JD.com, China’s second largest online retailer, just revealed the progress of its AI lab, called “PCL” one year after the lab’s establishment. It also announced that it will unveil VR products in September.
This lab investigates perception and cognition with computer learning algorithms, for applications such as face recognition, text and image searching, and virtual fitting.
With computer learning, JD developed its virtual fitting feature, where users type in their height and weight to see how a piece of clothes looks like on them, without really putting on the clothes.
Besides fun features to interest customers, the secret lab will upgrade the company’s logistics system. Weng Zhi, Chief Technical Officer of JD said that their warehouses would be unmanned in the future, and machines would do the packaging and recognition of packages.
As an online retailer, JD may be unlikely to launch a product like a VR headset, but it might produce something similar to its rival platform Alibaba’s Buy+.
As we reported in March, Buy+ focus on exploring VR shopping experiences. “In the near future, customers could be experiencing shopping on Fifth Avenue in New York while sitting at home,” said Zhao Haiping, an engineer at Alibaba.
(Top photo from Baidu Images)