The IoT For Environmental Monitoring: Needs And Challenges In India

This article is based on a speech given by Poonam J. Prasad, senior scientist, Analytical Instrumental Division, CSIR - National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Nagpur, at IOTSHOW.IN 2019, held in Bengaluru. The institute’s Analytical Instrumental Division focuses on R&D on environmental sensors and the Internet of Things (IoT). Speaking on the use of the IoT for environmental monitoring, Prasad highlighted the need for IoT-based environmental sensors to conserve energy, water and other resources.

We need the Internet of Things (IoT) in environment monitoring to be able to conserve energy, water and other natural resources, which are being contaminated every second. In conventional environmental monitoring methods, samples are collected, analysed and analytical instrumentation is carried out on them.

There are two ways of doing this. One is manual, where the sample is collected and analysed in a lab. Second is instrumental, where the quantity of pollutants in the sample is analysed, on the go, automatically.

Instrumental methods have direct analytics, where readings and results are automatically received. Manual methods, on the other hand, need pretreating the sample before carrying out sedimentation, isolation and other processes on it.

When we talk about environmental monitoring using the IoT, we primarily focus on such areas as waste management, air pollution and extreme weather.

Why we need the IoT for environment monitoring

When we go deep into environment monitoring, it is a very complex system and, hence, we cannot just start using sensors for regulatory purposes. If we have data for water and air, then we can use AI and ML tools, among others. There are environmental sensors for measuring water quality, radiations and hazardous chemicals.

Similarly, in the industrial IoT (IIoT), we need methods for ensuring safety of workers, because some industries generate obnoxious gases like sulphur, methane and sulphur’s compounds, which are bad for human health. By getting data out of sensors, we can maintain a good safety record. Places that are inaccessible can also effectively utilise sensors.

Since 2012, research is happening all over the world on environmental sensors. Some reviews have already been done. People have done outdoor air-quality monitoring using a ZigBee-based wireless sensor network. However, indoor environment is generally more polluted than outdoor environment and, hence, the system developed for the outdoor environment may not suit indoor environment.

Researchers have developed an air-quality system that records particulate matter (PM). The system categorises PM into PM 10, PM 2.5 and PM 1. Once PM goes into the lungs, it leads to health issues. Standards are being implemented for PM 1, but more precisely PM 10 and PM 2.5 are being monitored.

Mobile sensing systems have been developed and proposed for recording PM 2.5 in cities. Some research papers have described low-cost, portable monitoring systems, which monitor multiple parameters such as humidity, PM 2.5, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), CO2, CO illuminance and sound levels.

Sensors are divided into two categories: electrochemical-based and metal-oxide-based. Companies use these sensors based on their requirements. Both types of sensors have advantages and disadvantages. But research is being done mostly on metal-oxide sensors to get more sound results for environmental monitoring.

Likewise, a micro sensor-based air quality monitoring system has been developed for real-time monitoring of airborne, fine particulates. It has already been tested.

Top sensors used in the environment

As the environment is heterogeneous, the system needs to be utilised well, because we cannot develop one protocol-based system and expect it to work in all situations. Therefore we need a multi-protocol system. Also, it is important to understand the interference of pollutants, because pollutants such as ozone, NO 2 or NOx particles have interference capability. Therefore the science behind this interference, how data is coming and what could be the reason for any deviation in data must be studied and understood. Only then can a sensor be well-characterised and developed.

Top sensors used in the environment are:

• Temperature sensors

• Proximity sensors

• Water quality sensors, which measure pH, BOD, COD and other microbial contaminants; these also measures ion parameters like arsenic, iron or other compounds

• Gas sensors, which detect air quality conditions

• Smoke sensors, which are required for industrial environmental conditions or smoke-prone places

US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) has evaluated sensors using conventional methods so that these can be utilised for research purposes and IoT applications. Alphasense OPC N2 sensor is for PM 10 and PM 2.5 monitoring. This was tested through GRIMM, which is a certified handheld monitor. So far, these sensors have not been internationally certified. Essentially, these are not USEPA-certified sensors, but are USEPA-evaluated sensors. This is because the technology is new, and it keeps on evolving. Every six months there is a new version of these sensors.

AQMesh, CairClip and CitySense are gas phase sensors. These are being evaluated by USEPA, and are internationally-funded projects. The systems are being tested against standard instrumentation techniques.

A typical regulatory monitor is quite expensive, and is based on analytical methods (not sensor). It is highly-reliable, but stationary. Moreover, trained staff is required to operate it. One of its advantages is that it can operate for more than ten years. But it needs to be calibrated quarterly.

On the other hand, a typical low-cost monitor does not require too much training, but then it has a limited lifetime.

Challenges in deploying IoT-based sensors

The current technology is expensive, provides only a snapshot of data, requires expertise to use and takes time in lab analysis.

National Environmental Engineering Research Institute is developing a new technology that includes the IoT, and will be low-cost, easy to use and provide continuous data. However, such technology needs to have a QA/QC approval, and there is no common agency for approving these techniques.

Major research findings for sensors or systems have been in microprocessors. The system being developed at National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) includes a wide variety of low-cost components (varying from US$ 100 to US$ 300).

Also, if you are not a good integrator, you cannot integrate these components well. You also cannot use multiple sensors in a single board. However, if a balance can be maintained between power, cost and latency, the system can be used in the real environment.

Sensor characteristics include stability, detection limit, repeatability and reproducibility, and cost, while user requirements include measurement duration, data quality and budget.

A sensor’s lifetime is only two or three years. Sensitivity, stability and longevity of the sensor need to be improved for its operation.

The Indian government has defined air quality index (AQI). It uses one number, one colour, one description to judge air quality. From this, it can be known that PM 10 is the highest polluting among all pollutants.

Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) has conducted its own case study by installing ten IoTbased sensors in Delhi. The findings say that low-cost sensors dominate the market and a few sensing elements exist. More research needs to be done on sensing elements. PM sensors are widely available as compared to gas phase sensors.

Two major challenges for sensor application are:

• Sensor performance values vary widely.

• Basic testing by manufacturers is lagging.

Since 2012, there has been a huge cost reduction. Reliability is there but more is required before getting to reality. Also, the cost involved in installation, maintenance and data analysis needs to be reduced. Going forward, we are looking towards seamless implementation, data quality and reliability.

The Necessity And Benefits Of Network Configuration And Change Management

As we forge ahead in a world with exploding growth in devices, network configuration and change management (NCCM) becomes crucial for ensuring uptime and integrity of networks.

Satish Kumar V

In today’s IT environment, organisations are expanding geographically at a great pace. This has resulted in an exponential increase in the size as well as complexity of networks. As these enterprise networks expanded, there followed a dramatic surge in new devices and new technologies in response to business demands. In this scenario, reducing network downtime and preventing performance degradation are major concerns for every IT manager.

A network administrator on a Reddit portal confessed that he erroneously cut a cable that led to over three billion dollars in losses on a stock exchange. As one can see, most outages are caused by manual human intervention, opaque processes and often the big elephant in the room—faulty change management practices. With eighty per cent of network downtime resulting from aforementioned issues, the need of the hour is to reshape how network change is managed through the use of stronger processes and automated tools.

Automate configuration and change management process

Every organisation dealing with multiple networks on their backend needs an automated tool or numerous software products for efficient management of their network configuration. This is where network configuration and change management (NCCM) software plays an important role. An NCCM tool is the best option for any organisation to tackle change while maintaining its networks and also updating the configuration of all components in that particular network— both hardware and software.

Latest NCCM products are helping reshape network change management as a more process-aligned discipline with a widening range of values. These include supporting service integrity and service performance, minimising downtime, optimising security and compliance, managing network assets more holistically and accomplishing what in the past were unachievable new levels of operational efficiency.

Monitor and manage change in all forms

If change is the only constant, then it’s a fact the network will go down, someday in the future for sure. When that happens, the only thing that will get it up and running without business casualty is complete visibility and robust change management processes backed by the right tools.

Usually, configuration information of a network is collected and kept in a database so that changes can be easily tracked. This allows identification and traceability of device configurations. NCCM tools allow changes made in the network to be documented and to be easily rolled back in times of crisis or network outage due to operational changes.

When a fault occurs, an audit trail is conducted, helping IT managers to easily identify the source of the problem and take necessary steps to solve it. Hence, NCCM can be defined as an assessment and remediation tool for automated network, security, compliance, auditing and configuration management.

NCCM: integrate now and reap the rewards in the long term

Organisations have indicated a dramatic ROI with the deployment of an NCCM tool in their processes. They have witnessed a remarkable improvement in network uptime, resulting in better service to the organisations and their customers. Also, more common outages due to performance and security issues, which results in misapplied configurations, have reduced significantly.

With strong adherence to change management processes and inclusion of automated tools, organisations can reduce change and configuration errors significantly. Similarly, time to assess the impact of change on the network can be reduced from hours to a few minutes.

From a specific industry vertical perspective, NCCM helps banks adhere to norms set out in the Reserve Bank of India circular on guidelines addressing the cyber security framework in banks. NCCM specifically fulfils points pertaining to network management and security spanning inventory of authorised devices, appropriate configuration and maintenance of network activity logs.

As we forge ahead in a world with exploding growth in devices, NCCM becomes crucial for ensuring uptime and integrity of networks. Decisionmaking becomes easier, policy compliance becomes a continuous process and auditing gets empowered. Change no longer has to be a fearful and disaster-prone exercise!

AI Has The Potential To Effectively Accompany Human Decision-Making Capacities

Everyone should be able to build their ideas without needing to code, and it should be possible to convert any idea into reality without wasting time, money or resources. Sachin Dev Duggal, founder and chief executive officer, Engineer.ai, discusses how artificial intelligence (AI)-based design platforms can help develop solutions without having programming excellence, in an interaction with Deepshikha Shukla.

Q. How useful are AI-based design platforms?

A. AI-based design platforms empower customers by letting them build and scale software without any technical know-how. Anyone who has an idea can create using such AI-based design platforms. How, exactly?

While working on these platforms, users essentially create a specification utilising smart suggestions that make their project more efficient from the backend. This saves time in selecting and adapting core functionality, especially for developers.

Additionally, for a developer, the code written on multiple occasions need not be re-written. This saves time and money, and benefits the end customer with an overall cheaper, but still bespoke, high-quality product. An AI-based design platform ensures that the product is launched by the set deadline and under budget. In fact, we have seen 90 per cent success on these parameters.

Q. What are the steps for developing a solution on an AI platform?

A. There are many ways to develop a solution with traditional development. For AI-powered development, first, choose what you would like to build and create an account. Start with the basic concept and select from the various options to add different options. In most cases, recommendations are made by the system in line with the idea and competition in the industry.

Then, select the time frame for delivery and location of your development and product. This will influence the overall price. After choosing pay-out options, you will be able to pay for your project.

After this, you get to work with product experts and the development team to launch your product, by the deadline, under budget and working effectively.

Last, keep your product up-to-date. Use a cloud-based operating system to store your code long term to build a foundation to scale your business as quickly as you want.

Q. How does machine learning assist an AI platform during software development?

A. Machine learning is the backbone of AI. After carrying out processes for thousands of users, the algorithm learns their most-likely next steps when creating bespoke technology products.

Additionally, AI ensures that cloud management runs most effectively. It allows developers to re-create only original codes and re-use common codes across multiple products.

Q. How can an AI-based platform help with reliable software development?

A. Such a platform provides a 360-degree approach for customer needs. From creating small products to managing enterprise software and cloud management, it provides reliable software development and scale to everyone. This means everyone can both launch and scale ideas, from startups to billion-dollar businesses.

Q. How important is the role of the government in the development of AI in a country like India?

A. AI is the future; it will be implemented differently across industries, and every industry will be impacted. Therefore for a government managing over 1.3 billion people, it is important to consider how to leverage this technology to govern and empower businesses to expand.

Q. To what extent can AI be useful? What are the other technologies that look promising in 2019?

A. With codes and algorithms, AI has the potential to effectively accompany human decision-making capacities.

There are many technologies that are sector-specific yet important. Besides AI, blockchain (for financial technology) and machine learning are the two technologies impacting the society and the future.

Q. How influential are apps for modern-day businesses?

A. Apps are brand extensions. Without these, a company looking to be a part of the potential US$ 10 trillion economy will not get far in the evolving marketplace. Today, apps have become the first point of contact for users to buy, gather information and generally seek assistance. Similarly, from a corporate point of view, apps are important to find leads, manage stocks and payments, for example.

Q. How are budding entrepreneurs leveraging Engineer’s platform to create better apps?

A. We use one of the top brokers of Amazon Web Services (AWS) in India. It allows us to use aggregate purchasing power of the tens of thousands of instances purchased through our platform coupled with advanced machine learning to buy capacity. This, in turn, provides a great price in the market to newly-emerging entrepreneurs. Our Intelligent Infrastructure Services reduces the time spent on tedious maintenance work from AWS migration service to backup-monitoring.

The Art Of Creating 3D Animations

As augmented reality (AR) continues to develop and achieve new technological advancements, you can expect to see more of it in the communication industry. AR has a strong use-case for communication and is bringing about immersive ways to connect people

Augmented reality (AR) has brought about a paradigm shift in the mode of communication and medium of expression. Among other things, AR is turning out to be an extremely riveting tool in communication that bridges virtual reality (VR) and the real world. It is the process of layering virtual elements over the real-life environment. There are many different cases where AR is making communication for individuals much more immersive.

At companies like Scanta, 3D avatars are being used to understand and react to voice commands on a real-time basis using machine learning. Artificial intelligence (AI), which has machine learning as its backbone, can identify emotions of a user based on spoken words and deliver the 3D avatar that mimics the same emotions along with body movements.

What entails 3D animation

3D animation is the process of creating moving pictures in a digital environment that is three dimensional. Through careful manipulation of objects (3D models) within 3D software, picture sequences can be exported, which give the illusion of movement (animation) based on how objects are manipulated.

3D animation process is a system where tasks are completed at predetermined stages before moving to the next step. It is like an assembly line for animated film production. The process is broken down into three major phases: pre-production, production and postproduction. These phases incorporate tasks that need to be completed before moving on to the next one. Each step builds on previous tasks that were completed.

Phases of 3D animation

Steps involved in creating a 3D animation are explained below.

Pre-production.

The first step in the process of creating a 3D animation is conceptualisation of an idea and translation of said idea into visual form. Pre-production has two dimensions; the first is deciding what will happen first, next and last.

The second is interaction, which involves deciding how the voiceover will interact with images, how visual transitions and effects will help tie images together and how voiceovers will interact with the musical soundtrack.

3D modelling.

3D modelling is a technique in computer graphics for producing a 3D digital representation of any object or surface. A 3D object can be generated automatically or created manually by deforming the mesh or manipulating vertices.

A typical way of creating a 3D model is to take a simple object, called primitive, and extend or grow it into a shape that can be refined and detailed. A primitive can be anything from a single point (called vertex), a two-dimensional line (edge), a curve (spline) or a 3D object (face or polygon).

Texturing.

The next step is shading and texturing. In this phase, textures, materials and colours are added to the 3D model. Every component of the model receives a different shader material to give it a specific look.

Realistic materials. If the object is made of plastic, it is given a reflective, glossy shader. If it is made of glass, the material is partially transparent and refracts light like real-world glass.

Rigging.

Rigging is what makes deforming a character possible. It includes creating a skeleton to deform the character and creating animation controls to enable easy posing of the character. Rigging usually involves adding bones, calculating and implementing skin weights, and adding muscles to create natural movements.

Animation.

This is a process of taking a 3D object and making it move. It is up to the animator to make a 3D object feel like it is alive and breathing.

Rigged for motion.

A 3D character is controlled using a virtual skeleton or rigging, which allows the animator to control the model’s arms, legs, facial expressions and postures.

Pose-to-pose. Animation is typically completed pose-by-pose.

Baking.

Before an animation can be used in Unity software, it must first be imported to the project. Unity can import native Maya (.mb or .ma) and generic FBX files, which can be exported from most animation packages. FBX files include models, bones and animations made in 3D software. There are different texture files (jpeg/ png) that are included at the time of exporting project from Maya to Unity.

Unity software

Unity is a cross-platform game engine. Steps involved in creating a 3D animation using Unity are given below.

Importing FBX files and textures in Unity.

Assets are imported to Unity Editor and all their textures are extracted. Importing these files comes with two things, namely, materials and textures. Materials refer to plastic or glass.

Making prefab of 3D model.

Unity allows users to intuitively create a duplicate, called prefab. Prefab allows storing an asset with all its properties inside the prefab. It acts as a template that designers can use to create new instances of the same object in the scene.

Customising prefab according to requirement. This involves:

• Adding events according to frame rate

• Adding audio to animation

• Adding shading and lights to animation

Adding assets to folder and naming it.

An asset is a representation of any item a designer can use in a game or project. It may come from a file created outside Unity, such as a 3D model, audio file, image or any other file type that Unity supports.

Every communication device or platform takes advantage of this technology and integrates it into services for users to enjoy. Apple took its first shot at this technology and created Animojis. iPhone X features face detection that allows users to unlock their phone with their face instead of using their fingerprint. This face detection feature is also used to apply Animojis over users’ face by detecting facial structures.

A few years ago, Snapchat introduced face filters, which became a popular way for people to chat with their friends. The filters also recognised facial features and followed their movements. The app later developed World Lens, which works in a similar fashion, but instead of adding augmented objects to the face, it adds them to the surrounding environment.

Snapchat expanded its lenses and partnered with Bitmoji to provide users with customisable AR characters. Previously, Bitmoji was a popular 2D personalised character. Now, the company is allowing users to augment unique characters that can dance, wave and do a variety of movements that their 2D counterparts could not.

Scanta has created AR avatars, called Pikamoji, which is an app with over a hundred unique AR avatars that can be augmented and interacted with through a mobile camera. These interactions can be saved to the library and transferred to preferred social media platforms. The company is now taking the next step and using machine learning technology to create intelligent 3D characters. These 3D characters will be able to analyse voice commands and break these down through sentiment analysis.

AR can provide an immersive and fun way for consumers to learn or be directed to a product or brand. It has started to drive brand awareness and sales by grabbing the attention of consumers in ways not seen before.

Currently, employees use voicebased communication, including video chats. The problem with this is that it lacks authenticity or a layer of emotion that people get from a live face-to-face interaction. AR has the ability to bring authenticity to the workforce. Instead of video-conferencing, users can use AR glasses to augment and see each other in real time. They can walk around and interact with each other instead of being confined to a computer or phone screen.

As AR continues to develop and exceed technological advancements, you can expect to see more of it in the communication industry. AR has a strong use-case for communication and is bringing about immersive ways to connect people.

Retail 2030: What The Future Holds

Retailers are starting to acknowledge the role of IT as an enabler. Basically, it can speed up processes and deliver cost-saving benefits to companies

You are out for an evening stroll in the market. One of your shirt’s fancy button breaks and rolls out of sight. You enter a big apparel retail store and allow one of the robots to scan another shirt button. The robot walks you to the right shelf where you are able to locate the exact same button.

You probably did not notice the beeping sound when you walked into the store—it was the thermal crowd management non-intrusive sensor installed at the front door that detected your body heat, recorded your entry and added you as a customer into the customer-tracking system.

As you walk out, you notice fur coats in four different designs. You tell the store robot that you would like to try all four. The robot’s screen displays the product codes and leads you to a high-tech mirror. Its parametric technology simulates your body type based on your weight, height and measurements, and one by one shows how you would look in each coat. Then, it simultaneously shows you all your pictures in each of the four fur coats so you can compare and decide which one you want to buy.

You walk out of the store with the most appealing coat, and the money is automatically debited by an app installed on your phone.

This is not a scene out of some science fiction book but a retail experience you can look forward to in the future.

With increasing internationalisation of retailing, both in terms of points-of-sale and points-of-supply, investment in IT in the retail sector is significantly increasing. IT is playing an ever more imperative role in the management of complex retail operations. Today, retailers are transforming their IT capabilities for many reasons, such as to augment the company’s capability to respond to the evolving marketplace via greater speed and flexibility, to collect and analyse customer data while enhancing segregation and to work more effectively, as retailers require a single system operating across stores (or even across countries) to make the most effective use of inventory and enhance business processes.

Emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR), near field communication (NFC), smart shopping devices and SixthSense are making way for novel and highly interactive customer touch points. These technologies are developing at a rapid speed and throwing complex challenges at retailers. While some touch points have been adopted, many are still in beta stage.

Application of NFC technology in the retail sector

NFC technology is now accessible on most smartphones. Also, cheap NFC tags can be simply added to any physical object to turn it into an interactive experience. For example, Adidas Canada used the technology before opening its Originals store in Vancouver. Followers of the brand’s adidasCA Twitter account were invited to a covert location to get an NFC-enabled Hype Key Card on first-come, first-serve basis and sign up for the chance to win a limited-edition pair of shoes.

When the store opened its shutters, Hype Key Card holders were invited to tap their cards at the counter to check if they had been lucky enough to bag any prize. Hence, the creative campaign not only attracted customers into the outlet, it also created a social media buzz about its opening and improved customer engagement.

Today, brick-and-mortar stores are in cut-throat competition with online stores. This makes physical customer engagement critical for offline stores. In 2016, a Timberland store in New York gave its customers an NFC-enabled tablet to scan tagged products to view product information and recommendations. At the end of the shopping experience, they could then send themselves a dream-list of products they loved by email.

NFC technology is also a key motivating force behind the quick rise in digital wallet payments such as Google Pay and Apple Pay. Mobile payments are fast, simple and handier. Moreover, the fact that NFC payments do not need biometric features, such as fingerprint scans, makes them even more secure vis-a-vis chip and PIN.

Faster payments mean shorter queues at the billing section, so employees have more time for store operations and customer service.

Conventional card-based loyalty schemes can incentivise consumers but are not very helpful in impacting customer behaviour. Rather, stores can use NFC tech to develop a frictionless and engaging loyalty scheme that motivates customers to be more loyal.

British sushi chain Wasabi used Thyngs technology to create an appfree loyalty scheme that lets customers tap a smart card with their phone to join Wasabi Club and collect loyalty points in-store.

NFC technology can also be used as a simple and novel way for retailers to get immediate customer opinion. Shoppers can be asked to provide service feedback by tapping NFC chips on lanyards worn by in-store staff. UK-based Asian fast-food chain Wagamama used Thyngs-enabled smart cards when trying out its new MA MA menu at its South Bank branch in London. Wannabe tasters were able to test some of the new menu items on complimentary basis and then rate their dish by just tapping their phone on a smart card.

Thyngs platform then lets retail stores to monitor any such engagement in real time, supplying comprehensive analytics on how effective their marketing strategies are. Such insights are generally not viable for offline marketing campaigns.

Smart shopping carts

Smart shopping devices that are likely to be widely used in the near future are being developed by technology leaders including IBM, NCR, Fujitsu and Hewlett-Packard. One such device is a supermarket smart cart that has a screen embedded in its handles. A shopper simply needs to swipe a smart card through a slot in the cart to trigger the device on. The screen then communicates with the customer and alerts him or her of various in-store deals and promotions.

Data with respect to customer purchase history is also maintained, and this enables the cart to anticipate which direction the customer is likely to move on the retail shop floor. Customised suggestions then begin to pop up on screen, to help and aid the shopper. The cart maintains a track of all products kept inside it. This means much shorter queues at the billing section as the cart can communicate with the cash register.

Thermal imaging

Thermal imaging cameras operate in the infrared (IR) range of the electro-magnetic spectrum (roughly 9000 to 14,000 nanometres, or 9µm to 14µm) and generate images of that radiation, known as thermograms. Every object emits IR radiation, which is more than absolute zero, and quantum of radiation emitted by an object goes up as its temperature increases.

It is a well-known fact that temperature of human beings is higher than most objects in the environment. On this basis, thermography is used to detect and count the number of humans. Large retail stores can deploy array sensors that detect heat sources in thermal imaging systems.

These systems are generally based on embedded technology and are placed at a height for precise results. Since these systems detect heat emitted by people, they are able to count well even in varying intensity of lighting. Moreover, they do not need to employ complex background removal algorithms, which is a pre-requisite for computer vision systems. This results in a more precise individual human count. However, such systems are likely to fail in cold weather when customers are wearing thick woollens that help in insulating their body heat.

People counters help in generating actionable customer insights and analytics from such useful data points as footfall, path customers take when moving inside a store, time of the day customers enter the store and so on.

This technology can also help in measuring customer reactions to in-store promotions as well as price changes, and also make linkages between footfall and sales. Information and insights ultimately contribute towards improving store layouts and quality of service.

SixthSense technology

Indian computer scientist and inventor Pranav Mistry’s videos wherein he showcases SixthSense technology are very popular. Developed by MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces Group, the tech is a wearable gestural interface that augments the physical world around us with digital information. The prototype is a combination of a computer and cellphone. It encompasses a pocket projector, mirror and camera. Hardware elements are integrated into a pendant-like mobile wearable device connected to the cellphone of the customer.

This technology enables shoppers in retail outlets to communicate with the packaging of the products kept on shelves. Usually, while shopping for a big-ticket item, such as a high-end notebook or car, customers refer to sites that provide product reviews, comparisons between closely-competing products, etc.

However, such homework is generally not done for low-value items such as books, music, CDs, etc, as these are bought more impulsively. Using Sixth Sense technology, all a shopper needs to do is scan the product bar code and a lot of product-related information such as reviews, comparisons and the like is projected on any chosen surface.

This also allows retail outlets to save a lot of inventory space (and money) by stocking only one or few samples of different products and offer next day delivery—in case customers choose and buy the product via barcode scanning using a cellphone. This technology gives rise to creative convenience—imagine, the barcode on a box of tissue paper flashing a green light on scanning to denote eco-friendliness.

Augmented reality

AR adds a visual layer of information on top of such surfaces as a mirror, and the content interacts with layers of information provided by the real world. It is an increasingly popular technology wherein advancements are happening at a rapid pace. For example, by holding up a specially-coded box or label to a webcam-equipped computer, a user can see an augmented, 3D image of the product, or a graphic display of other additional information. Intel has developed a high-tech mirror that enables a shopper to see how the chosen clothes would look on him or her.

It is a digital trial room where the customer just needs to stand in front of an LCD monitor, and parametric technology simulates body type and displays how garments fit, based on weight, height and other measurements.

Malls of the future could use digital signage that delivers targeted advertising and also captures key customer demographic information via video for analysis later, thus creating almostreal-time customer feedback.

Major consumer product companies are also testing the business value of mobile mashups. Bionic Eye is an iPhone app wherein the user can point the camera at a mall to get a screen display of all outlets inside the building. Virtual signposts with directions to nearby points of interest are also included. And all this works offline.

Data mining and predictive analytics

You push your cart full of goodies to the cash register at the department store. Bar code of each product is transmitted one by one to the computer and all transactional data is saved in your folder. You have been assigned a customer ID number and asked to fill a brief form that requires details like your age, gender, income, occupation, email ID, etc. A few days later you receive an email from the store informing you about some attractive offers on shoes. Till now you have been buying only shoe accessories such as socks and shoe polish, among other things. This is data mining at work.

Big Data, a term much in vogue today, refers to the deployment of huge amounts of information to make businesses more efficient and responsive to clients and customers. Data is collected and mined in a number of sectors, more so, retail, telecom and finance. However, the retail sector has the highest level of interaction with a huge volume of customers from different walks of life and, hence, retailers are very interested in understanding their customers as closely as they possibly can.

Imagine you login to your favourite e-commerce site to buy, say, a handset, and shortlist one and put it in your virtual shopping cart. However, you read customer reviews and end up changing your mind. You then discover that every online store that you visit features an ad for that very handset. This happens as online retailers can give you a virtual ID number and track your journey from site to site, and purchase targeted ads for products they know are of interest to you—this is known as ghost marketing.

A firm has developed a computer program that enables a store’s security cameras to give the management different types of information about how consumers interacted inside the shopping area. It tells precisely the number of customers present inside a given store at a time, areas of the store explored by them and specific products on which shoppers spent appreciable time. The software can integrate this information with other factors such as staffing levels, weather, product variety and placement to conclude what makes sales happen.

In future, computer programs will allow video cameras to understand a customer’s gender, interpret customers’ facial expressions and other gestures to help retailers understand why someone did or did not buy a given product.

Endpoint

Retailers are starting to acknowledge the role of IT as an enabler. Basically, it can speed up processes and deliver cost-saving benefits to companies. Technology as well as buying behaviour is evolving at breakneck speed and retailers who wait for others to drive touch-point adoption will find themselves to be losers.

Hence, it is important that retail companies keep pace with technological developments and use them to the fullest to become more efficient and effective. Who could have thought that one day drones will be used to make deliveries of retail orders?

How AI Empowers Workforce And Drives Objectivity

In general, human resource (HR) services include a large amount of time spent on standard onboarding processes for new employees, triaging common questions and employee requests, and basic benefits management. Artificial intelligence (AI) presents an opportunity for HR to automate repetitive, low-value tasks and to increase focus on more strategic work