Mobility News

WATCH: Accenture, Qualcomm Execs Say New Eye-Tracking VR Solution Will Transform Merchandising

Qualcomm and Accenture are breathing new life into retail with their virtual reality mobile eye-tracking solution and one company has already seen the benefits.

Kellogg says brand sales jumped 18 percent for its latest Pop Tart Bites product during testing for the Virtual Reality Merchandising Solution. The technology immerses consumers in a full-scale simulated store, enabling them to shop and pick up products while being monitored with the embedded eye-tracking solution by Tobii.

“It allows us to see what else testers are looking at,” said Raffaella Camera, Global Head of Innovation & Market Strategy for Accenture’s Extended Reality Group. That’s a key difference from conventional testing methods, which rely on long, expensive and manual processes like in-home user tests and surveys. In the Kellogg pilot, the consumer behavioral data led researchers to believe that new products should be placed on lower shelves, rather than on top shelves as previous testing demonstrated.

The solution uses a Qualcomm VR reference design headset, powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Mobile VR Platform. Aside from Tobii’s eye tracking solution, the VR headset is embedded with mixed reality software from InContext Solutions and eye-tracking data analytics capabilities from Cognitive3D.

Market analysts forecasts that the global eye-tracking devices market will reach $1.75 billion by 2025. Patrick Costello, senior director of business development at Qualcomm Technologies, said the technology is becoming increasingly common in VR, from Avatar engagement to foveated rendering, which uses eye-tracking to produce higher quality visuals with less GPU load.

For more coverage, check out CRNtv’s video included in this article.