User manual
How to start?
3D product modelling
To start enjoying the advantages offered by Alice, you have to start by making a 3D modelling of those products which you want to include in the application.
We can manage everything, but if you already have a 3D scan of your models, we will adapt them to be compatible with the application and be appreciated with all kinds of details, or we will give you the necessary indications so that your design team can do it.
Categorization of products
Once the 3D models are created, the different products are cataloged according to two customizable criteria, for example: brand and type of product. In this way the comercial force have a catalog of products fully ordered according to their preferences, where they can also create their own list of favorite items.
Assignment of a personal account
The administator (person who hires Alice) are responsable for the last step to start working together. Once the catalog is created and ordered, He will create a username and password for each license. When entering the account data, only the catalog which has been associated with it will be accessed. Keep in mind that you can only log in to a device, the application does not allow the same account to be started on two media simultaneously.
When you hire a license we register you in the system and the administator send you your user account by email. The first time you try to access to your account you will have to enter the user that we have assigned you and press “accept”. Then, you will automatically receive an email with a verification code that you will have to use as a temporary password. When you try to access your account by entering the user and the verification code, the application redirects you to a “reset password” screen so you can create a new one. Every sales agent will have an account with his own login name and password, both will be linked to the company catalogue that could be customized.
Main menu
When opening the application, the device’s camera opens and four options are displayed:
The icons are fully customizable.
Log in
This option allows different users to access their own online catalogs by entering an email and a password which each of them will be assigned.
Demo catalog
In case you are not registered, our application includes a demo catalog.
This option allows you to test the application in different areas and with different objects.
It is recommended to fully download the catalogs, this way they will be saved in the application, improving its performance and facilitating its visualization, regardless whether your device is not connected to the internet.
Back
When clicking on the return icon, a message appears on the screen in order to ensure that the user has not pressed by mistake and really wants to remove from the scene all the furniture or objects that have been placed so far.
Screenshot
When pressing this option the device captures the image that appears at that moment on the screen. Once captured, the application allows you to go back or share it with your contacts.
It is possible to save the screenshot in the device or share it via mail, message or social networks. In this way you can send your business proposals to your clients, check at any time what your choices are like, compare several ideas or even consult them with your acquaintances.
Video capture
By clicking this option, the device starts recording the scene instantly. To stop recording, the user should be pressed again on the screen. Once you have the video capture, Alice allows you to visualize it, save it, share it with your contacts or go back.
It is also possible to save the video capture in the video gallery or share it via email, message or social networks. This ensures you to send your sales offers to your clients, to consult how your choices look at all times, to compare some new ideas or to consult them with your friends, family, colleagues,…
Catalogue
Once a commercial has logged in they acces to their products catalog, which will be sorted according their needs.
In the same way any commerce will be able to customice its catalog, being able to offer suggestion to its clients, about specific products.
To select the specific item to be visualized you just have to touch it and it will be displayed in the center of screen.
Once the product is fixed, it appears the catalogue icon on the screen to go into it and select a new product to add on the scene. This option allows visualize different objects at the same time in just one scenario.
With this option, the user will be able to order all products in alphabetical order from A-Z or vice versa.
Besides this option, however, the user will be able to manage this arrange products from Alice self-managed platform too, establishing the criteria that best serves user’s needs.
At the bottom right of each image, an arrow which allows you to download the product will be displayed.
Downloading the products is an advantage because, when saved in the App, they can be viewed at any time, without the need to be connected to a network or depend on its good functioning or connection quality. It is important to use the download option as it will significantly improve the operation of the application, allowing you to take advantage of its full potential.
In the event of user of Alice is a it won’t be possible through e-commerce to download the item and to keep them in the memory of the app since they will only be charged if the device is connected to the Internet.
* Note: When downloading the products, the application will take up more space on the device.
Floor item
Alice allows you to move an item through space to place it wherever you want. To that end, it is essential to press the object selected and to drag it around to position it anywhere on the screen.
It is also possible to rotate any product to visualize it from multiplate angles. To get the item turned around it is necessary to use two fingers, to maintain selected the product with both and to scroll them across the screen in a circular direction. The easiest way to do it is using you index finger and thumb.
A blue mark will always appear under products. This mark points out the exact place where objects is going to be placed on the surface.
When you click in the tick, the product fixes on the scene in the same position that appears, and the blue mark comes out under it. To change position again on the screen, it is only necessary to press again on the product and this will be in mid-air again, ready to be relocated.
The product is saved in the favorite category of the catalogue once you have pressed the icon.
This option is only available in case of Alice is used by the sales team. This facility helps to visualize and access quicker to those products included in this category.
To delete a product of the scene it is necessary to select it and press the icon in X form. Once you have done it, it will automatically disappear from the screen.
Wall item
Alice offers an extra functionality —apart from the above-mentioned advantages in floor item section— in case of the product can be placed on the wall, as a TV, a picture, a lamp, etc.
When it is a wall item, it will appear in the left margin of the screen a bar where the product can be height-regulated.
To move the item, it is necessary to press with the finger the blue color zone of the bar and shift it in the vertical direction. Thanks to it, the product moves up and down at the same time.
Tools
When touching this icon three functionalities can come up these can vary according to the features and possibilities of the producto. Such as: colour customization, producto rotation, audiovisual content integration and change in texture.
Audiovisual content integration
The app offers the option off introducing audiovisual content, both videos and images, in those products which permit their playing and which, later they are needed to be used for this finality.
Rotation
When touching this icon the product changes its position from horizontal to vertical, or viceversa.
Colour customization
In the event a product is sold in several colours, this option allows you to visualize the object in all those tones in which the product is available. We can offer the following options:
- Just a limited colour selection.
- Just a range of colours which allows the user to select the wanted colour tone.
- Or include both options.
Change of texture
It also allows to change the textures of a product in a limited way, that is with the materials in which it is available in the brand catalogue. When clicking on settings an icon appears: it shows the different models available.
General
What is Alice?
Alices is a commercial tool which uses the augmented reality technology in order to visualize the products in the real world, powering the commerzialitation process and facilitating the sale. The aim of Alice is the democratization of Augmented Reality as a commercial tool. Any bussines will access this technology without investing in a customized development.
What is augmented reality?
It is a technology which allows you, through devices with a camera (Smartphone or Tablets), to introduce virtual elements in the real world, overlaping both worlds. In the past, the experience of use was still complex, a marker was needed. Now is the moment of this technology as thank to the launch of ARKit or ARCore, the marker is not neccesary, only a special device.
What is a marker?
It is the real element on which augmented reality used to appear. At first they were QR codes, later any image could be (companies logotipes, photos, letters…) and the app was programmed so that the device, when recognising that image, would put the 3D object in it.
What is ARKit?
It is a framework (computer work framework) which allows developers to create applications and content in Augmented Reality for iPhone and iPad. This AR technology uses the data collected by the cameras and sensors of the device to measure the environment and display objects in it.
Thanks to this, It will give the feeling of being interacting with the real world, taking the utility of the mobile apps of Augmented Reality to a higher level. In their presentation, Apple team commented that thanks to the integration of ARkit with iOS, users do not need any special equipment to get the most out of the advantages of the AR.
What is ARCore?
The version for Android devices is called AR Core. It has been created by Google about everything learned with ProjectTango
Tango was born in 2014 along with several devices equipped with special cameras for augmented reality. Google even launched smartphones as part of the now defunct “Project Tango”, and in our tests we discovered that it was a good idea. The problem is that it was outdated very quickly since it required the use of cameras for AR; Evolving was necessary.
That’s how ARCore was born, a new development kit which will bring augmented reality to millions of Android devices which already exist, without the need for special hardware for AR or anything like that.
Frequently asked questions
What kind of products can be sold through Alice?
We start from the basis that augmented reality is an ideal technology to show products which need to be seen in real space to see how they will be without the need to transport them. For this reason, both floor products (totems, standing monitors, POS …) and wall (wall screens, tables, vinyl, posters, frames, videowalls …) fit perfectly in this solution.
Alice uses the technology incorporated in Smartphones or Tablets to recognize space in real time. The ground is scanned to sustain the elements generated in 3D on it. Therefore, all those whose base rests on the ground, are seen to perfection, and the user can place them on the ground where they want, rotate them and fix them.
On the other hand, all products which need to be on the wall, work in a different way. They appear floating over the ground, with an indicator at ground level that projects the place they occupy on the Z axis of space (depth). In this way, the user chooses the height and depth manually to see how it will be in real space.
Finally, to facilitate the transition of brands to augmented reality, Alice incorporates the possibility of integrating 2D images of products to be able to visualize them in real space. It has the advantage that all brands already have frontal photographs of their products, but the disadvantage that, in augmented reality, these products will only look good frontwards, since they do not have depth.
What do I need so that my products can be seen in augmented reality?
Firstly, these products must be digitized, converted into 3D models. In this case the company itself, a third party or DeuSens may have done it, always under a series of determined characteristics detailed below.
Secondly, an App which interprets the language of augmented reality so that the digitized products appear in the real environment through the screen of the Smartphone or the Tablet. In this case, the app is Alice, the visualizer of the content in augmented reality.
What devices are compatible with alice?
Alice is available for iOS and Android. Earlier on, a “marker” was necessary, a real element for the virtual object can appear on, like QR codes. In this way, when opening the Augmented Reality App and you focused with the camera on that “marker”, the virtual object appeared on it.
For now only certain Android devices support it. For the inferior models, marker is needed.
You will find the official list of Android devices that are compatible with Alice here.
What do I have to do to make my products visible in Alice?
We have created a self-management platform through which users can, themselves, integrate all their products into the database so that they can be viewed in augmented reality through the App.
For this, the products have to be modelled in 3D. The Company have to have them ready or not. If this is not the case, we offer the modelling service. If the design department of the Company wants to do it, you need to consult us to know what format and with what specific characteristics you have to model it. Some recommendations:
- Lowpoly.
- Preferably in .FBX or OBJ format with textures.
- Animations are currently not allowed in 3D models.
In addition, there is also the possibility of integrating 2D objects by using images with transparency in .png to see the products in their real scale. They are seen without depth, but in the front view it looks as if the object is there.
What is the self-management platform?
It’s the way any company can manage its catalog and licenses easily and independently, being able to adapt it to their business needs.
The differential value of Alice. Currently, for any company to have an application of augmented reality in order to show their products, a specialist in this technology is necessary, and it is necessary to publish an update every time you want to add new products.
With Alice, the need of an intermediary disappears. It is an autonomous solution for the company.
The self-management platform is based on a cloud system that allows adding new products to the tool without having to update the application in the Marketplace. Through it, the user can;
- Change corporate colors to the App interface.
- Add texts.
- Add images of the product categories.
- Add images of the products.
- Add 3D or 2D products and information about each product:
- Its price.
- Its name.
- A URL for more product information (can be a web or the URL of a PDF)
- The size at which you want to see the product. Even in 1: 1 scale.
- Include videos or images to the 3D models to dynamize them (for example, a totem with 3D modeled screen, the user will be able to personalize the content within the screen of the mentioned modeled totem)
- Include the textures in which appear in the catalog.
- Buy and manage licenses.
- Manage teams.
This tool offers the potential for continued progress and is permanently upgraded with new funcionalities without extraordinary costs.
How much does it cost to incorporate Alice into my company?
The acquisition of the Alice solution depends on the final use which will be given to it.
In the event that it is used for the sale of a company to sell its catalog to other stores and establishments, its inventory assumes a fixed monthly / annual cost that depends on the number of devices in which the solution is to be implemented, , depending on the number of licenses and accounts which are created.
In case Alice has been used by an e-commerce company or a physical store, which wishes to offer a final consumer the possibility of observing its items in augmented reality, they will be an account for the price of treir trade that will vary according to the number of visualizations hired. Considering once, checking an item to be loaded in augmented reality.
What is a view?
Each opening of a 3D model will be counted as a visualization, so every time that users select a product to visualize it in augmented reality it will be considered as a visualization.
What is the difference between for commercial and Alice for e-commerce?
- Private catalog
- Unlimited visualizations
- Online & Offline access
- Icons & interfaz customization
- 20GB extendable
- Public catalog
- Limited visualizations
- Online access
- Icons & interfaz customization
- 20GB extendable
Alice for comercial
What is included in a licence?
-User name and password so that you can manage your catalog on app Alice.
-Management of all information relevant for brand categories and products.
-Customization of the interface of the app Alice.
What is not included in the license?
– Modelling service or 3D modelling adaptation.
-CRM and ERP integration. In each case, an integration of the platform and App is performed. Alice with the determined configuration of each CRM and ERP.
Alice for e-commerce
How can my customers access the application?
The customers can access from a button installed on the website of the e-commerce or through a QR code that can be placed in brochures, catalogues, etc.
What happen if my clients enter my webpage through a computer?
Alice is compatible with smartphones and tablets, so the direct access to the app should be included just in mobile version of your webpage.
In the desktop version of your webpage we will recommend include a section in which consumers are inform about the possibility of downloading Alice entering again the webpage from their mobile devices and exist the possibility of adding a QR code which can be scanned from Alice application.