We’ve already heard that Amazon is looking into how VR can enhance its video offerings, but the company might be using the tech for other means too.
New York Times cites sources “with knowledge of discussions” in saying that the online retailing giant is looking to creating physical stores to sell furniture and home appliances. The company apparently hopes to capture a market that doesn’t want to order items like couches and fridges online without actually seeing them in person. But here’s the interesting bit: the company is reportedly looking into how VR and augmented reality (AR) could help it achieve that goal.
The article’s mention of VR and AR is brief, but Amazon is apparently considering how this tech could lets users see their potential purchases in their own homes, helping them to decide if they fit and look the part. It wasn’t clarified in the article but, to us this sounds like it could be more useful actually at home than in a physical store, where the eventual arrival of mixed reality headsets could let us place virtual furniture in spots before the real thing goes there.
The VR aspect, on the other hand, we could see working with physical store locations. Perhaps customers could upload a 3D map of their room, bring it into a store and then plug it into a VR kiosk and put on a Vive or Rift to start placing items around the room. That’s all just ideas on our part, but there’s certainly a lot of potential here, and it’s something we’ve seen plenty of companies already experiment with.
Video and stores aren’t the only areas Amazon may be looking to utilize VR in; the company already has its own game development engine, Lumberyard, which has its own suite of VR development options.
