IBM app marries augmented reality, comparison shopping
Big Blue is testing an app that identifies products on store shelves then lets customers sort them by price -- or lets the retailer steer purchasing with coupons.
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
HANOVER, Germany--IBM showed off technology today designed to let people use their smartphones to take command of their real-world shopping.
Big Blue showed an app idea from IBM Research in Haifa, Israel, that uses image recognition to identify products on store shelves, then lets people sort those products by attributes such as price and nutrition information. A customer could select only gluten-free products, pick food that's from nearby, or filter electronic gadgets by operating system.
"The same experience people expect online is available in the store," said Amnon Rebak, a research staff member on the project, at the CeBIT show here.
And of course, customers also can sort by items that are on sale or that have coupons. It's not hard to imagine a retailer wanting to use the app to steer customers where it wants them to go.
Although the app Rebak showed was preloaded with information and didn't do any image detection, it's moved at least partway out of the idea stage: IBM is testing the technology at an undisclosed U.K. retailer.
"It's hopeful we will be available with retailers in the U.S.," he added.
The app taps into the augmented-reality technology by overlaying product information on the smartphone screen.
