Imagine you're sitting having a coffee and a man passes by
in a particularly smart suit. Rather than just admire his taste and wonder
where he bought such a well-cut piece of clothing, you pull out your personal
digital assistant (PDA) and press a button. Instantly, you have access to
information about the suit including brand, similar products, availability, and
price. Pressing another button, the very suit is yours and you'll see it at
your doorstep next day. Sounds like a science fiction movie? Not really, if you
happen to have Real-World Showroom.
Developed at
Accenture Technology Labs
in Chicago, Illinois, Real-World Showroom is a prototype application that
enables people to find out essential information about products as they
encounter them in their daily lives. If they wish, they can buy the item on the
spot. With Real-World Showroom, commerce and interaction can take place
wherever and whenever people see and use products, not in the store or on a
website.
Two Technologies: RFID & Wireless
Devices
The Real-World Showroom prototype is built upon two
technologies: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags and wireless devices.
RFID tags
are inexpensive smart tags that can be embedded in products or product
packages. These tags may be used to store detailed product information, and
they can communicate with remote or portable readers.
In Real-World
Showroom, the shopper uses a PDA, equipped with an RFID reader and wireless
data connection. The device can be pointed at any tagged product and the
relevant information immediately retrieved from a number of online sources.
With a few more presses of a button, you can buy a product in front of you,
without ever giving up whatever you happen to be doing at the time.
With Real-World Showroom, business users and consumers alike
never need to worry about purchasing counterfeit merchandise. The information
stored in RFID tags is unique to each product, and almost impossible to tamper
with. Just as the tags can distinguish between a coffee machine and a necktie,
so they can easily tell a fake Versace dress from the real thing.
More Than Just "Genuine
Merchandise"
Besides authenticating products, Real-World
Showroom enables the user to find out the entire product history. For example,
environmental health inspectors can easily check on the history of food
purchased for sale by restaurants, and the pharmaceutical industry, whose
products are under strict regulatory control, can verify the movement of
products accurately and definitively.
"One day soon, the convergence of wireless devices, shopping
services and RFID enabled objects could transform the world around us into a
real-time showroom," says Dadong Wan, senior researcher at Accenture Technology
Labs. "Not only will we be able to buy what we want when and where it takes our
fancy, but in doing so, we will change from just being consumers to being
agents for the products we use! This opens up huge possibilities for the
creation of new markets and carries far-reaching implications for existing
retailers."
Real-World Showroom provides consumers a real-time,
always-on channel to learn about and buy almost any product without ever having
to visit a store or a website. The prototype is part of the
Silent Commerce initiative,
which focuses on creating innovative marketplaces through embedded tags and
sensors and an always-on wireless connection.
For more information on Real-World Showroom, please contact
Dadong Wan.
Real-World Showroom illustrates
how Silent Commerce could transform consumers into "agents" for the objects
they use and the clothes they wear. To Top |