Snap hosts 'AR Shopping Lunch' featuring next-generation Spectacles and Pixy

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, hosted its first 'AR Shopping Lunch' event in Singapore a couple of days back, where it showcased a few of its shopping and fashion-oriented AR Lenses through a physical display, along with new products that the company has been working on that affirms its focus on wearable and camera technology.

One notable display was an AR try-on mirror, which allows guests to try on clothes without having to change them. Using computer vision to apply the outfit, the only requirement was having to take a few full-body pictures beforehand.

The display ties in with Snap's efforts to widen usage of AR shopping, having conducted a study that said 1 in 4 shoppers would prefer to trial products with AR rather than actually being in the store.

Lenses featured in the event through the try-on mirror included products by Prada and PUMA, and, notably, cosmetic companies like Estée Lauder and L'Oreal.

Apart from that, Snap also showcased two new products, one of which is its next generation of AR Spectacles. Snap's Spectacles, of which three generations have already been on sale, were originally released in 2016.

This generation, however, isn't on sale to the general public, instead being oriented towards creators and AR developers (who can apply for access to the Spectacles here). Guests were given the chance to demo the Spectacles and try out some of the features, including dual 3D waveguide displays (which form the lenses) to overlay AR.

Another new product shown was Pixy. Unveiled a few months ago, Pixy is a small flying camera drone developed by Snap with the purpose of being a companion to Snapchat, with the ability to capture video.

Pixy features four preset flight paths, which means it can be used without a controller, and can transfer taken videos to Snapchat Memories.

All in all, the event served to re-enforce Snap's focus on AR commerce and making shopping more accessible to users. Snap says that AR-guided purchases lead to a 25 per cent decrease in returns, and for brands, a 94 per cent higher conversion rate, which it lists as some results that its focus on AR commerce has given.

This article was first published in HardwareZone.