Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to facilitate expedient shopping in a physical retail facility. In one embodiment, a shopping system directed to pre-filling shopping carts with retail items prior to a customer's arrival at the physical retail shopping facility includes a user database of user profiles having one or more partialities associated with customers, a product database of retail products with identified vectorized characterizations or product vectors, a plurality of physical shopping carts, and a control circuit. By one approach, the control circuit is configured to access the user database and the product database and identify suggested retail items for a particular customer based, in part, on comparisons between the identified partialities and the identified vectorized product characterizations of the retail products.

Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to presenting a virtual representation of a user's environment based on activity in the user's environment. In some embodiments, a system comprises one or more sensors, wherein the one or more sensors are located about the user's environment and configured to detect the activity within the user's environment and transmit, to a control circuit, indications of the activity, the control circuit configured to receive, from the one or more sensors, the indications of the activity within the user's environment, generate the virtual representation of the user's environment, and render, based on the indications of the activity, the virtual representation of the user's environment to include representations of the activity within the user's environment, and a display device, the display device configured to present the virtual representation of the user's environment including the representations of the activity within the user's environment.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for providing a virtual reality appliance interface experience. A method for providing a virtual reality (VR) user interface for managing networked appliances comprises aggregating configuration data and real-time status information from the plurality of appliances via an appliance communication device configured to communicate with the plurality of appliances on a network and generating graphical representations of the plurality of appliances based on the configuration data and the real-time status information associated with each of the plurality of appliances, the graphical representations of each the plurality appliances comprising at least one visual indicator associated with a characteristic of a corresponding appliance.

Abstract: Systems, apparatuses, and methods are provided herein for providing a virtual reality (VR) appliance interface. A system for providing a VR user interface for managing network data flow comprises a network communication device configured to communicate with a plurality of nodes on a network, a motion sensor configured to receive user input, a VR display device, and a control circuit being configured to aggregate data flow information from the plurality of nodes via the network communication device, generate graphical representations of a plurality of data packets traveling between one or more of the plurality of nodes based on the data flow information, determine display locations for the graphical representations of the plurality of data packets, cause the VR display device to display the graphical representations of the plurality of data packets in the data flow between the plurality of nodes in the three-dimensional space of a VR environment.

Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to presenting a virtual representation of a user's environment based on activity in the user's environment. In some embodiments, a system comprises one or more sensors, wherein the one or more sensors are located about the user's environment and configured to detect the activity within the user's environment and transmit, to a control circuit, indications of the activity, the control circuit configured to receive, from the one or more sensors, the indications of the activity within the user's environment, generate the virtual representation of the user's environment, and render, based on the indications of the activity, the virtual representation of the user's environment to include representations of the activity within the user's environment, and a display device, the display device configured to present the virtual representation of the user's environment including the representations of the activity within the user's environment.

Abstract: In some embodiments, methods and systems are provided that permit a customer to purchase products from a retailer and elect an option for a friend or family member of the customer to pick up the ordered products from the retail facility of the retailer associated with the geographic location of the customer. If the friend or family member of the customer agrees to pick up the products for the customer, and if the customer agrees to have the selected friend or family member of the customer pick up the products for the customer, the friend or family member is allowed to pick up the products at the retail facility associated with the geographic location of the customer. The customer is then allowed to either pick up the products from such a friend or family member or the friend or family member may deliver the products to the customer.

Abstract: Some embodiments comprise a system to support customers while shopping, comprising: a plurality of virtual reality rendering systems; a field of expertise database associating each of multiple products with one or more of multiple different fields of expertise and with one of multiple different virtual reality environments; a central control system configured to: identify a product for which a customer is requesting expert advice; access a virtual reality content database and acquire a set of code to be applied in rendering a virtual reality environment corresponding to the field of expertise and the product; and distribute the set of code to a rendering system corresponding to the customer to cause the rendering system to visually render the virtual reality environment and an expert avatar.

Abstract: In some embodiments, apparatuses and methods are provided herein useful to facilitate expedient shopping in a physical retail facility. In one embodiment, a shopping system directed to pre-filling shopping carts with retail items prior to a customer's arrival at the physical retail shopping facility includes a user database of user profiles having one or more partialities associated with customers, a product database of retail products with identified vectorized characterizations or product vectors, a plurality of physical shopping carts, and a control circuit. By one approach, the control circuit is configured to access the user database and the product database and identify suggested retail items for a particular customer based, in part, on comparisons between the identified partialities and the identified vectorized product characterizations of the retail products.