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.