Augmented reality assistant coming to a supermarket near you.
Mar 05, 2013 No Comments
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)
IBM Research has shown off an AR app to make shopping more rewarding and it will be launched in the UK first.
IBM’s Augmented Reality Shopping Assistant will allow people in the aisles to filter products by price, allergies, meat content, social media reviews, calories, discounted goods etc, simply by holding up their smartphone to the products.
No markers are required as it will recognise and retrieve image data of thousands of products stored in a cloud server. A tag of basic data will be superimposed over the item which can be selected on the screen to call up further data.
IBM researcher Amnon Ribak said that the app will initially be provided by retailers to enhance customer loyalty programmes.
The name of the retailer is undisclosed but Britain’s biggest supermarket, Tesco, is a good example of how augmented reality has been experimented with to enhance shopping in-store and at home.
At the consumer end, Tesco worked with Kashino AR to launch an AR app for the home where people could hold up Clubcards, Tesco Direct catalogues or Tesco Tech Support Guide to webcams to explore 3D photorealistic models of various products such as televisions and gadgets. As the service (and Kashino AR) no longer exists the take up was probably limited.
In the summer of last year, they teamed up with AR specialist Aurasma to create the world’s first cover to cover augmented reality food magazine. By holding the Real Food magazine up to a webcam or through a smartphone, tips, animations and videos would appear above other each page.
(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)
Tesco’s latest augmented reality venture can be found in three of its stores where AR magical mirrors in dressing rooms are promoting the own F&F clothing brand. The ‘mirrors’ are actually displays that augments a range of clothes onto the shopper by recognising their outline using a camera.
FREE WEEKLY 3D NEWS BULLETIN –
