Collaborative Sensing in a Retail Store Using Synchronous Distributed Jam Signalling

The retail store environment is a challenging application area for Pervasive Computing technologies. It has demanding base conditions due to the number and complexity of the interdependent processes involved. We present first results of an ongoing study with dm-drogerie markt, a large chemist's retailer, that indicate that supporting product monitoring tasks with novel pervasive technology is useful but still needs technical advances. Based on this study, we uncover problems that occur when using identification technology (such as RFID) for product monitoring. The individual identification struggles with data overload and inefficient channel access due to the high number of tags involved. We address these problems with the concept of Radio Channel Computing, combining approaches from information theory, such as the method of types and multiple access adder channels. We realise data pre-processing on the physical layer and significantly improve response time and scalability. With mathematical formulation, simulations and a real world implementation, we evaluate and prove the usefulness of the proposed system.