Remote Online Shopping System with 360-Degree Streaming and Spherical Display

In traditional on-site shopping, communication with sales staff and interactions with friends or family members play a major role in selecting products and sometimes lead to unexpected discoveries. On the other hand, in online shopping, the lack of communication often leads consumers to make purchases with a predetermined mindset. This is due to the tendency to select the same products or rely on recommendation algorithms, which reduce opportunity for spontaneous product discovery. To address this, we proposes a remote online shopping interface that offers an experience similar to shopping in physical stores, even for online users, by utilizing 360-degree streaming and a spherical display located in the store. We implemented a prototype and present a demonstration. The demonstration shows that the 360-degree footage displayed on the spherical screen made it easier for sales staff to understand the customer’s focus and intent.