ConAgra Foods, makers of Healthy Choice and Marie Callender’s meals, created the video below to show what the future of shopping may look like from behind Google Glass.  This is clearly not possible today but is within the realm of possibility for the near future.

I was annoyed they chose to follow two people instead of just one.  I assume they did it to illustrate the conversation between the women, but it distracts from the overall shopping theme.  If the conversation was that important, it would have been better to ask for product advice.  I was more impressed with the voice response than the augmented reality aspects.  Being able to direct commands to Glass vs people in the room is tough — usually you need to preface commands with a keyword or press a button.

Being able to overlay text on products is pretty tough as well.  Today you’d need to use a barcode or marker of some sort because image recognition is just too unreliable, especially when all the products look similar.  At best you can count the number of facing items and possibly recognize the brands.

Checkout was certainly fast!  Surprised they didn’t have to blink Morse Code for their PINs.  All in all I thought most of what they accomplished would have worked well on their smartphones without Glass.  It certainly has me thinking about the future.

Would have been funny to see one of the women run into an endcap because spam blocked her vision.  Maybe next time.

(Via Insight-Driven Retailing Blog)

© FG+SG

Arquitectos: José Carlos Cruz – Arquitecto
Ubicación: Vila Real, Portugal
Ingeniero Civil: NORVIA
Ingeniero Mecánico: GET_Raul Bessa
Área: 522.0 m2
Año: 2012
Fotografías: FG+SG

 

© FG+SG

 

La farmacia se encuentra en Vila Real, en el centro norte de Portugal y es parte de una zona periférica de la ciudad donde el ambiente no tiene una imagen consolidada y uniforme. A falta de referencias externas, se optó por crear un edificio con un carácter abstracto y neutro, reforzada por la ausencia de aberturas. Con una planta ovalada, los dos niveles están totalmente recubiertos de aluminio corrugado y perforado.

© FG+SG

La única abertura directa al exterior es la entrada principal que da acceso al área de ventas. Al cambiar la luz interior y el símbolo de la farmacia, el edificio adquiere dinámica, lo que permite la variación de la imagen del día a la noche. La tienda no sólo vende medicamentos sino que también cuenta con su propio laboratorio para componer medicamentos.

Corte

Farmacia Lordelo / José Carlos Cruz – Arquitecto originalmente publicado en Plataforma Arquitectura el 15 Ene 2013.

(Via Plataforma Arquitectura)

La emblemática marca italiana Pirelli abrió su primer en Milán. Dos pisos, 1.500 metros cuadrados, un lugar diseñado por Renato Montagner que reúne todas las facetas de la bajo un mismo techo. Según el presidente, Marco Tronchetti Provera, “la moda y la industria van de la mano y el nuevo espacio de Pirelli tiene como objetivo poner de relieve este vínculo y renovarla.”

Saber más: Selectism

Sports giant Adidas has recently come up with a brilliant sales strategy that comes as a mysterious but pleasant surprise for its clients. In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Adidas launched 6 pop-up stores to cater to customers who want their sportswear in a snap. Each pop-up store opened in a location that was not announced to the public. Only selected individuals were given invitations to the opening dates and venues via social networking sites.

The Adidas pop-up stores are called such because setting up the display and merchandise can be done within a day. All shelves are made from light steel tubes, with shoes hanging out on display, and simple seating that features the Adidas logo. Even the lighting and floor layout are basic enough, allowing store owners to immediately make sales without having to fuss over design details. At present, the pop-up stores sell only the limited edition ‘Ransom’ and ‘Blue’ collections.

via PSFK

Coda Automotive,  fabricante de vehículos eléctricos, ha inaugurado su sala de exposición de automóviles en el Westfield Century City Shopping Center en Los Angeles, EE.UU. El Centro de Experiencia Coda tiene un aspecto similar a las tiendas de Apple: limpio, minimalista, luminoso y agradable. Sin embargo, en lugar de electrónica de consumo, Coda vende coches eléctricos de 35.200 dólares. Los clientes pueden probar y encontrar información  en un ambiente informal donde todo es accesible, un cambio refrescante sobre el sistema de venta clásico.

Coda replica la idea de la barra de Genius de Apple y  los clientes disponen de ordenadores y pantallas interactivas para aprender más sobre los vehículos y definir la versión que más les gusta. Este concept store utiliza materiales ecológicos de construcción tales como madera recuperada, iluminación de bajo consumo, madera libre de formaldehido y acero inoxidable reciclado.

Más información: CODA

Una nueva tecnología que revolucionará el retail:

New ‘smart window’ switches from transparent and opaque in seconds

A new “smart” window system that can inexpensively change from summer to winter modes, darkening to save air conditioning costs on scorching days and returning to crystal clarity in the winter to capture free heat from the sun, scientists from Soongsil University, Seoul report.

“Smart” windows that reflect sunlight away from buildings in summer and switch back to full transparency in winter already are available. But they have many drawbacks, including high cost, rapid deterioration in performance, and manufacturing processes that involve potentially toxic substances. So, the researchers set out to develop a smart window that overcomes these drawbacks.

They discovered that using a polymer, “counterions,” and a solvent such as methanol was an inexpensive and less harsh way to make a stable, robust smart window. It has the added advantage of being extremely tunable — quickly and easily switching from 100% opaque to almost completely clear in seconds.

“To our knowledge, such extreme optical switching behavior is unprecedented among established smart windows,” the authors state. “This type of light control system may provide a new option for saving on heating, cooling and lighting costs through managing the light transmitted into the interior of a house.”

Ref.: Chang Hwan Lee, et al., Counterion-Induced Reversibly Switchable Transparency in Smart Windows, ACS Nano, 2011; [DOI: 10.1021/nn202328y]

Fuente: Kurzweil