A major South Korean carrier unveils a service to make the dream of virtual shopping a reality

Online shopping has been a revelation for many, mainly as it allows users to order and obtain the stuff they want without even leaving the house. However, it can have its drawbacks, such as the hassle of returning items that turn out not to match their descriptions, fail to fit into the intended spaces or be unsatisfactory in other ways.

However, augmented reality (AR) could be an adroit (as well as distinctly Back to the Future-esque) solution to these problems. As it happens, the South Korean carrier LG U+ agrees. It has kicked the (possibly almost inevitable) AR consumerism revolution off with its U+ AR Shopping service. This app is compatible with the channels GS Shopping and Home&Shopping in its home country.

U+ AR Shopping is based on eyecandylab's augmen.tv live content platform. It enables a user to hold their phone up to the TV when an enabled show is on. This turns an image of a selected product into a 3D AR object, and also brings up more information on said item.

Therefore, the customer can find out all they want to know about their potential purchase, such as its size in real life, its functions and features and how it would look when standing in the TV room. The item could also be ordered directly from the phone during a given show, which also results in the application of a discount for using the new AR app (correct at time of writing).

eyecandylab claims that they are in talks with media organizations in Germany to bring this augmen.tv platform to this market. It also asserts that recent in-house research has shown an active interest in the same among US consumers. In this region, users are mainly interested in AR shopping due to the scope it offers for expanded and improved product information.