Design and implementation of a prototype for virtual on-line shopping : a dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Commerce with Honours at Lincoln University

Abstract

The popularity of on-line shopping has been increasing in a recent years. However, one of the reasons that people decide not to buy products from the Internet is inability to see and touch the product as in reality. The objective of this project is to develop a prototype of on-line shopping that provides a virtual and perceptual experience in a three dimensional environment to on-line customers over the Internet using the Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML). The prototype also allows product information to be updated easily. The prototype has shown that the concept has the potential to substantially improve the on-line shopping experience, but performance with current networking technology is limited by the time required to load texture images.