Holographic “Selfie” – Your companion next time you go for shopping

Retail sector is one of growing sectors and must “thought off” sector now days. Speaking in terms of statistics, Market expansion is expected to record yearly growth of close to 5% through 2015 to exceed $13.2 trillion. With Growth in organized retail, the demand for implementing advanced technology in retail sector also increases. BCC Research estimates the global retail technology industry to be worth almost $7 billion, set to increase to $9.5 billion in 2015, representing yearly growth of almost 6.5%. 

In this blog I would like to throw some light on implementation of Hologram/ Holographic technology in Retail sector.

Hologram? What is it?

It's an advanced form of photography that allows an image to be recorded in three dimensions – it's in fact a recording of an interference pattern made by the interaction of two beams of light.

Holograms work by creating an image composed of two superimposed two-dimensional pictures of the same object seen from different reference points. Holography requires the use of light of a single exact wavelength, so lasers have to be used.

Basically, when viewing any object, the human eyes each receive a distinct image but from slightly offset reference points. The brain combines them into a three-dimensional image – the hologram just produces the effect artificially.

Application of hologram in Retail sector:

Holographic Greeter:

Every time you enter a retail shop, you are greeted politely by a greeter right at entrance? How many times we might have thought - in current age when almost all complex processes/tasks are automated, such a simple task is still manual/ human? And we have answer for this -“Personal Feel” will be missing if this job is automated.
But now we have holographic greeter that not only gives “Personal Greetings” but also helps shop owners save few dollars on Human wages.

Holographic Changing Rooms:

During apparel shopping aren’t we irritated and bored to “try” all clothes before buying? And we end up “Trying” only few of them and “Trusting” other ones?

Now what if I say you just select apparels and your “Holographic selfie” will try them all for you? Isn’t that interesting? But that is what exactly holographic changing rooms do.

In holographic changing rooms, 3D Hologram life size customer images will be created. Customer can select apparels which he wishes to try and the hologram tries them for him. Customer can dress his Holographic selfie friend infinite times and select best item he is ready to “Pay for”.

Interactive Mirror: 

Don’t we feel nice if after trying apparels someone “suggest” us with few accessories that will go nice along with the tried apparel? Interactive mirror (also called as smart mirror) does that. Once your holographic companion has tried with the clothes, interactive mirror suggest with the accessories, and your holographic friend is always ready to try them.

This not only helps customer to ease in shopping but also helps retail owners to “Push” sales.

There are various other technologies that can complement Holographic technology helping retail owners and customers. To name a few, there are various applications that can sense/ detect user blood pressure, facial expressions and other such attributes and “Suggest”/Promote products accordingly.

(And as mentioned earlier, if required your Holographic friend is always ready to try!!) 

Today Holographic technology is limited to few stores in few countries, but considering the enormous advantages it offers, this technology will surely be practiced widely.

About Author:

Saurabh Kane is a consultant in Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. Within Systems Plus, he actively contributes to the areas of Technology and Information Security. He can be contacted at: saurabh.k@spluspl.com