Virtual Shopping Simulator

VSS - Virtual Shopping SImulator
Your very own Shopping Center
and your personal robot partner!

Inspiration💡

Our inspiration is two pronged. We believe in both customers and small business owners.

Customers 👴🧓

Instacart provides a way to shop groceries conveniently, but lacks the familiarity of browsing a grocery store. We believe that people who do not have access to grocery stores due to lack of mobility can find ease in shopping at home in a virtual environment. Users will be able to interact with products, like checking quality, size, etc., before purchasing it.

Small Business Owners 🏪

Small business owners can also benefit from this product by not having to purchase or lease real estate, often the largest expense of a business owner. Instead, business owners can open a virtual shop using only server costs at a fraction of real estate costs. By having a virtual shop, we offer business owners a way to showcase their products outside of the tradition web and mobile platforms. However, owners can opt to design their virtual shop however they like.

What it does ⚙️

By trading an app UI for virtual reality, we aim to bring a convenient way to shop at a store remotely. Shopping is done completely virtual through a VR set or a phone VR kit. We provide interactions with grocery items and a simple checkout system.

How we built it 🛠

We used Unity to build a prototype grocery store for navigation and to integrate VR 🥽 for user interactions with the grocery store. We also used Figma for creating mockups on this DevPost.

Challenges we ran into ⚔️

Setting up github
Create github branch
Finding models
Setting up VR on Unity is difficult due to different laptop OS’s. The VR headset would work on some but not others.

Accomplishments 🏆

Setting up the game was itself an accomplishment

What’s Next ⏭

We hope to also extend the simulator to incorporate challenges. Fastest checkout, memorization challenges, etc. Maybe even an esports league for grocery shopping. The possibilities are endless!