Commercial Applications of Ubiquitous-Computing Technologies

In order to offer customers in retail stores individually tailored products and information, a system must have five components: 1) an electronic 1:1 communications channel between merchant and customer, 2) recommendation engine with appropriate algorithms, 3) a sufficient quantity and quality of product information, 4) (partial) knowledge of customer preferences and 5) the identification of individual customers. The Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Consumer Protection (BMELV) funded project Info.Weine.de, which goal was to develop an information system for wine on the Internet and in the form of stationary terminals in food retailing. This is based on winery-to-customer "information chain". In the project, the five components mentioned were addressed in particular in the showrooms with employment of RFID technology. Pursued were examination of the technical feasibility and potential of an improved consumer information and individualized purchasing advice.