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Imagine, for example, opening your favorite brand’s website and being presented with a miniature virtual storefront. You could look at their most popular produc

Imagine, for example, opening your favorite brand’s website and being presented with a miniature virtual storefront. You could look at their most popular products as if you were standing on a sidewalk peering into their shop. I imagined this as instructed as was simultaneously bored and depressed. Why does it always have to be about shopping.

riidom 4y ago
I imagine a youtube where the ads would pause as soon as you don't look at them anymore. Like that one black mirror episode. But yes, first promote some gimmicky fun stuff to get the foot in the door and when it has arrived, show the real face.
- hammock 4y ago
  You’ve heard of YouTube Red? Now try A Youtube Orange
- staindk 4y ago
  "Please drink a verification can" https://imgur.com/dgGvgKF https://imgur.com/dgGvgKF
  - blamazon 4y ago
    "McDonald's!" https://mobile.twitter.com/TheStreet/status/1612888601196433434 https://mobile.twitter.com/TheStreet/status/1612888601196433...
- VLM 4y ago
  The other way around, for sure, to distract and make you look back at the thing moving in the corner of your eye.
  - hgsgm 4y ago
    They mean that the ad won't finish until you watch it.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
icepat 4y ago
> Why does it always have to be about shopping. It's published by Shopify, so in this case it's because it likely would not have gotten published otherwise. Unfortunately E-commerce companies are not known for their "research for the fun of research".
- AYBABTME 4y ago
  Disagree, VR stuff at Shopify really strikes me and a lot of folks as a pet project with unlikely business outcome but they still do it for the kick of it.
  - icepat 4y ago
    How so? Their VR and the Web page on their website has mention of products in the first line? https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/building-a-vr-shopping-experience https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/building-a-vr-shopping...
mr_sturd 4y ago
Because it's the web, and that's all the web is about.
- osrec 4y ago
  It's a lot of what life's about though too, so perhaps it's justified?
  - radec 4y ago
    Justified in the sense that we should accept that there is no other purpose to life or existence then to shop?
  - otikik 4y ago
    For every article about shopping we would be seeing tens of thousands of articles about breathing then.
kwertyoowiyop 4y ago
Or, imagine your head tracking data is being uploaded and sold to the hugest bidder! They could tell whether you have a health condition which they could sell you an expensive drug for! Or raise your insurance rates! Wow this IS exciting.
- chaostheory 4y ago
  The smart watches already provide a lot more data such as heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and activity monitor to name a few things. However, it’s just a part of the little data collector that nearly everyone has in their pocket. My point is we’re already there and we’ve been here for years now. If laws like the GPRD passed, then it should be possible to counter or neutralize the problem
shadowgovt 4y ago
The blog we are reading right now is Shopify's blog, so I have a theory. Another interesting question is "Why is shopify's blog the place talking about this, instead of somewhere else?" I remember that demo... it was amazing and then it did go nowhere. With modern face recognition and tracking, it should be entirely possible to use it for some nifty no-touch experiences.
- codeulike 4y ago
  The blog we are reading right now is Shopify's blog tbh I gave up reading after the bit I quoted and hadnt actually clocked it was a Shopify blog (didnt spot the little icon in the corner or look at the url) Still, I stand by my refrain "Why does it always have to be about shopping" as a refrain that is rarely out of place
- majgr 4y ago
  Well, it made into Amazon Fire Phone, and then went nowhere.
photochemsyn 4y ago
It's a relatively invasive technique that requires a computer's camera to record details of a person's face, and that's marketable data that any commercial shopping site would likely collect and sell on to other parties. It'd be much simpler to implement arrow key / spacebar navigation through a 3D scene (still computationally expensive relative to rendering the standard HTML/CSS/JS page), but then that data couldn't be collected. In general interactive 3D on the web still uses too much computational power on the client-side for most devices.
- Cpoll 4y ago
  > invasive technique It wouldn't be so bad if it were a browser feature, i.e. a website can use an "Eye Tracking" API instead of the Camera API (with permission granted), and get limited data.
  - jszymborski 4y ago
    But of course, just like gait detection and etc... there would be a whole genre of preprints dedicated to eye tracking fingerprinting
- Filligree 4y ago
  "Details of a person's face is marketable data". Okay, it's not that I don't believe you, but what do they do with that data? How does it help? Unless you're marketing acne cream, I suppose.
  - labcomputer 4y ago
    Uniquely and reliably track a single individual’s web browsing habits. Is that not the holy grail of adtech?
  - orls 4y ago
    People who fit into <some racial/ethnic/age/gender bucket> spend more time looking at <x products>, fed to advertisers who can tie it to swathes of your other online activity Even if it’s _theoretically_ coarse data/bucketing, that adds up to a lot of data to help deanonymization and targeting. Even if that’s done in the spirit of “just for ads”, it’s not a big leap to political targeting etc, and with the right data leaks, potentially even actual harassment.
chaostheory 4y ago
Because this is from someone who works for Shopify and has to justify their 20% project to their bosses. Why can’t people have a little more imagination and see this as a great new data visualization UX like for things like charts or maps, instead of automatically panning it to death? This could be very useful in hospitals. CAD and 3D modeling software?
VLM 4y ago
It has to be about shopping because pr0n actually drives new tech and that venue would not be pr0n friendly. I would imagine this would be an obvious easy sell for CAD, so there must be something wrong with it, perhaps a patent, holding back progress. I will say that I've done CAD for projects (woodworking and making STL models for 3d printer) and people who do not CAD think that CAD people look at 3d animations 99% of the time, but IRL when I do CAD I spend most of my time thinking very abstractly (how to balance the spacing of power supply and PCB such that it looks nice, is easy to access, thermal concerns, wire routing... Or I can look up the clearance hole dia for a 4-40 screw now what is a common drill size with sane tolerances to drill it, how about an eighth of an inch?)
rchaud 4y ago
> Why does it always have to be about shopping. the subdomain of this submission offers a clue about that
jabroni_salad 4y ago
Here on the internet, there's nearly three things to do! https://youtu.be/G9FGgwCQ22w?t=183 https://youtu.be/G9FGgwCQ22w?t=183

riidom 4y ago

I imagine a youtube where the ads would pause as soon as you don't look at them anymore. Like that one black mirror episode. But yes, first promote some gimmicky fun stuff to get the foot in the door and when it has arrived, show the real face.

hammock 4y ago
You’ve heard of YouTube Red? Now try A Youtube Orange
staindk 4y ago
"Please drink a verification can" https://imgur.com/dgGvgKF https://imgur.com/dgGvgKF
- blamazon 4y ago
  "McDonald's!" https://mobile.twitter.com/TheStreet/status/1612888601196433434 https://mobile.twitter.com/TheStreet/status/1612888601196433...
VLM 4y ago
The other way around, for sure, to distract and make you look back at the thing moving in the corner of your eye.
- hgsgm 4y ago
  They mean that the ad won't finish until you watch it.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

icepat 4y ago

> Why does it always have to be about shopping. It's published by Shopify, so in this case it's because it likely would not have gotten published otherwise. Unfortunately E-commerce companies are not known for their "research for the fun of research".

AYBABTME 4y ago
Disagree, VR stuff at Shopify really strikes me and a lot of folks as a pet project with unlikely business outcome but they still do it for the kick of it.
- icepat 4y ago
  How so? Their VR and the Web page on their website has mention of products in the first line? https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/building-a-vr-shopping-experience https://www.shopify.com/partners/blog/building-a-vr-shopping...

mr_sturd 4y ago

Because it's the web, and that's all the web is about.

osrec 4y ago
It's a lot of what life's about though too, so perhaps it's justified?
- radec 4y ago
  Justified in the sense that we should accept that there is no other purpose to life or existence then to shop?
- otikik 4y ago
  For every article about shopping we would be seeing tens of thousands of articles about breathing then.

kwertyoowiyop 4y ago

Or, imagine your head tracking data is being uploaded and sold to the hugest bidder! They could tell whether you have a health condition which they could sell you an expensive drug for! Or raise your insurance rates! Wow this IS exciting.

chaostheory 4y ago
The smart watches already provide a lot more data such as heart rate, blood oxygen levels, and activity monitor to name a few things. However, it’s just a part of the little data collector that nearly everyone has in their pocket. My point is we’re already there and we’ve been here for years now. If laws like the GPRD passed, then it should be possible to counter or neutralize the problem

shadowgovt 4y ago

The blog we are reading right now is Shopify's blog, so I have a theory. Another interesting question is "Why is shopify's blog the place talking about this, instead of somewhere else?" I remember that demo... it was amazing and then it did go nowhere. With modern face recognition and tracking, it should be entirely possible to use it for some nifty no-touch experiences.

codeulike 4y ago
The blog we are reading right now is Shopify's blog tbh I gave up reading after the bit I quoted and hadnt actually clocked it was a Shopify blog (didnt spot the little icon in the corner or look at the url) Still, I stand by my refrain "Why does it always have to be about shopping" as a refrain that is rarely out of place
majgr 4y ago
Well, it made into Amazon Fire Phone, and then went nowhere.

photochemsyn 4y ago

It's a relatively invasive technique that requires a computer's camera to record details of a person's face, and that's marketable data that any commercial shopping site would likely collect and sell on to other parties. It'd be much simpler to implement arrow key / spacebar navigation through a 3D scene (still computationally expensive relative to rendering the standard HTML/CSS/JS page), but then that data couldn't be collected. In general interactive 3D on the web still uses too much computational power on the client-side for most devices.

Cpoll 4y ago
> invasive technique It wouldn't be so bad if it were a browser feature, i.e. a website can use an "Eye Tracking" API instead of the Camera API (with permission granted), and get limited data.
- jszymborski 4y ago
  But of course, just like gait detection and etc... there would be a whole genre of preprints dedicated to eye tracking fingerprinting
Filligree 4y ago
"Details of a person's face is marketable data". Okay, it's not that I don't believe you, but what do they do with that data? How does it help? Unless you're marketing acne cream, I suppose.
- labcomputer 4y ago
  Uniquely and reliably track a single individual’s web browsing habits. Is that not the holy grail of adtech?
- orls 4y ago
  People who fit into <some racial/ethnic/age/gender bucket> spend more time looking at <x products>, fed to advertisers who can tie it to swathes of your other online activity Even if it’s _theoretically_ coarse data/bucketing, that adds up to a lot of data to help deanonymization and targeting. Even if that’s done in the spirit of “just for ads”, it’s not a big leap to political targeting etc, and with the right data leaks, potentially even actual harassment.

chaostheory 4y ago

Because this is from someone who works for Shopify and has to justify their 20% project to their bosses. Why can’t people have a little more imagination and see this as a great new data visualization UX like for things like charts or maps, instead of automatically panning it to death? This could be very useful in hospitals. CAD and 3D modeling software?

VLM 4y ago

It has to be about shopping because pr0n actually drives new tech and that venue would not be pr0n friendly. I would imagine this would be an obvious easy sell for CAD, so there must be something wrong with it, perhaps a patent, holding back progress. I will say that I've done CAD for projects (woodworking and making STL models for 3d printer) and people who do not CAD think that CAD people look at 3d animations 99% of the time, but IRL when I do CAD I spend most of my time thinking very abstractly (how to balance the spacing of power supply and PCB such that it looks nice, is easy to access, thermal concerns, wire routing... Or I can look up the clearance hole dia for a 4-40 screw now what is a common drill size with sane tolerances to drill it, how about an eighth of an inch?)

rchaud 4y ago

> Why does it always have to be about shopping. the subdomain of this submission offers a clue about that

jabroni_salad 4y ago

Here on the internet, there's nearly three things to do! https://youtu.be/G9FGgwCQ22w?t=183 https://youtu.be/G9FGgwCQ22w?t=183