Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY

Tuesday 16 January 2018 TECHNOLOGY
A24

Intel underfoot: Floor sensors rise as retail data source

By IVAN MORENO and motion sensors to tell pons to customers. the paper-thin sensors that digital signs, Scanlin said.
Associated Press when a product is picked Scanalytics co-founder are 2-square feet (0.19-sq. He said he’s working with
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The up but not bought, and and CEO Joe Scanlin said meters) as a student at 150 customers in the U.S.
next phase in data collec-
tion is right under your feet.
Online clicks give retail-
ers valuable insight into
consumer behavior, but
what can they learn from
footsteps? It’s a question
Milwaukee-based startup
Scanalytics is helping busi-
nesses explore with floor
sensors that track people’s
movements.
The sensors can also be
used in office buildings to
reduce energy costs and
in nursing homes to deter-
mine when someone falls.
But retailers make up the
majority of Scanalytics’
customers, highlighting one
of several efforts brick-and-
mortar stores are undertak-
ing to better understand
consumer habits and catch
up with e-commerce giant
Amazon.
Physical stores have been
at a disadvantage be-
cause they “don’t have
that granular level of under-
standing as to where users
are entering, what they’re
doing, what shelves are
not doing well, which aisles In this photo taken Dec. 5, 2017, Scanalytics co-founder and CEO Joe Scanlin holds a smart floor sensor his company creates
are not being visited,” said that track people’s movements in Milwaukee.
Brian Sathianathan, co- Associated Press
founder of Iterate Studio, a
small Denver-based com- make recommendations that’s what his floor sensors the University of Wisconsin- and other countries and es-
pany that helps businesses for similar items on an in- are designed to do. For in- Whitewater in 2012. timates that about 60 per-
find and test technologies teractive display. Compa- stance, the sensors read He employs about 20 peo- cent are retailers.
from startups worldwide. nies such as Toronto-based a customer’s unique foot ple. The emergence of tracking
But it’s become easier for Vendlytics and San Francis- compressions to track that Wisconsin-based bicycle technologies is bound to
stores to track customers co-based Prism use artifi- person’s path to a digital retailer Wheel and Sprock- raise concerns about pri-
in recent years. With Wi-Fi cial intelligence with video display and how long the et uses Scanalytics’ sensors vacy and surveillance.
— among the earliest avail- cameras to analyze body person stand in front of it — which can be tucked But Scanlin noted his sen-
able options — businesses motions. before walking away, he under utility mats — to sors don’t collect person-
can follow people when That can allow stores to de- said. count the number of cus- ally identifying information.
they connect to a store’s liver customized coupons Based on data collected tomers entering each of its Jeffrey Lenon, 47, who was
internet. to shoppers in real time on over time, the floor sensors eight stores to help sched- recently shopping at the
One drawback is that not a digital shelf or on their can tell a retailer the best ule staff. Shops of Grand Avenue
everyone logs on so the cellphones, said Jon Nord- time to offer a coupon or “That’s our biggest variable mall in Milwaukee, said he
sample size is smaller. An- mark, CEO of Iterate Studio. change the display before expense,” said co-owner wasn’t bothered by the
other is that it’s not possible With Scanalytics, Nordmark the customer loses interest. Noel Kegel. “That sort of idea of stores tracking foot
to tell whether someone is said, “to have (the sensors) “Something that in the makes or breaks our profit- traffic and buying habits.
inches or feet away from a be super useful for some- moment will increase their ability.” “If that’s helping the retailer
product. one like a retailer, they may propensity to purchase a Kegel wants to eventually as far as tracking what sells
Sunglass Hut and fragrance need to power other types product,” said Scanlin, 29, have sensors in more ar- and what no, I think it’s a
maker Jo Malone use laser of things,” like sending cou- who started developing eas throughout his stores good idea,” Lenon said.
to measure where custom- These technologies have
ers spend most of their time not become ubiquitous in
and what products are the U.S. yet, but it’s only a
popular, but he said it’s too matter of time, said Ghose
expensive right now. Anindya, a business profes-
The cost of having the sen- sor at New York University’s
sors ranges from $20 to Stern School of Business.
$1,000 per month, depend- “In a couple of years this
ing on square footage and kind of conversation will be
add-on applications to an- like part and parcel of ev-
alyze data or interact with eryday life. q