Optical hut
Eye Wear Industry AR
Industry
Eye Wear Industry - AR
Client
Optical hut
Tools used
Blender, 8th wall
Services
AR Development
Optical Hunt, an online eyewear brand, approached us to enhance their virtual try-on experience. Their existing tools lacked precision and realism, affecting customer confidence. Using Unity and AR Foundation, we built a cross-platform AR app with advanced face tracking and natural alignment, delivering a seamless and engaging try-on experience for both iOS and Android users.
The project's foundation is the 8th Wall WebAR engine, which facilitates a sophisticated augmented reality experience directly within a user's mobile browser. This completely sidesteps the need for an app store download, removing a significant point of friction. The engine's high-fidelity face tracking technology is crucial, as it precisely maps the user's facial features in real-time to enable a realistic and stable placement of 3D objects.
The user journey is designed for immediate gratification. A user simply opens a web link or scans a QR code to begin. The browser then requests camera access, and upon granting permission, the virtual try-on experience launches instantly. This seamless, zero-install process ensures users can engage with the technology effortlessly, making it ideal for quick, impulse-driven interactions in marketing or retail contexts.
The user journey is designed for immediate gratification. A user simply opens a web link or scans a QR code to begin. The browser then requests camera access, and upon granting permission, the virtual try-on experience launches instantly. This seamless, zero-install process ensures users can engage with the technology effortlessly, making it ideal for quick, impulse-driven interactions in marketing or retail contexts.
The experience achieves a high degree of realism by accurately anchoring the 3D glasses to the user's key facial landmarks, such as the bridge of their nose and around their ears. The software ensures that as the user turns or tilts their head, the virtual glasses move in perfect synchrony. This dynamic and natural movement creates a convincing illusion that the user is physically wearing the eyewear.
Using Blender, the 3D models of the glasses are not only created to be visually appealing but are also meticulously optimized for real-time web performance. This involves techniques like reducing polygon counts and compressing textures to create lightweight assets. This critical step ensures that the glasses load quickly and render smoothly on a wide range of mobile devices, preventing lag and providing a high-quality user experience.
The primary use case is virtual try-on for e-commerce, allowing customers to see exactly how different eyewear styles fit their face before making a purchase. This enhances customer confidence and can significantly boost conversion rates. Additionally, the technology is inherently shareable; users can easily take selfies or record videos wearing the virtual glasses and post them on social media, turning a simple try-on into a powerful, user-driven marketing tool.
