Then there’s the interactive kiosk, currently being
developed by Wipro, a global IT consultancy, which
provides a service uncannily similar to that seen in
Minority Report.
The idea is simple: on entering a shop, the
consumer will be greeted personally by the kiosk, which
uses facial recognition technology to identify the person
from photographs posted on social networking sites such
as Facebook. If the shopper has created a shopping list on
their smartphone, as certain retailers already allow you to
do, the system will be able to tap into this and help them
navigate their way around the store. It could also come up
with recipe ideas, suggest birthday or Christmas gift items
and dispense tailor-made money-off coupons. Although the
invention is likely to rely on active opt-in by shoppers, Wipro
is already in talks with what it calls “key European shopping
malls” and expects to unveil its first system by 2015.
“
Opt-in will be essential given the sensitivities
involved in such a system,” says Vivek Venugopala, chief
technologist for retail and consumer packaged goods at
»
It sounds like a scene
straight from a science
fiction film...
Earlier this year, a bus stop in London’s Oxford Street
played host to a pioneering electronic billboard advert that
could actually recognise the gender of passers-by. Using
a camera and facial recognition software, it singled out
women shoppers to play them a 40-second message for a
charity promoting female education worldwide. Men simply
received a prompt to look at a website.
Film fans will, of course, recognise the parallels with
Steven Spielberg’s epic blockbuster
Minority Report,
set
in 2054. In one scene, Tom Cruise walks into a shopping
mall where he’s confronted by a host of hi-tech hoardings.
His retina is scanned before he’s greeted by name and a
barrage of suggestions are thrown at him, including an offer
of a pint of Guinness.
This may have seemed remarkable when the film
was released in 2002, but no more. Right now, shoppers
are on the verge of a brave new world, where a host of
futuristic technologies are set to vastly improve their
experience, helping them find what they need more quickly
and efficiently, personalising their trip and even offering
immediate rewards. Welcome to shopping 2.0.
Take the ‘intelligent’ vending machine that food giant
Kraft unveiled in the USA in 2011. Using face-recognition
technology, it tailored food suggestions to individual
consumers and has had an 85%-plus success rate at
guessing age and gender. Depending on who the people
were (ie, adults only), it also dispensed free samples.
According to Intel, which helped design the system, it will
be available in European hypermarkets “within two years”.
T O D A Y ’ S T E C H
F I R M S A R E
O F F E R I N G
D E V I C E S
T H A T T R A C K
S H O P P E R S ’ E Y E
M O V E M E N T S
0 9 9
