Earlier this week at the National Retail Federation BIG Show in New York City, Intel Corp. unveiled its Connected Store concept, a two-story, 2,400 square-foot futuristic retail storefront equipped with the latest technology for the retail and digital-signage market segments.
Powered by second-generation Intel Core processors, as well as previous gen Intel Core processors and Intel Atom processors, the Connected Store featured interactive demonstrations and proof-of-concepts aimed at integrating the best of online and mobile shopping with traditional retail environments. Brands like adidas, Best Buy, Kraft Foods and Procter & Gamble, in addition to researchers at the MIT Media Lab, worked with Intel to create these experiences and showcase what's possible, according to an announcement from Intel.
"Intel's innovative retail solutions are designed to meet the changing needs of tomorrow's marketplace by promoting brand interaction and delivering a more personalized and enjoyable shopping experience," said Jose Avalos, Intel's general manager, Embedded Computing Division. "The interactive demos illustrate how retailers are able to reduce energy consumption, lower total cost of ownership and increase profits with features such as remote manageability and anonymous video analytics."
Several of the proofs-of concept featured the company's first "visibly smart" second gen Intel Core processor family that combines visuals and 3-D graphics technology with high-performance microprocessors on a single chip. Demos involving Intel Retail Interactive Fashion Experience, adiVERSE (a virtual search engine footwear wall) and the Intel Digital Signage Endcap all showed ways to seamlessly integrate these technologies into a retail environment with benefits for retailers and consumers alike, Intel said.
At the show Intel also announced the Intel AIM Suite, a video analytics technology for anonymous audience measurement in retail and digital signage applications in traditional storefronts. Showcasing the software capabilities via demos in the Connected Store, Intel AIM Suite anonymously monitors viewer metrics such as age, gender and length of attention. This enables retailers and advertisers to deliver targeted content for individual viewers and track return on investment with greater accuracy, Intel said. Brands supporting Intel AIM Suite technology include Harley-Davidson in Canada, NEC and The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino in Las Vegas, according to Intel.
Demos highlighted in the storefront included the Intel Retail Interactive Fashion Experience, adiVERSE, Intel Digital Signage Endcap Concept, Next Generation Meal Planning Solution, LuminAR Augmented Product Display Counter, Next Generation Quick-Service Restaurant Kiosk, Secure Point-of-Sale Self Check-out Kiosk, and Intel Expressway Tokenization Broker.
