System and method to provide a virtual store-front
The various embodiments herein provide a system and method that enables a buyer to have a conversation about the purchase of a non-commoditized product, where the product is complicated and has several configurations to choose when the buyer tries to make a purchase. The embodiments herein enable the sales of products in a virtual shopping-space. The embodiments enable the buyer to interact with the product in a 3D virtual space and choose a preferred configuration using one of many controllers present in the system. The buyer also receives advice and recommendation from the virtual avatar about the available options or explanation about the benefits of one product or configuration over the other. Once the recommendation is received, the user is enabled to provide feedback either through voice commands or through a feedback controller about the recommendation made by the system.
1 . A system for providing a three-dimensional virtual environment configured in a digital virtual three-dimensional space that enables a real-time interaction between a human buyer and a three-dimensional virtual store-front, the system comprising:
a virtual store front that comprises a three-dimensional virtual environment configured in a computing module, and wherein the virtual store front further comprises a digital display device, a camera module, a virtual avatar, a configuration options module and a virtual product module;
a product preference engine that comprises an affinity engine and a plurality of databases including an interaction database, a purchase database, a feedback database, a user database and a product database, wherein the product preference engine is configured to prioritize virtual products for rendering based on accumulated user preference data;
a plurality of controllers comprising a voice controller, a product configuration controller, a position controller and a feedback controller, wherein the feedback controller is configured to receive explicit preference signals from the human user regarding rendered virtual products in audio, visual, haptic and textual means, communicate those preference signals to the product preference engine to infer the preference of the user in real-time and update the priority of virtual products to be rendered; and
a communication module that enables wired and wireless communication between the virtual store front, the product preference engine and the plurality of controllers, and wherein the communication module also enables communication with a plurality of remote computing devices.
2 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the virtual product module comprises a digital virtual representation of a plurality of products available in the store front, and wherein the virtual product module is accessed by the human user through the digital display device that is configured with digital input-output capabilities, and wherein the configuration options module is enabled to provide an optimum configuration of the virtual store front by defining the parameters of the virtual avatar, virtual product module and the digital display device depending on preset rules, configuration settings chosen in real-time by the human user and the type of products provided in the virtual product module.
3 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the virtual avatar is a digital android configured with Artificial Intelligence capabilities and provided with the ability to communicate through gestures, human-like expressions, textual instant messaging and verbally in a plurality of languages, and wherein the virtual avatar is further configured with: a text-to-voice module for converting a text into a voice-based audio output; an emphasis estimator that is configured to estimate the emphasis to be provided on specific words or phrases generated by the text-to-voice module based on information to be provided to the human user and to bring the attention of the human user to the important parts of the audio output; a lip-and-jaw movement generator for estimating and rendering a human-like movement of the lips and jaw of the virtual avatar depending on the output of the text-to-voice module and the emphasis generator; a facial expression generator for estimating and rendering a human-like facial emotional expressions of the virtual avatar depending on the output of the text-to-voice module and the emphasis generator; a gesture generator for estimating and rendering a human-like hand gestures of the virtual avatar depending on the output of the text-to-voice module, the emphasis generator and the facial expression generator; and, a movement-and-position generator for enabling a movement of the virtual avatar based on the location of a virtual product in the virtual store front with which the virtual avatar interacts.
4 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of controllers include: a product configuration controller which is configured to receive a plurality of audio, visual, haptic and textual inputs digitally to provide a plurality of configurations of virtual products in the virtual store front; a voice controller which is configured to receive voice-based audio inputs from a human user and identify the requirements of the human user and contextually provide inputs to the product configuration controller to accordingly configure virtual product; and a position controller which is configured to control the position of the camera module with respect to the position of the user and the virtual three-dimensional space, and identify the relevance of the position and proximity of the human user to a plurality of preset elements to capture the preferences of the human user.
5 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the product preference engine is configured to present a plurality of virtual products to the human user by rendering them on the digital display device, and wherein the product preference engine is configured to process information from the product configuration controller and the feedback controller to decide the priority of virtual products rendered to the human user.
6 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the product preference engine comprises a plurality of databases, including: an interaction database that comprises information on all the interactions of the human user using one or more of the plurality of controllers; a purchase database that comprises the information of all made by human users on the virtual store front; a feedback database that comprises all the feedbacks provided by human users on the virtual products; a user database that comprises information on all the human users who used the virtual storefront; and, a product database that comprises information about all the virtual products and a plurality of attributes and specifications of the virtual products.
7 . The system according to claim 1 , wherein the product preference engine comprises an affinity engine that is configured to utilize information in the plurality of databases to identify the affinity and preferences of a human user to a plurality of virtual products.