Overview and Exploitation of Haptic Tele-Weight Device in Virtual Shopping Stores

Aqeel Farooq, Mehdi Seyedmahmoudian, Ben Horan, Saad Mekhilef and Alex Stojcevski
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Aqeel Farooq: School of Science, Computing and Engineering Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
Mehdi Seyedmahmoudian: School of Science, Computing and Engineering Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
Ben Horan: School of Engineering, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC 3216, Australia
Saad Mekhilef: School of Science, Computing and Engineering Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia
Alex Stojcevski: School of Science, Computing and Engineering Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3122, Australia

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 13, 1-13

Abstract: In view of the problem of e-commerce scams and the absence of haptic interaction, this research aims to introduce and create a tele-weight device for e-commerce shopping in smart cities. The objective is to use the proposed prototype to provide a brief overview of the possible technological advancements. When the tele-weight device is affixed over the head-mounted display, it allows the user to feel the item’s weight while shopping in the virtual store. Addressing the problem of having no physical interaction between the user (player) and a series game scene in virtual reality (VR) headsets, this research approach focuses on creating a prototype device that has two parts, a sending part and a receiving part. The sending part measures the weight of the object and transmits it over the cellular network to the receiver side. The virtual store user at the receiving side can thus realize the weight of the ordered object. The findings from this work include a visual display of the item’s weight to the virtual store e-commerce user. By introducing sustainability, this haptic technology-assisted technique can help the customer realize the weight of an object and thus have a better immersive experience. In the device, the load cell measures the weight of the object and amplifies it using the HX711 amplifier. However, some delay in the demonstration of the weight was observed during experimentation, and this indirectly altered the performance of the system. One set of the device is sited at the virtual store user premises while the sending end of the device is positioned at the warehouse. The sending end hardware includes an Arduino Uno device, an HX711 amplifier chip to amplify the weight from the load cell, and a cellular module (Sim900A chip-based) to transmit the weight in the form of an encoded message. The receiving end hardware includes a cellular module and an actuator involving a motor gear arrangement to demonstrate the weight of the object. Combining the fields of e-commerce, embedded systems, VR, and haptic sensing, this research can help create a more secure marketplace to attain a higher level of customer satisfaction.

Keywords: PCB shield; HX711; amplifier chip; Sim900A; e-commerce; virtual store; firmware; embedded system; virtual reality and haptic sensing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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