Virtual Supermarket

Project Title

Virtual Supermarket

Project Area of Specialization Augmented and Virtual RealityProject Summary

“VR Supermarket” is an application which is reachable and usable for every type of users who wants to shop their grocery items being in their comfort. Our target audience is customers of supermarket and those individuals who don’t have much time to spend in their grocery shopping. This application will provide them all facts and figures to manage their budget easily and efficiently. For a better user experience we are using Virtual Reality. Now-a-days people want the best of everything and they also want to save their time and money. For supermarket owners, they hire man power to complete the tasks and spent large amount of money to pay their salaries. Our application is the solution for them too because through this they don’t need to hire many people for making the business running.

Shifting business in a virtual application is a profitable step that should be taken by every business man today but it also binds repute with that particular business, a fame and quality that are known to every person that uses the application. Building virtual reality application is not common today but it is increasing frequently. It can play a vital role in the productivity of the business.

 A customer requires 4 to 5 hours of time for grocery shopping which is not quite a productive task to perform. So, through this application we are trying to minimize this time to 15 to 20 minutes. Customers can directly buy the groceries at their comfort level. Through this application customer can buy products just by some clicks. We are giving the solution to budget overrun problem too by ensuring that customer will see the total bill on top. Admin rights are included for security purpose so that only admin can have access to the database for changing the specifications of the products. Keeping all that in mind we are providing the customers a similar to physical virtual environment where they can shop.

Hence, VR Supermarket is an android based application, which is very effective for a supermarket customer.

Project Objectives

The goal of this project is basically try to make the user’s grocery shopping experience convenient and better. This project will provide the retailers the opportunity to transform how people shop. Our VR supermarket will resemble a small supermarket having products placed on the racks and the user can pick, hold and add the products in their cart and remove them as well. This application using VR technology stand to eliminate customer pain points, elevates customer service, and creates a differentiated, personalized customer experience. In my opinion, the successful implementation of VR supermarket has the potential to change the way of shopping in future.

The main objectives of this project are:

1. Develop an Android application which uses VR technology and provide the user a 3D experience for shopping with their smart phones. We are developing the application for Smartphone because in Pakistan only few people have VR headsets but large number of people has the smart phones so our application could be used by a large group of people.
2. Change the way people used shop
3. It provides ease and saves time which is and will be most precious thing for large group of people.
4. Provide a user-friendly graphical user interface for shopping from anywhere at any time and make them delivered to their place at their time.

The most important objective of this application is to provide its clients or users a fully functional supermarket environment where they can shop in shortest amount of time. All the grocery products are placed on racks like they are placed in supermarket and the users can pick and drop them in their cart or place them back to racks from their cart.

Secondly, as we know that VR is a new technology and it is grooming day by day. In business world every business man wants to facilitate customers easily at their doorstep and for this purpose they ask programmers and coders to make applications for them. That’s why we are making this application which will benefit both the customer and the business owners as well.

Our main objective is to make the system dynamic rathe than static and for this purpose the most significant feature of this project will be the product management which will be performed by the administrator. The admin will be responsible for adding new products, editing previous products or removing any product.

The admin can add new racks and remove previous racks from the system as well.

Project Implementation Method

The Implementation Phase will include the following aspects:

Develop the Virtual Environment

Based on our design, we will use Unity to develop the virtual environment but we will use the android platform to run our application.

Build the database

We will use mySQL to build our Virtual Supermarket database for our products present in our supermarket.

Develop the Interaction with Products

Based on our design, we will use C# and PHP scripts to interact with the products placed on the racks in our supermarket. After that the users can hold and release the products where ever they want.

Build the user interface

Based on our application, we will use oculus rift framework and utilities to show hands of the user which then helps in grabbing the products.

The project will be implemented using Unity 3D, Cinema 4D, Maya 3D, Adobe Photoshop, C# scripts, PHP scripts etc.

The Internal interfaces of the project are:

Internal Interfaces:

Database:

• Stores data
• Provides access to data
• Updates information

The Application:

• Provides access to the database
• Authenticates users
• Processes information

The external interfaces of the project are:

External Interfaces:

Smart Phones:

• Serve as a medium of accessing the application and the database.

VR Headsets:

• Serve as a medium of controlling the sensitivity of the user. Using head movement the user can look around in virtual world created by us in Unity 3D.

VR Controller:

• Serve as a medium of controlling the movement of the user. Using controller the user can move around in virtual world created by us in Unity 3D.

Computer Hardware and Peripheral Equipment to be used:

• Personal Computers (i.e. CPUs, monitors, keyboards, and mouse).
• Smart phones
• VR Box
• VR Controller

Benefits of the Project

A virtual supermarket that has various products as per user’s needs, the problem we have seen in grocery shopping is that it takes much time and many people got frustrated by the crowd present in supermarkets especially on weekends. After shopping, the people had to stand in large queues for checkout which is also a frustrating and time consuming process for many people. In our opinion the other problem we have seen is that many times people buy extra items that could make their budget out and when they checkout they realized that they got over budget and they waste other’s time by removing their items to maintain the budget

To solve these problems we will make a 3D virtual supermarket environment from that users can easily buy products from anywhere at any place, watch them in 3D environment and also add/remove product in/from their cart and can see total amount of their items which will help them to be in budget all the time.

After checkout the system will generate an invoice which is shown to the user for recheck and if user continue the app will ask for address where it to be dispatch or the delivery time.

Business owners hire man power to complete the tasks and spent large amount of money to pay their salaries. Our application is the solution for them too because through this application they don’t need to hire many people for making the business running.

Shifting business in a virtual application is a profitable step that should be taken by every business man today but it also binds repute with that particular business, a fame and quality that are known to every person that uses the application. Building virtual reality application is not common today but it is increasing frequently. It can play a vital role in the productivity of the business

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

• The VR Supermarket will be providing each customer the facility to register and login into the system.
• The user first try to login into the system. The system will recognize the user and then authenticate.
• After logging in, the users can walk through the entire supermarket and can pick any product placed in racks and add them to his cart or he can remove a product placed in his cart.
• The customer can see their bill on top and can check out any time.
• After shopping, the user can check out.
• After checkout the system will generate an invoice for the cutomer to look into the products purchased.
• After checking out the product will be delivered to the address provided by the customer.
• The payment method would be COD (Cash on Delivery).
• The admin can manage the entire supermarket like adding new products, remove them and can edit them as well etc.
• The delivery system will manage the orders placed by the customers and dispatch them for delivery.

Final Deliverable of the Project Software SystemType of Industry IT Technologies Augmented & Virtual RealitySustainable Development Goals Industry, Innovation and InfrastructureRequired Resources

Item Name	Type	No. of Units	Per Unit Cost (in Rs)	Total (in Rs)
			Total in (Rs)	55000
Gear VR with controller	Equipment	1	20000	20000
Unity Assets	Equipment	10	3000	30000
Printing Reports	Miscellaneous	5	600	3000
Other Overheads	Miscellaneous	1	2000	2000