philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Forget Augmented and Virtual Reality, Genuine Reality is Making a Comeback

Video analytics is a seldom-used term, however, its impact is game-changing. Picture this familiar scenario: a fashion retailer has a physical store on the high street and an online e-commerce website for the same product ranges. People enter the store to try on the products and browse the items that they are interested in, but the majority of people leave without buying anything at all. Often, when this is the case, those who do not buy are never registered as having existed in the company’s data understanding (apart from perhaps as a contributor to footfall).

The online store, on the other hand, sees more sales due to the convenient nature of the service. All data that is collected from the website automatically from cookies and tracking links are analysed and inputted into the online feedback loop, whether a person bought made a purchase or not. However, this feedback loop does not exist for the physical store. Detailed pre-purchase data simply hasn’t existed until now. This is the way that the industry has always worked and will always work, right…? Perhaps not, anymore…

Technology has now reached the stage where similar kinds of data can be collected from the physical store as already from online activity. Video analytics is the medium which enables this to happen. By having one or a set of analytics-enabled cameras in the store, data is collected from how people interact with the physical space around them. Once collected this is run through an artificial intelligence system that can identify, categorise and rank different behaviours. No annoying feedback forms upon checkout. No emails asking how people’s in-store experience was. Nothing. By utilising smart, analytics-enabled cameras, business intelligence data can be collected and used to inform an important business decision on a regular basis. This leads to a more intelligent model of operation and, quite simply, a more successful business.

See the full story here: https://www.technative.io/forget-augmented-and-virtual-reality-genuine-reality-is-making-a-comeback/