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Nowadays, a lot of people shop online, instead of buying their products – such as clothes, electronics, and beauty supplies – in physical stores. However, this movement will most likely not take over the entire market (Sloot, 2016). There are stores, such as Starbucks, that offer products which cannot be bought over the Internet. The coming years, there will still be physical stores, like H&M, for reasons such as people wanting to see if the clothes fit before they buy them.

A common problem for current retailers with physical shops is that they do not know their customers. Imagine for example the following situation: a customer comes into a Starbucks store, orders a latte macchiato with cheesecake on the side, pays and leaves. A common situation, right? The problem in this situation is that the retailer (in this case Starbucks) does not know their customer, because there was no exchange of any customer data. Starbucks does not know what kind of people buys their products, how often they buy, and who buys what type of products. If the Starbucks owner is able to know her customers and their habits, the Starbucks could engage in targeted advertising, which in turn could lead to an increase in sales.

Since 2014, a solution for this problem was developed. Stampwallet has developed an online stamp card. A customer is able to collect stamps on a digital stamp card, which is accessible in the Stampwallet app. When the stamp card is full, the customer is able to redeem it for a free product or gift. The app can be downloaded in the app store and is free of charge for the customer; they only need to log in. The customers can create a Stampwallet account within one minute only, or log in with their Facebook-account.

The retailer will receive this customer data and every time a customer collects stamps through the Stampwallet app this data will be elaborated upon.

The more stores join Stampwallet, the more customers will be triggered to download the Stampwallet app and the more data can be collected. A perfect and relatively simple solution for a very big problem within the retail branch.

 

Sloot, L. (2016) Versterken ‘winkelbeleving’ kan traditionele ketens redden in strijd met webshops. http://www.rug.nl/news-and-events/news/archief2016/nieuwsberichten/0608-unifocussloot, used in 2016

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Car seats always had only one function; offering a comfortable sitting place for the driver and its passengers. But this is going to change, at least if it is up to Shigeomi Koshimizu, Tilak Dias and William Hurley. Their aim is to enable car seats to prevent auto theft and decrease the amount of car accidents.

 

Preventing car theft

Shigeomi Koshimizu, a mechanical engineer, and his team at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology in Tokyo developed a system, which allows a driver to start their car only after the system recognizes their butt (Nusca, 2011).

An ultra sensitive sheet is implemented in the car seat, which identifies the behind of the driver. How does this work? First of all, the sheet collects data about the derrière, for example its size, shape, weight and pressure distribution. The system will then make an identical butt print of the frequent driver(s) of the car. Using this system, no one else will be able to start the car. So if a thief sits in the car (even when he has the car keys) the car will not start, because the smart seat will not recognize his but print. Unfamiliar drivers can only start the car by entering a special password.

 

Preventing car accidents

Besides the decrease in auto theft, the smart car seats will also reduce the number of accidents. Tilak Dias and William Hurley, in collaboration with Plessey, developed an electrocardiogram sensor, which measures the drivers’ alertness and concentration by means of irregular heartbeat signals (NTU, 2014). Once the driver loses alertness, the system will recognize the irregular heartbeat, by constantly comparing it to stored data. The system will signal the driver to stop the car. If this signal is ignored, the system directly turns on adaptive cruise control or lane departure technology, which will keep the car on the road.

These features will give a new dimension to your car seat; it will become much more intelligent due to the possibility of data storage. In both cases described earlier, the new data will be compared with stored data. If this diverges, the system will intervene, which could lead to positive outcomes and guarantee a whole new level of safety for the driver.

 

 

• NTU (2014) Car seats which detect when drivers are falling asleep, http://www4.ntu.ac.uk/apps/news/160600-15/Car_seats_which_detect_when_drivers_are_falling_asleep.aspx, used in 2016.
• Nusca, A. (2011) In Japan, seat sensors that can recognize you, https://www.cnet.com/news/in-japan-seat-sensors-that-can-recognize-you/, used in 2016.