has experienced great improvement in recent years and it has been successfully applied to industry and entertainment settings. However, its application in everyday contexts such as shopping is still very limited. One of the requirements to seamlessly incorporate augmented reality into everyday tasks is to find intuitive, natural methods to make use of it. Due to the inherent capabilities of augmented reality to work as a visual aid to explore and extend the knowledge a user has of the surroundings, this paper proposes the combination of AR technology and product advisors in a novel approach for product comparison. The user's awareness of the differences between multiple physically present objects is enhanced through virtual augmentations, supporting an intuitive way of comparing two or more products while shopping. To assess the validity of the concept, a prototype for an AR-based shopping assistant for comparing vacuum cleaners has been implemented and evaluated in a user study, testing different methods of visual comparison and interaction.